BJ time, Monday, March 13th.
At 8:30 in the morning, Feng Yiping woke up to the sound of soft music. Huang Jingping was still asleep, hunched over. He quietly walked to the living room and called the restaurant to order breakfast.
He turned on the computer and found that on the technology sections of various portals, some well-known and some unknown pundits were still proclaiming the bright future of Internet development. The Nasdaq index last Friday was the best proof of this, and they were also predicting that this week, the index would exceed 6,000 points.
Some stock commentators were also commenting on the stocks of some Internet companies, confidently recommending to the public the stocks of Internet companies that they thought were worth holding.
In short, the whole situation is rosy!
The morning meeting of the magazine this week was particularly depressing. Apart from Gao Yiming, every middle-level manager looked as if they hadn't had a good night's sleep. Of course, Bao Zhuoyuan, a senior manager, hadn't had a good night's sleep either. Over the past weekend, he had called Feng Yiping twice, both times to check on his well-being, and he didn't mention work because he didn't know what to say.
He also made an appointment to have tea with a few friends he knew well, including a stock critic and a financial expert. He asked them if there was any possibility of a reversal after the Nasdaq Composite Index had reached its highest point. The financial expert categorically ruled out this possibility, while the stock critic put it more tactfully, telling him, 'There may be a correction,' meaning that the general outlook was still optimistic.
Now, looking at the March issue placed in front of Gao Yiming, the bold words on the cover seemed to have turned into the mocking faces of acquaintances. 'Okay, the main task for each department this week is to continue to do a good job of public relations. After the magazine is sent out, we must ask the other party for their opinions on our magazine. We are a magazine company, not a free book distribution centre. Okay, the meeting is adjourned.'
As the two middle managers tidied up their notebooks, they muttered, 'Aren't we just a free book distribution centre!'
Gao Yiming heard him and glared at him. Bao Zhuoyuan walked past him with a folder, and with a 'pop' turned the magazine in front of him upside down, with the back cover facing up.
However, although he couldn't see it, it still bothered him. Next Monday would be the end of March, and if the situation did not reverse as expected by Yiping in the remaining days of the middle of the month, those words would become a slap in his face.
The restaurant staff, dressed in uniforms, pushed the trolley and delivered a hearty breakfast, as well as the newspaper that Feng Yiping had requested.
He did plank on the carpet and flipped through the financial pages, which were much the same as those on the internet. He simply read the entertainment pages, which were very lively today, but he didn't like them either, and they made him feel a bit sick.
A paparazzo photographed 'Feng Fei' dating at a bar in Happy Valley last night, behaving intimately and kissing each other's cheeks, strong evidence that they were dating, and the 'Feng Fei romance' officially surfaced.
Feng Yiping originally had a good impression of these two people. The songs were not bad, and Feng Yiping didn't care about their love lives. It was just that later, they didn't make many new works, and there was too much hype of all kinds, which was a bit annoying.
'You're up early,' Huang Jingping said, rubbing her eyes in a T-shirt over her guest room door, making Feng Yiping feel the urge to find out if she was wearing anything underneath.
Seeing him doing plank push-ups, Huang Jingping laughed and ran over to sit on his butt. Feng Yiping only managed to hold on for a few seconds before he was flattened on the carpet. 'Okay, let's eat breakfast. We need to conserve our energy during the day, and we have some serious business to attend to tonight,'
To add, this 'serious business' tonight is really 'serious business'.
Huang Jingping spreads jam on the bread and says, 'So you're not going to the magazine today?'
'No,' Feng Yiping can probably guess what will happen at the magazine today. He'll go there and not know what to say. At this time, it's wrong to say anything, so he might as well not go. Anyway, when the evening comes, he won't have to do any explaining. After tonight, he believes that his decisions will be better implemented at the magazine in the future.
During the day, Feng Yiping spent a very leisurely time, and even had the time to write a short essay assigned by his teacher. During lunch, they had a little wine, and in the afternoon, the two of them slept in each other's arms until three o'clock before getting up. They had a great time.
Jin Ling stayed in the office after work tonight. Since 8 o'clock, he has been constantly refreshing the news. Zheng Bosong is the same. Mayor Fang is not coming home for dinner tonight, so he made something to fill his stomach, then dove into his study and browsed the finance and technology sections of the portal.
