China is seeing a continued travel rush on Sunday as the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday starting on October 1 is already halfway through, with millions hitting the roads, rails and skies amid impacts of a powerful typhoon.
Typhoon Matmo, the 21st typhoon of the year that intensified into a severe typhoon early Sunday morning, has hit southern China, forcing authorities to adjust transportation schedules and routes to meet the high travel demand, particularly ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The festival, which will fall on Monday (Oct 6) this year, is one of the most important holidays and celebrations in Chinese culture, symbolizing family reunion, wholeness and gratitude for the harvest.
For the national railway network, it is expected to handle a total of 17.55 million passenger trips on Sunday, with an additional 927 train trips scheduled to accommodate the surging travel demand.
Affected by Typhoon Matmo, several railway bureaus in southern China has planned to suspend some train services while adjusting train routes within affected areas to guard against risks.
In terms of highways, the Ministry of Transport has expected the second holiday travel peak on Sunday, with the traffic volume estimated to exceed 62 million vehicles.
The country's waterway system is expected to handle 1.7 million passenger trips on Sunday, an increase of 7.68 percent year on year.
China's civil aviation system is projected to handle 2.35 million passenger trips nationwide on Sunday, up 0.6 percent year on year. A total of 18,066 flights are expected to be operated, with an expected on-time rate of around 90 percent.
The civil aviation authorities warned that Typhoon Matmo is bringing strong winds and heavy rain to southern China, leading to disruptions at airports in Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi.
Travel rush continues amid typhoon impacts ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival
U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday following the market's steepest declines in a month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 309.74 points, or 0.65 percent, to 47,147.48, marking its second straight drop but still notching a weekly gain. The S and P 500 slipped 3.38 points, or 0.05 percent, to 6,734.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 30.23 points, or 0.13 percent, to 22,900.59, snapping a three-day losing streak.
Seven of the 11 primary S and P 500 sectors finished lower, with materials and financials leading the laggards, down 1.18 percent and 0.97 percent, respectively. Energy and technology outperformed, advancing 1.37 percent and 0.74 percent, respectively.
The tech trade regained some footing after several days of pressure. AI leaders Nvidia and Oracle rebounded from their losses in the prior session, as did Palantir Technologies and Tesla, both of which had dropped more than 6 percent on Thursday.
Those sharp declines had briefly put the Nasdaq on course to break its seven-week winning streak, but Friday's recovery lifted the index back into positive territory for the week. Concerns about the sustainability of the AI rally have intensified, with the recent rout in cloud-computing giant Oracle heightening worries over stretched valuations, heavy reliance on debt financing, and soaring capital expenditure plans across the sector.
"AI is truly testing the limits of Wall Street spreadsheets right now," David Krakauer, vice president of portfolio management at Mercer Advisors, told CNBC, adding that investors pricing in "so much of this future growth that they really can't measure yet" just spurs an "environment of swings."
Adding to the market unease, traders continued to assess the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy decision. Market pricing now puts the odds of a quarter-point rate cut in December at below 50 percent, which is sharply lower than the roughly 95 percent probability seen a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
U.S. stocks close mixed following steep declines
U.S. stocks close mixed following steep declines
