Final rehearsal for 2025 Spring Festival Gala completes

China

Final rehearsal for 2025 Spring Festival Gala completes

2025-01-27 09:16 Last Updated At：19:47

The fifth and final rehearsal for the 2025 Spring Festival Gala completed on Sunday, with the much-anticipated annual event now ready to present a visual and auditory feast for the audiences both at home and abroad on the eve of the Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival.

The 2025 Spring Festival falls on Jan. 29, ushering in the Year of the Snake.

Hosted by the China Media Group, the annual televised fiesta features an eclectic mix of performances, including dance, opera, comedy, skits, martial arts, magic, and more. With performances staged at both Beijing's main venue and sub-venues in four cities across the country, the Gala promises a rich blend of traditional culture and modern flair.

"The performances make you feel warm. They bring back a lot of childhood memories and capture emotional connections between friends," said actress Jiang Xin, who will perform at the gala.

"This song is about going home for the Chinese New Year. To me it sounds like it's about celebrating the New Year together. I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming desire to go home and embrace my loved ones after hearing it," singer Lo Ka Hou said about a song he will perform at the gala.

"It's a group performance of a beautiful, romantic song. I have worked hard to capture the essence of this song, and done my best to express the message the lyrics would like to convey on the stage," said Mao Buyi, another performer.

Spectators of the rehearsal, including special guests for this year's gala, expressed their excitement for this year's gala.

"I think the planning of this year's Spring Festival Gala is very good. It embodies both the vitality of young people and the joy of childhood," said Wang Zhixiang, a retired Beijing resident whose harmonica playing went viral online.

"Watching on TV, I can only see a small part of it, but seeing the whole event live is completely different. The venue is so big and the show is great," said Muhamaiti Abushataer, a soccer prodigy from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after watching the rehearsal live.

The 2025 Spring Festival Gala will be broadcasted live to audiences worldwide at 20:00 Beijing time on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks mixed amid historic Fed dissent, surging oil prices

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as investors digested a heavily divided Federal Reserve interest rate decision and continuous rise of crude oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.57 percent to 48,861.81. The S and P 500 sank 0.04 percent to 7,135.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.04 percent to 24,673.24.

Seven of the 11 primary S and P 500 sectors ended in the red. The utilities and materials sectors led the laggards, dropping 1.23 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the energy and technology sectors led the gainers, rising 2.35 percent and 0.18 percent.

Monetary policy took center stage as the Federal Open Market Committee voted to keep the benchmark interest rate target unchanged on Wednesday, holding it in a range of 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent. The decision was notable for its split 8-4 vote, marking the first time since 1992 that four committee members dissented.

Both headline and core inflation have been above the 2 percent target for five years and looks set to break above 4 percent next month on gasoline and air fares, so it is understandable why markets and Fed officials are nervous, wrote ING bank on Wednesday.

Oil prices spiked. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery surged 6.95 U.S. dollars, or 6.95 percent, to settle at 106.88 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery jumped 6.77 dollars, or 6.08 percent, to close at 118.03 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

On the corporate front, Wall Street's spotlight heavily focused on the technology sector, with four members of the "Magnificent Seven" -- Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft -- scheduled to report quarterly results following Wednesday's closing bell.

In other notable post-earnings movements, NXP Semiconductors and Seagate Technology Holdings soared 25.5 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. Visa and Starbucks both advanced more than 8 percent. Conversely, SoFi Technologies dropped over 15 percent, and Robinhood Markets sank 13.24 percent during the session.