BJ time, 9:00 p.m. on March 13; US Eastern time, 8:00 a.m. on March 13. People of all walks of life, having just spent a pleasant weekend, are refreshed and on their way to the office. The crowded elevator is filled with laughter, as familiar people exchange stories about their experiences over the weekend.
No one wants to believe that the second major bear market in Nasdaq history since 1974 is about to arrive.
The bear market began without warning. At 9:30, just after the market opened, traders received a large number of sell orders for billions of dollars for the high-tech stock leaders Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and other companies. As a result, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell a full four percentage points at the opening, setting the largest percentage of pre-market sell-offs for the entire year.
In theory, this is nothing. A transaction volume of billions of dollars is a very large transaction for most national and regional stock markets, and it may be more than the total turnover of all listed companies on some exchanges in a day.
But for the Nasdaq, these billions are really nothing. For example, the daily trading volume of Cisco alone is as high as 6 billion U.S. dollars.
But, as if by appointment, this large-scale initial batch sell order was just the beginning. Funds and institutions followed suit, liquidating their positions. Only individual investors, who did not have access to the news, either did not know about it or were still waiting to see what would happen.
However, those in the Internet industry who held company stocks and options no longer felt at ease at work. They sensed a chill in the air and knew that every point the Nasdaq Composite Index fell meant a little more of their wealth was shrinking.
At this point, they remembered the warnings of a few people. Thinking rationally, it seems that I didn't receive the goods I ordered through an e-commerce company on time last Christmas. And it seems that everyone around us holds shares in Nasdaq-listed Internet companies?
When they thought about it calmly, they became even more uneasy.
...
It was after 11 pm when Feng Yiping, who had been constantly checking his computer, finally saw the untimely report online. A huge stone fell from his heart. He had made the right arrangements after all. Next, he just had to wait for the green US dollars to come rolling in!
He gave Huang Jingping, who was in his arms, a slap on the back, 'Okay, get ready for bed!'
Huang Jingping was overjoyed, 'Has it started?'
'You see for yourself. I'll call Lao Bao,'
Old Bao, who always pays attention to his health, has been sleeping very late these few days. Tonight, after his wife has urged him several times, he is still not coming out of his study. There is a piece of paper on the table, with 'resignation report' written at the top.
At this moment, his phone buzzes and vibrates. He looks at the screen and sees it's from Feng Yiping. He immediately picks up the phone. It can't be that he's still out playing and got into some trouble, 'Yiping, are you okay?'
'I'm fine. Are you asleep? If not, go to Yahoo and check out the exciting opening of the Nasdaq today,'
'Oh?' Lao Cai's eyes lit up.
Feng Yiping didn't go into detail, "Well, I guess you can sleep well after reading that. I won't have time to go to the office for a few days. You tell all the employees at the company that they can expect their phones to be ringing off the hook!" He repeated this sentence again, but this time, it seemed that there would be no problems.
Bao Zhuoyuan hurriedly opened the Yahoo homepage. Sure enough, in the scrolling news section, there was the relevant news he hoped to see. He immediately felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off his shoulders. Smiling, he threw the piece of paper with just the title written on it into the trash can and hummed a tune as he went back to bed.
This young man is really something! He mused to himself, If I had known, like Gao Yiming, I would have just unconditionally trusted him in these big matters, and I wouldn't have had all these worries these past few days.
Before going to bed, Jin Ling reluctantly checked the news again. If there had been any fluctuations in the Nasdaq today, there would be news by now. Sure enough, the portal she often visited had just retweeted a few news articles confirming Feng Yiping's previous prediction.
Just to be on the safe side, she checked every portal site one after the other. At this time, every site had news in this area, and she was very happy, not just because her personal wealth would become even richer, but also because the person she followed really had extraordinary foresight and accurate judgment.
She was very confident in her organizational and execution abilities, and this combination was simply invincible. She thought that in the near future, she should be able to make it onto the list of the world's most powerful businesswomen.
Today's standing committee meeting ran late, and when Mayor Fang returned home, it was almost midnight. She tiptoed upstairs, but didn't find Zheng Bosong in the bedroom. At that moment, she saw light coming from under the door of the study across the hall. As soon as she knocked on the door, Zheng Bosong happily opened the door and came out, without saying a word. He picked her up in his arms and walked towards the bedroom.
She hadn't experienced such enthusiasm for a while, and she asked her husband, 'What's wrong? Did something make you so happy?'
'Ha ha, nothing!'