Source: Wall Street News

Artificial intelligence (AI) benchmark Nvidia also handed over an impressive report card, shocking Wall Street's fervent demand for AI: revenue soared 265% in the fourth fiscal quarter, continuing to crush market expectations. The data center and AI business continued to grow at a high rate, demonstrating the strength of the king of AI chips. Revenue guidelines for the first fiscal quarter exploded again, exceeding expectations by more than 230%.

Nvidia injected strength into the market, and AI concept stocks set off a global stock market frenzy. Major stock indexes in Japan, Europe, and the US all reached record highs. Nvidia jumped more than 10%, and its market capitalization surged by more than 20 billion US dollars a day, equivalent to one Goldman Sachs and two Netflix, making it the highest single-day market capitalization increase in US stock history. AMD, the AI computing power hardware concept stock, and the AI application-side “monster stock” ultra-microcomputer (SMCI) joined forces to soar by double digits. Technology stocks led by Nvidia once again strengthened the market. Both S&P and NASDAQ recorded their best performance in more than a year.

According to data released on Thursday, the US economy is growing steadily: the number of people applying for unemployment benefits for the first time in the US fell to a one-month low last week; in February, the US Markit manufacturing PMI unexpectedly climbed to a 17-month high, and the service sector and comprehensive PMI declined somewhat from January, but they all remained in a steady expansion range. According to the review, the PMI showed that the economic expansion in February was above average. The latest statement by Federal Reserve leader Jefferson and other Federal Reserve officials continues to pour cold water on recent interest rate cuts. In line with the minutes of the US Federal Reserve meeting released on Wednesday, they all believe that cutting interest rates too fast is risky and may affect the Federal Reserve's goal of reducing inflation.

After the release of economic data and the speeches of the Federal Reserve officials, the overall yield on US bonds continued to rise. The yield on the benchmark ten-year US Treasury hit a new high of more than two months after a week. The yield on two-year US bonds, which are sensitive to interest rates, maintained an upward trend. Following the announcement on Friday that US PPI inflation exceeded expectations, it hit a new high since the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting in December last year after a lapse of three trading days.

In the foreign exchange market, the US dollar index generally continued to decline, falling to a low of nearly four weeks during the intraday period, and turned up after the US economic data was released. The commentator said that after hitting a three-week high last week, the US dollar index is mostly in a consolidated state, and some bulls are showing fatigue. If the US dollar wants to break through again, we need to see more data. The PMI released on Thursday showed signs of abating the decline in Eurozone business activity. The service sector PMI rose to 50.0 in February, breaking out of the contraction range for the first time in seven months; the UK composite PMI hit a nine-month high. Both the euro and the pound hit new intraday highs against the US dollar in nearly four weeks, suppressing the dollar's rebound in the intraday period.

Among commodities, the weakening of the US dollar boosted spot gold to almost two high levels, but as the US dollar gradually narrowed its decline, spot and futures gold fell together in the intraday period, and eventually rebounded and lost, and futures continued to fall below the high level for more than a week. The US Department of Energy announced that US EIA crude oil inventories increased by more than 3.5 million barrels month-on-month last week, an increase of less than half of market expectations. After signs of supply falling short of expectations, international crude oil, which turned higher in the intraday period, accelerated upward. Both US oil and oil rose by more than 1%. Both US oil and oil hit the three-month highs set last Friday and Monday, respectively.

The NASDAQ rose nearly 3%, and the S&P, Dow, NASDAQ 100, and chip stock indexes all hit record closing highs

The three major US stock indexes generally opened higher and moved higher. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose more than 2% at the beginning of the session and rose nearly 3.1% when it hit a daily high in midday trading. The S&P 500 index rose nearly 2.3% in midday trading, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 460 points and rose nearly 1.2%, and both hit record intraday highs.

In the end, the three major indices collectively closed higher for the first time this week. Both the S&P and Dow closed higher for two consecutive days, hitting record closing highs. S&P closed up 2.11%, the biggest increase since January 6, 2023, to 5087.03 points. The Dow closed up 456.87 points, or 1.18%, to 39069.11 points. The NASDAQ stopped three consecutive losses and closed up 2.96%, the biggest increase since November 30, 2022, at 16041.62 points. Not only did it break away from its closing low since February 1, which had been refreshed for two consecutive days, but it will also set a new closing high since November 22, 2021.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index closed up 3.01% to a new all-time high after three consecutive declines. The Nasdaq Technology Market Capitalization Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of technology components in the NASDAQ 100 index, closed up 4.79%. After falling for four consecutive days until February 1, it closed at a record high. The small-cap stock index Russell, which is mainly value stocks, rose more than 1% in the 2000 midday session, closing up 0.96%, and rebounded after falling for three consecutive days and closing low since last Tuesday, February 13.

Including Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google's parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook's parent company Meta, and Tesla, the seven major technology stocks rose sharply in the market. Tesla fell nearly 1.8% at the beginning of the session, then turned up in midday trading, and closed up nearly 1.4%.

Among FAANMG's six major technology stocks, Meta closed up nearly 3.9%, breaking the record closing record high set on February 15. Amazon closed up nearly 3.6%, Netflix 2.6%, Microsoft rose 2.4%, Apple rose 1.1%, and Alphabet rose nearly 1.1%.

