The Dow fell three times in a row, hitting a four-week low; the S&P Index closed down less than 1%, leading the decline in the real estate sector; Tesla fell 2%, the chip stock index outperformed the market and narrowed the decline by half after falling more than 2% in the intraday period; Intel fell more than 2%; and Nvidia and Microsoft fell to record highs.
China's stock index fell more than 2%, falling three times in a row, while Xiaopeng Motors and JD fell nearly 5%. The pan-European stock index fell more than 1%, the biggest decline in nearly three months.
After the retail sales data was released, the 10-year US Treasury yield continued to hit a one-month high. The two-year yield rose more than 10 basis points in the intraday period; the US dollar index hit a one-month high for two consecutive days.
Data released on Wednesday showed that the US economy was stronger than expected: retail sales in December surpassed expectations by 0.6%, the biggest increase in three months; industrial output increased 0.1% month-on-month in December, down from 0.2% in November, but growth did not stagnate as analysts expected. Following Federal Reserve Governor Waller's statement on Tuesday that he is in no hurry to cut interest rates, the data further dampened market expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates recently.
The good news of the economy became bad news for the market. After the data was released, the swap agreement showed that investors expect the probability that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates as early as March to about 50% from about 80% last Friday. The prices of US stocks and US bonds fell further. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield stood at 4.10%, continuing to hit the high level since the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting a month ago. Interest rate sensitive two-year US Treasury yields rose by more than 10 basis points for two consecutive days.
Market expectations that the ECB and the Bank of England will cut interest rates this year also continue to cool down. The December CPI announced on Wednesday accelerated year-on-year growth for the first time in ten months. The price of British bonds plummeted, and the yield on two-year British bonds soared by more than 20 basis points in one day. ECB official speeches continue to weigh down expectations of interest rate cuts. ECB President Lagarde said that the ECB is expected to achieve the goal of reducing inflation to 2%, but it has yet to be completed. Bank of the Netherlands Governor and ECB Governing Council Klass Knot said that market participants' expectations for ECB's monetary easing pricing are ahead of schedule.
In the foreign exchange market, after the US retail data was released, the increase in the US dollar index expanded rapidly, hitting a new high in two days in a row in a month. Various non-US currencies fell, and the yen weakened further, falling to a low point since the end of November. The offshore RMB fell below 7.23 in the intraday period for the first time in two months, while the British pound rebounded intraday and broke away from a one-month low. After the UK CPI was announced, the market's probability that the Bank of England would start cutting interest rates by mid-May declined.
Among commodities, the market is concerned about Chinese data. Under the pressure of the strengthening of the US dollar, various basic metals such as copper fell sharply, and international crude oil all fell by more than 2% in the intraday market, but under the threat of the Red Sea conflict, the decline in oil prices continued to be suppressed. In addition, OPEC released a monthly report on Wednesday predicting that global oil demand will remain relatively strong in 2024, and demand will continue to grow strongly in 2025; International Energy Agency (IEA) Director Birol said that despite the tense situation in the Middle East, the oil market will still be in balance between supply and demand this year; the yield on the US dollar and US bonds will remain relatively strong. Yang continues to crack down on gold, the price of gold Over the past few days, it has dropped more than 1%.
The Dow fell three times in a row, and the real estate sector led the decline, the S&P chip stock index outperformed the market, and Nvidia, Microsoft fell to a record high, and the China General Stock Index fell three times in a row
The three major US stock indexes collectively opened lower for two consecutive trading days. The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index maintained a downward trend throughout the day. The S&P mid-day low fell nearly 1.1%, the NASDAQ decline extended to more than 1% in early trading, and fell about 1.6% during the low of the early trading day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 170 points at the beginning of the session, then turned up in the short term at the end of early trading, and widened at noon. At a new low, it fell nearly 230 points, or more than 0.6%.
The decline of the three major indices narrowed at the end of the session, closing down for two consecutive days. The Dow closed down 94.45 points, or 0.25%, to 37266.67 points, falling for three consecutive trading days. S&P closed down 0.56% to 4739.21 points, and the NASDAQ closed down 0.59% to 14855.62 points, all breaking the closing low since January 5.
The Nasdaq 100 Index, which focuses on technology stocks, fell more than 1% in early trading and closed down 0.56%. After roughly closing on Tuesday, it fell from its high level since December 28, which was refreshed for six days last Friday; the NASDAQ Technology Market Capitalization Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of technology sector constituents in the NASDAQ 100 Index, also fell more than 1% in early trading, closing down 0.58%. The small-cap stock index Russell, which is mainly value stocks, fell 1.5% at the beginning of the 2000 session and closed down 0.73%, outperforming the market. It fell for 4 days and 2 days in a row to hit a closing low since December 12.
