After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

The long night dragged on, and Lu Liang had no idea when the United States' non-farm employment data and unemployment rate would be released.

Bored out of his mind, Lu Liang was about to open Twitter when he suddenly remembered how he got banned last time—he had sworn never to use it again or else consider himself a dog.

With no choice but to give up cheerfully, Wen Chao was helping to keep an eye on the Labor Bureau's statistics anyway, so as soon as there was an update, he would be informed immediately.

Lu Liang was happy to enjoy some leisure time by logging onto domestic forums to see what was happening in various industries.

Autumn was approaching, and with the harvest season of "golden September and silver October," there would be spending for harvests, and all sides of the auto industry were eagerly stirring.

Li Xiang fired off the first shot in the new energy vehicle market for September by announcing plans to host a launch event for the Li Xiang ONE on September 5.

Closely following were Yangcheng's Xiao Peng G3, then Tesla's Mao Dou 3, and then the second model of the BYD Dynasty Series named "Song."

Just as Li Bing had predicted, this model was a compact family SUV, with plug-in hybrid and pure electric versions pre-selling for over 200,000 yuan.

Even the old forces were beginning to make their move—not the traditional powerhouses like Beiqi, FAW, and SAIC, but Wuling Automobile, known as the king of minibuses.

Six years ago, as soon as the Wuling Hongguang was launched, it was hailed as the "Earth Light" and was acclaimed by Forbes and other magazines as a supercar that would go down in history.

Living up to its reputation, the Earth Light had maintained more than 4 million units on the domestic market after six years of sales, consistently ranking in the top three in terms of domestic car sales and having exported nearly 1.5 million units to Asia, Africa, and Latin America, gaining international acclaim.

This time, they were rolling out something big: they were about to release a new pure electric sedan called the Hongguang Mini.

The price was yet to be announced, but the first digit was revealed to be 2—but clearly not 200,000 yuan, as a standard Hongguang sold for just 50,000 to 70,000 yuan. Looking at the shape, it looked like a shrunken version of the Hongguang without the trunk, resembling a chopped chili fish head.

The price of this new car would be just over 20,000 yuan.

Lu Liang couldn't help but laugh to himself, "Luo's phrase has been stolen; this is really making 'friends' on a true sense."

He pondered for a bit and quickly realized the reason behind it—a car that costs just over 20,000 yuan could only bring in very limited profit.

An electric bike from Yadi costs thousands of yuan; wrapping an actual car in sheet metal that can go on the road, even if it's self-produced and sales costs are minimized, the overall cost can't be too low.

He guessed it was for the end-of-year new energy credit accounting and regional subsidies. With such high sales volumes, the carbon credits generated by Wuling would be astronomically high.

Though the new energy credits were not yet being bought and sold, the market price was around 2,400 yuan per credit.

Assuming the Hongguang's 1.2L engine as a standard, exceeding the national allocation of carbon credits, they would need about 1.8 credits to offset each car sold, which means 4,560 yuan.

Since the Earth Light was a volume seller, having to buy new energy credits from other car manufacturers would be like working for them.

Better to try launching their own model.

After all, it's called the Hongguang Mini; it's just a matter of reducing sizes in various aspects, which is not a big deal. If it's a hit, they'd earn a fortune; if it flops, they wouldn't lose much.

"I really want to get one to drive."

Lu Liang stroked his chin, feeling a kind of excitement he never had even for top-tier sports cars.

Although he knew that with this design, it probably wouldn't be fast, and it might not be highway-legal, it was like a big toy.

It could compensate for every man's childhood dream of a drivable toy car—what a pity there isn't a convertible version, which would be even more exceptional.

Lu Liang continued surfing the internet and eating melon seeds, also following up on the later developments of the Wang Bao incident, and couldn't help but sigh at how tragic it was, almost losing everything, and still not knowing whether the child was his.

He felt fortunate that because of the pressure from the mortgage, he hadn't decided to have children so early. Otherwise, having a child as a tie, he probably would be in a mess that could not easily be resolved.

While he was engrossed in the online gossip, close to ten o'clock at night, Wen Chao rushed in to inform, "Mr. Lu, the US Labor Bureau has published the non-farm data and unemployment rate for the second quarter."

