China's central bank announced a deep cut to bank reserves on Wednesday, in a move that will inject about $140 billion of cash into the banking system and send a strong signal of support for a fragile economy and plunging stock markets. The central bank's announcement, coming just as stock markets were closing for the day, led to a bounce in benchmark stock indexes and the yuan, even as analysts said more policy measures were needed. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was making a 50-basis points (bps) cut, the biggest in two years, in the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves, effective from Feb. 5. More ... (full story)