China Provides Calm for Markets Ahead of Potential Fed Rate Hike

While the world’s attention has been gripped by politics in the U.S. and Europe in recent weeks, China has been quietly cementing its newfound influence on financial markets.

In a week when U.S. Federal Reserve officials surprised investors by putting an interest-rate hike on the table for the March 14-15 policy meeting, emerging markets have taken those signals in stride. That’s a big change from May 2013, when the prospect of tapering the Fed’s quantitative easing saw a disorderly exodus of capital from those markets.