The number of non-farm jobs in August increased by 228,000, ‌far exceeding the expected 190,000 and ‌growing by 18.4% year-over-year.

The society's unemployment rate had dropped significantly, from 4.8% at the beginning of the year to 4.1%, ‌which also indicated the labor market's improvement and the economy's growth.

Without a doubt, both sets of data were good news for the US Dollar, showing that the American economy was very healthy, especially in the labor market.

Wen Chao couldn't help but feel concerned; they were shorting the Dow, and this was clearly huge positive news.

"It's a positive sign, but it depends on the market."

Lu Liang slowly shook his head and gave a mysterious smile.

But a thriving economy does not necessarily benefit capital.

Because the capital economy has created a term called 'appropriate unemployment,' which aims to facilitate resource allocation, stimulate labor enthusiasm, and enhance corporate vitality. The control over population production, rational migration, and the adjustment of education policies will all have positive impacts.

They make it sound as if unemployment is something favorable, but the truth is, if everyone has a job, how could there be a scarce commodity?

In a capitalist society, labor and talents are commodities, and if the supply of this human commodity exceeds demand, then the price will certainly favor the buyer.

Maintaining a certain unemployment rate makes it easier for businesses to manage their workers. To put it plainly, if you don't work hard today, you'll have to work hard to find a job tomorrow.

Meanwhile, as two sets of data were released, US stocks rose slightly before swiftly opening the downward channel.

Not just because the unemployment rate was lower than expected, but also because the Federal Reserve had raised interest rates three times last year, creating monetary policy uncertainty, which put pressure on the stock market.

More importantly, US stocks had been rising for eight years, and institutions and investors had been chasing the dragon for the same duration. Everywhere they looked, they saw potential threats, any small movement could trigger a chain reaction.

A large number of institutions began technical sell-offs to prepare for the upcoming market correction.

But they underestimated the power of the eight-year itch; they were like dominoes, and they pushed over the first one themselves.

A multitude of investors followed the institutions' lead, and capital fled, turning the once positive news of low unemployment into a significant negative.

Super blue-chip stocks like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon were unable to withstand this wave of selling pressure.

The crash in blue-chip stocks triggered a reactive selling and buying frenzy in passive funds.

Leading to a further decline in the three major indexes.

Outflowing capital entered International Gold for safe-haven investment, causing a sudden surge in gold prices.

News of the sharp rise in gold prices reached the US Stock Market, attracting a wealth of investors to abandon US stocks and follow the trend to go long on gold.

As gold soared, US stocks plummeted even more fiercely, with the Dow instantly falling by more than 1%, a drastic 198.5 points.

Lu Liang's four billion dollar short position, not having used leverage, had only profited tens of millions of dollars so far.

At the same time, they also established positions in London Gold at low prices, one billion dollars split between margin and operational funds, with five hundred million dollars leveraged by five times.

Purchasing at the price level of 1721, with a current increase of 1.25%, the investment in London Gold of one billion dollars yielded returns comparable to shorting the Dow with forty billion dollars.

Wen Chao admired him immensely; the more he understood Lu Liang, the more he realized his own insignificance and ignorance.

What the public considered to be good news was only what they thought; Lu Liang always dared to be different, and hindsight always proved him right.

Little did they know that the virtuous Lu Liang they revered was stroking his chin, pondering how best to take advantage of others.

As long as the dominance of the US Dollar remains, US stocks will certainly rise, and short-term declines are merely technical corrections.

Expecting it to halve like Big A did last year is obviously unrealistic. The major uptrend in US stocks is irreversible.

At two in the morning, the Dow continued to trend downward, currently at 19,405 points, having already dropped 700 points.

There is still about a 300-point drop to its lowest point, which should complete the correction all at once today.

Lu Liang and his team should almost be ready to close their positions,

But before closing, he took a picture.

Planning later, after closing the position, to send it to Little Wang, to give him the chance to show off.

Because Lu Liang decided that, after closing the position and going long, he would buy blue-chip stocks at low prices. Through the channel provided by Little Wang, others would know he had been shorting the Dow.

At that time, they would probably trade against him, helping to raise the price of the stocks he was buying.

It was indeed killing several birds with one stone.