Among the constituent stocks of the Dow, Caterpillar led the decline by about 3%, with Intel falling the second largest decline, while Boeing rebounded by nearly 8% on Tuesday. At the beginning of the session, it rose more than 2% and closed up 1.3%. All major sectors of the S&P 500 were destroyed. The real estate sector, which is sensitive to interest rates, fell nearly 2.9% in the afternoon session, leading the decline in the closing down of 1.9%; utilities closed down 1.5%. Tesla's non-essential consumer goods, Apple's IT, and Google's communications services all fell more than 1% in early trading, and fell less than 1% by the end of the day.
Leading technology stocks fell by at least 1% in early trading, but the decline narrowed later. After cutting prices in China, Tesla lowered the price of the Model Y model in the European market by more than 3% at the beginning of the market, closing down about 2%, smoothing Tuesday's slight rebound and breaking the low level since November 10.
Among the six major FAANMG technology stocks, Google's parent company Alphabet fell 2.5% in early trading, closing down 0.7%, falling two to a week's closing low; after Tmall's official flagship store dropped directly across the board and the iPhone 15 series dropped to 4,999 yuan, the Apple market initially fell 1.8%, closing down 0.5%, falling 2 consecutive days until the closing low level since January 5; Microsoft closed down more than 1%, closing down 0.2% in early trading days; Amazon closed down more than 1% in early trading days. Nearly 1%, falling to a low level for three to a week; Netflix fell more than 1% in early trading and closed down nearly 0.2%, continuing to fall from the closing high since January 2022 set last Thursday; while Facebook's parent company Meta fell more than 1% in early trading and closed up nearly 0.3% after turning positive at the end of the session, it did not continue to fall below the closing high since September 2021 set last Friday.
Chip stocks, which generally rebounded against the market on Tuesday, fell and outperformed the market. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and semiconductor industry ETF SOXX fell more than 2% in early trading, closing down about 0.9%, falling to the high level set on Tuesday since December 29. Among the IT sector components of the S&P 500, Nvidia fell 2.9% in early trading, then the decline narrowed, falling less than 1% in mid-day trading, falling below the historical high of trading and closing; at the close, Intel fell more than 2%, Qualcomm and Micron Technology fell more than 1%, and Broadcom fell 1%, while AMD, which rose more than 8% on Tuesday, turned up 0.9% in midday trading.
Overall, AI concept stocks continued to decline and outperformed the market for two days. At the close, C3.ai (AI) fell nearly 2.9%, SoundHound.ai (SOUN) fell nearly 1.7%, BigBear.ai (BBAI) fell nearly 3.8%, Palantir (PLTR) fell nearly 0.9%, and Adobe (ADBE) fell nearly 0.3%.
Popular Chinese securities generally continued to decline and outperformed the market for two consecutive days. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) fell more than 3% in early trading and closed down 2.6%. It fell for three consecutive trading days and hit a new low since November 2022 on the 2nd. KWEB and CQQQ closed down about 2.6% and 2.9%, respectively. The three new car builders also continued to outperform the market. Xiaopeng Auto fell more than 8% at the beginning of the market and closed down 4.8%; NIO Auto had a fall of more than 6% at the beginning of the market; and Ideal Auto all closed down 3.8%. Among other individual stocks, Tucson Future (TSP), which announced voluntary delisting from the NASDAQ market, fell nearly 60% and closed down 46%. By closing, JD fell nearly 5%, Baidu, Station B, and iQiyi fell more than 2%, NetEase, Tencent Fandan, and New Oriental fell more than 1%. Alibaba fell nearly 0.8%, Pinduoduo fell 0.7%, and college education fell 0.6%.
Bank stock indices continued to plummet. The overall banking index KBW Bank Index (BKX) closed down nearly 0.7%, falling for six consecutive trading days, breaking its closing low since December 13; the regional banking index KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index (KRX) and the regional bank stock ETF SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (KRE) closed down about 0.6% and 0.4% respectively, falling for four days and three days, breaking the closing low since December 12.
Among the major banks that announced financial results on Tuesday, J.P. Morgan Chase, which closed down more than 4% on Tuesday, fell more than 2% at the beginning of the session, closing down 0.5%, while Goldman Sachs closed down 0.9% against the market and closed down 0.9% on Tuesday. Among other major banks, Citibank and Bank of America closed down about 1% in early trading, J.P. Morgan Chase fell more than 0.5%, and Wells Fargo fell 0.3%.
