One person in China who can move financial markets just with his schedule.

I'm David Brancaccio in New York.

Stock Index is in China posted big jumps today after being battered for two years now. The Shanghai

composite index closed up more than 3%, Hong Kong up 4%. This follows a string of

announcements from Chinese regulators about efforts to stabilize the market, plus a big one today,

Bloomberg News reporting President Xi himself will speak to financial regulators about

the state of the stock market.

Marketplace's China correspondent Jennifer Pack is in Shanghai.

For the past four years, China's stock market has not been a place to put your money

because there's a lot of uncertainty with US-China tensions and the

property slump. Meanwhile China's economy has not fully recovered from the

strict pandemic era lockdowns. China's regulators say they will stabilize the market but did not say

how. Some observers say today's market bounce reflects Chinese government backed

investors buying up stocks rather than a shift in investor sentiment. It doesn't help

that China's government has been censoring experts who talk about the Chinese

economy in less than glowing terms. Frustrated Chinese investors have used creative ways to vent about the stock market,

including under a post about giraffes by the U.S. embassy on its Chinese social media account.

In Shanghai, I'm Jennifer Pack for Marketplace.

Coming out of last year, many business economists were becoming less worried

about the US falling into recession this year, according to a survey of members of the National Association

of Business Economics in January, just about all.

91% were thinking there was less than a 50-50 chance of recession in 2024.

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