Chip stocks rebounded after four consecutive days of decline. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and semiconductor industry ETF SOXX closed up nearly 5% and 4.9% respectively, both reaching record highs. Among individual stocks, Nvidia opened up 11.2%, rose to 785.75 US dollars at the end of the day, and closed up 16.4%, setting a record high during and closing, and the biggest daily gain since the day after the release of the quarterly report on May 24, 2023. At the close, the market capitalization was about 1.94 trillion US dollars, hitting the 2 trillion US dollar mark; AMD closed up 10.7%, and Arm closed up more than 10% at the beginning of trading, closing 4.2%. After opening and closing down nearly 2.8%, it quickly fell by 1.1% in early trading..

AI concept stocks, which plummeted one after another on Tuesday and Wednesday, rebounded. At the close, ultra-micro computers (SMCI) rose 32.9%, BigBear.ai (BBAI) rose more than 7%, first-quarter earnings and second-quarter guidance were higher than expected Synopsys (SNPS) rose nearly 6.9%, SoundHound.ai (SOUN) rose more than 5%, Palantir (PLTR) rose 3.7%, and C3.ai (AI) rose 1.7%, while Adobe (ADBE), which declined at the end of the session, closed down nearly 0.2%.

Popular Chinese securities generally continued to rise. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) closed up 1.4%, rising for two consecutive days. KWEB and CQQQ ETFs are accepted separately. Among individual stocks, by the close, Ideal Auto rose more than 5%, Baidu rose more than 3%, NetEase rose nearly 2%, Pinduoduo rose more than 1%, Alibaba, JD, and Xiaopeng Motors rose about 0.7%, Tencent Fandan rose 0.5%, while NIO Auto fell 2%, and Station B fell 0.3%.

Among the individual stocks that announced financial reports, Rivian (RIVN), another electric vehicle company with quarterly losses higher than expected and production expected to fall below market expectations this year, closed down 25.6%; electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid (LCID), whose quarterly revenue was lower than expected, closed down 16.8%; e-commerce Etsy (ETSY), which had lower earnings than expected in the fourth quarter; Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), a carbonated drink company with lower-than-expected revenue in the fourth quarter, closed down 3.9%; while vaccine producer Moderna ( MRNA) closed up 13.5%; infrastructure services company Quanta Services (PWR), which had higher quarterly earnings and revenue than expected, closed up 10.3%.

Among other highly volatile individual stocks, biotech stock Novavax (NVAX) closed 22.6% higher after it was announced that it would settle a dispute with Gavi, a non-governmental global vaccine organization, to cancel the cancellation of the COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreement.

In terms of European stocks, the pan-European stock index, which had declined for two consecutive days, rebounded. Following January 2022, the European Stoxx 600 Index closed at a record high after a lapse of two years. Stock indices of major European countries rose sharply. Both German, French and Italian stocks rose more than 1%. French stocks reached record closing highs for six consecutive trading days, and German stocks, which had risen two times in a row, also reached record highs. The Spanish and Italian stock indices rose four times in a row and three times in a row, respectively, and British stocks rebounded after two consecutive declines.

Among all sectors, technology closed up 3.1%. Among technology stocks, ASML, the Dutch-listed chip stock with the highest market capitalization in Europe, closed up 5.1%, approaching the high closing record set on February 12. The Dutch-listed semiconductor equipment supplier BESI Semiconductor, where Nvidia is one of its customers, rose 12% to close 4.9% in the intraday. The stock price reached a record high, and the German-listed software giant SAP rose about 3%. Among other individual stocks, Mercedes-Benz closed up 4.7% after announcing steady annual results and announcing plans to repurchase shares of up to 3 billion euros, and joined with SAP to help German stocks lead the way among European countries; British pharmaceutical company Indivior, whose annual revenue guidance was higher than expected, closed 22.4%, leading the way for Stoke's 600 constituent stocks.

US bond yields rose for two consecutive days, and two-year yields hit a new high since the Federal Reserve meeting in December last year

After the US unemployment data was released, the yield on the US 10-year benchmark treasury bond was measured at 4.35% in the short term, breaking the high level since December 1, 2023, set last Tuesday. The US stock market broke 4.30% to a new daily low, falling nearly 2 basis points during the day. At the end of early trading, the decline leveled off and turned upward. At the end of the bond market, it was about 4.32%, with a slight increase of less than 1 basis point during the day.

After the US unemployment data was released, the 2-year US Treasury yield, which is more sensitive to interest rate prospects, first rose above 4.71%. US stocks fell 4.68% at the beginning of the session, rising less than 1 basis point during the day, and then the increase expanded. US stocks rose 4.72% in the midday session, breaking the high level set last Friday since the first day of the Federal Reserve interest rate meeting on December 13 last year. It rose nearly 6 basis points during the day. By the end of the bond market, it rose more than 4 basis points during the day.

Crude oil rose to a three-month high for two consecutive years

International crude oil futures unexpectedly turned higher in Thursday's session. After European stocks fell in early trading, when US stocks hit a new low in pre-market trading, US WTI crude oil fell to 77.23 US dollars, falling nearly 0.9% during the day, Brent crude oil fell to 82.33 US dollars, falling more than 0.8% during the day, and US stocks turned up in early trading. After the US EIA crude oil inventory was announced, the increase in oil prices expanded further. At noon trading, US oil approached 79.00 US dollars, rising 1.3% during the day, and oil was close to 84.00 US dollars, up 1.1% during the day.

In the end, crude oil closed higher for two consecutive days. WTI's April crude oil futures closed up $0.70, or 0.91%, to $78.61 per barrel, breaking the closing high since November 6, 2023 set last Friday; Brent's April crude oil futures closed up $0.64, or 0.77%, to $83.67 per barrel, breaking the high since November 6, 2023, which was refreshed for three days on Monday.

Editor/Corrine