Among the volatile individual stocks, Spirit Airlines (SAVE) closed down 22.5% after a US judge blocked the merger and acquisition deal with JetBlue Airways due to antitrust concerns, and continued to plummet after falling 47% on Tuesday. JetBlue Airways (JBLU) closed down 8.7%; after being downgraded to holding by Deutsche Bank, which is expected to take more time than expected to increase gross profit, Tesla's rival Rivian (RIVN) fell nearly 8% intraday, closing down 6%; it was downgraded to China by UBS Ford Motor Company (F) fell more than 3% at the beginning of the session and closed down 1.7%; after announcing a settlement with Diamond Sports Group and paying it 495 million US dollars, the broadcast group Sinclair (SBGI) closed up 17.8%; after Wolfe Research upgraded the rating to overrated and believed it had multiple ways to achieve strong revenue growth, the “US version of Meituan” Instacart (CART) closed 7.5%; Boeing's largest supplier, closed down more than 4% on Tuesday AeroSystems (SPR) and Boeing rebounded, closing up 3.7%.
On the European stock side, statements by ECB officials such as Lagarde continued to weigh down expectations of interest rate cuts. The pan-European stock index fell for three consecutive days and accelerated its decline on Wednesday. The European Stoxx 600 Index recorded its biggest closing decline since October 20, 2023, breaking its closing low since December 5. Stock indices of major European countries fell sharply. German, French, English and Spanish stocks fell for three days in a row. Both British, French and Spanish stocks fell by more than 1%. The Italian stock index, which rebounded slightly on Tuesday, fell.
Among the various sectors, mining stocks affected by falling copper prices and gold prices closed down 2.1% in basic resources, with automobiles falling nearly 2%, and luxury goods stocks falling more than 1.7%. Among the constituent stocks, luxury goods giants LVMH, Kering, and Lifeng, which are heavy in the Chinese market, closed down 2.8%, 3.5%, and 2.4%, respectively. Among other individual stocks, London-listed insurer Prudential Group, which was also affected by the Chinese market, closed down nearly 4%, and HSBC fell nearly 1%.
Two-year British bond yields rose by more than 20 basis points, two-year US bond yields rose by more than 10 basis points during the intraday period
The price of European treasury bonds has plummeted, and British bond yields have taken the lead in rising. After the UK CPI was announced, traders on Wednesday expected the Bank of England to cut interest rates by about 104 basis points within this year, about 4 times by 25 basis points. The probability of cutting interest rates for the fifth time is only 20%.
By the end of the bond market, the yield on the UK 10-year benchmark treasury bond was about 3.98%, up about 19 basis points during the day, approaching 4.0% in the intraday period, breaking the five-week high since December 11; the 2-year British bond yield closed at 4.35%, rising about 22 basis points during the day, driving 4.40% intraday, breaking the five-week high since December 13; the yield on the benchmark 10-year German treasury closed at 2.31%, rising about 6 basis points during the day; the 2-year German bond yield closed at 2.69% during the day, rising to a new six-week high. About 10 basis points, during the intraday period It rose above 2.70% to a new five-week high.
The yield on the US 10-year benchmark treasury bond fell to a new low of 4.04% in early Asian trading and fell by about 2 basis points during the day. US stocks accelerated and quickly rose above 4.10% in early trading. US stocks rose 4.13% in early trading, breaking the high level since the first day of the Federal Reserve interest rate meeting on December 13 for 2 consecutive days. It rose about 7 basis points during the day, about 4.10% by the end of the bond market.
The 2-year US bond yield, which is more sensitive to interest rate prospects, was down 4.20% in early Asian trading, and continued to rise by about 2 basis points during the day. After retail data was released, US stocks rose 4.30% in midday trading and rose by about 15 basis points during the day. They rose more than 10 basis points for 2 consecutive days, returning to the intraday level on Thursday. They continued to stay away from an eight-month low of about 4.12% last Friday. At the end of the bond market, they rose about 14 basis points during the day, and the 10-year US bond yield Both have been rising for 2 days in a row.
The US dollar index hit a one-month high for two days, and the yen hit a new low in nearly seven weeks, and the offshore renminbi fell below 7.23 in the intraday period
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of the dollar against a basket of six major currencies, including the euro, fell below a new daily low of 103.30 in early Asian trading, fell nearly 0.1% during the day, then quickly turned up. After the announcement of US retail sales, intraday gains expanded rapidly. After US retail sales were announced, the intraday increase rapidly expanded. US stocks rose to 103.70 in early trading, breaking the intraday high level since December 13, rising more than 0.3% during the day.
By the close of the US stock market on Wednesday, the US dollar index was slightly below 103.40, with a slight increase of less than 0.1% during the day; the Bloomberg US dollar spot index, which tracks the exchange rate of the US dollar against ten other currencies, rose more than 0.1%, breaking the high level in the same period since December 12 on the 2nd, and the US dollar index both rose for four consecutive trading days.
Among non-US currencies, the yen fell for three days in a row. The US dollar rose above 148.50 against the US stock market in early trading, breaking the high level since November 30, rising about 0.9% during the day, and rising nearly 0.7% during the day; EUR/USD fell below 1.0850 in early trading and hit a low level since December 13 on the two days. It fell nearly 0.3% during the day, and US stocks rose slightly at the end of the session; it fell below 1.2600 before the European stock market, breaking 0.3% intraday. The intraday market reached a new daily high of 1.2700, with an intraday increase of nearly 0.5%. US stocks closed above 1.2680 and fell nearly 0.4% during the day.
The offshore renminbi (CNH) rose to a new high of 7.2070 against the US dollar in early Asian trading on Wednesday, then fell more than once. After US retail sales data was released, US stocks fell to 7.2322 in early trading. After hitting a new low since November 20 in Tuesday's session, they also set a new low since November 17, falling 132 points during the day, falling 252 points from the daily high. At 5:59 Beijing time on January 18, the offshore RMB was 7.2,218 yuan against the US dollar, down 28 points from the end of Tuesday's session in New York. It has been falling for two consecutive days. The decline has abated markedly from more than 300 points on Tuesday.
After falling more than 2% in the intraday period, oil rose close to a one-week high, and oil fell from a one-week high
International crude oil futures bottomed out and rebounded on Wednesday. At a new pre-market low, US WTI crude oil fell to 70.5 US dollars, falling more than 2.6% during the day. Brent crude oil fell to 76.5 US dollars, falling nearly 2.3% during the day, and continued to recover thereafter. US oil leveled off the decline in midday trading and turned up, while oil cleared most of the losses in midday trading.
In the end, crude oil had mixed ups and downs for two consecutive days. WTI crude oil futures for February, which stopped two consecutive gains on Tuesday, closed up 0.22% at $72.56 per barrel, close to the closing high since January 5, which was refreshed last Friday. Brent crude oil futures for March, which rebounded on Tuesday, closed down 0.52% to 77.88 US dollars/barrel, falling from the closing high since January 5, which had remained flat on Tuesday.
US gasoline and natural gas futures continued to fluctuate. NYMEX February gasoline futures closed up 0.64% to $2.1354 per gallon, breaking the high level since January 3 for three consecutive trading days, rising for four consecutive days; NYMEX February natural gas futures closed down 1.03% to $2.87 per million British thermal units, breaking the low since January 4 at $2.821, falling for two consecutive days, but the decline eased significantly from Tuesday, which closed down nearly 12.47%.
European gas fell for three consecutive days, then plummeted again on Wednesday after Monday. UK gas futures contracts, which closed down 7.16% on Monday, fell about 7.02% to 68.36 penns/kcal, breaking the low since July 19 for two consecutive days; Dutch gas futures, the benchmark for mainland Europe, which closed down 6.46% on Monday, closed down 6.57% to 27.708 euros/megawatt hour, breaking the low since August 1.
Lunzinc fell more than 3%, Luntong hit a new low in February, and gold fell more than 1% over the past few days to a five-week low
The market is concerned about China's economic data, and London basic metals futures declined more than on Wednesday. Lunzinc, which led the decline, fell more than 3%. For the first time since mid-December, it closed below 2,500 US dollars. Luntong, which fell by about 1%, and Lun lead, which fell nearly 2%, all fell for two consecutive days. Luntong closed below 8,300 US dollars, hitting a two-month low, and Lun lead fell to a one-week low. Lunnickel has been falling for five consecutive days, approaching the low since April 2021, which was set on January 4. Lunlu, which rebounded on Tuesday, fell to a new five-week low. Meanwhile, Renxi rose slightly, rising for six days. After closing above 25,000 US dollars for the first time since January 3 on Tuesday, it hit a new high since January 3.
New York gold futures turned up in the short term before the US stock market, and continued to fall after US retail sales were announced. US stocks reached a record low of 2004.6 US dollars in the intraday period, falling nearly 1.3% during the day, falling more than 1% in the intraday period.
In the end, COMEX February gold futures closed down 1.17%, the biggest drop since January 3, for two consecutive days, reaching 2006.5 US dollars/ounce, falling for two consecutive days, breaking the closing low since December 13 set last Thursday.
Spot gold fell below $2002 in midday trading, hitting a new intraday low since December 13. It fell 1.3% during the day. At the close of the day, US stocks were close to the 2006 dollar line, and still fell more than 1% during the day. Like futures, it fell more than 1% for two consecutive days.
Editor/Corrine