Hot news

• The Federal Reserve is releasing pigeons; most investors won't pay! Bank of America data shows that only companies repurchased net purchases of US stocks

According to the latest data released by Bank of America on Tuesday, the three types of customers, institutions, individual investors, and hedge funds, all had net sales of US stocks in the week ending March 22. Only the corporate repurchase group was a net buyer in the US stock market. Specifically, the net capital inflow of Bank of America's customers to US stocks last week was only 400 million US dollars, and part of the net inflow came entirely from share repurchases of US companies. Corporate stock buybacks reached the fifth highest level since Bank of America began tracking weekly data in 2010, and were above normal seasonal levels for the third consecutive week.

• The “side effect” of interest rate hikes: The Federal Reserve recorded a record loss of 114.3 billion US dollars last year, and interest expenses nearly tripled

The “side effect” of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike for more than a year was a surge in its own interest expenses, which recorded huge losses last year. In 2023, the Federal Reserve's total expenditure was US$114.3 billion higher than revenue, or operating loss was US$114.3 billion, the highest annual loss on record; total interest expenses were US$281.1 billion, 2.75 times the 2022 expenditure, of which interest expenses related to reserve balances were US$176.8 billion, an increase of nearly three times that of 2022. The losses of the Federal Reserve are floating losses. They will not affect the operation of the Federal Reserve, but they will exacerbate the already huge fiscal deficit of the US government.

• The US important housing price index rose the fastest since 2022 in January, and the month-on-month performance was lower than expected

The US S&P/CS national housing price index rose 6% year on year in January, the fastest increase since 2022. The value rose 5.6% before December. Of the 20 major cities, housing prices in all cities showed year-on-year increases, for the second month in a row. The US FHFA housing price index fell 0.1% month-on-month in January, significantly falling short of expectations.

• Will production cuts be carried out to the end? OPEC+ Allegedly Unlikely to Change Policy Before June Meeting

According to media reports, OPEC+ is unlikely to change its oil production policy before the June meeting. The alliance is not expected to make any policy proposals at next week's ministerial meeting; at the beginning of this month, OPEC+ extended the 2.2 million b/d production reduction agreement until the end of the second quarter to support the market.

Resumption of US stock trading

• The three major indices collectively closed down, Nvidia surged out of strength and dived in the late session, and Tesla reversed the market and rose nearly 3%

Overnight, the three major US stock indexes dived at the end of the session. The S&P 500 fell 0.28%, the Nasdaq index fell 0.42%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.08%.

Most tech giants weakened. Nvidia fell more than 2%, META fell more than 1%, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon fell slightly, and Tesla reversed the market by nearly 3%.

The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 0.55%, NIO fell more than 2%, JD fell more than 1%, Xiaopeng Motors fell 0.35%, and Alibaba, Pinduoduo, NetEase, and Ideal Auto rose slightly.

• Focus on AI strategy! Apple's current Global Developers Conference will be held on June 10-14

$Apple (AAPL.US)$It was announced on Tuesday that this year's developer conference, WWDC24, will be held from June 10th to 14th, with the most important Keynote taking place at 1 am Beijing time on the 11th. As usual, Apple will release a series of operating systems such as iOS 18. According to media reports, the focus of this conference is expected to be Apple's AI strategy. Apple's senior vice president Greg “Joz” Joswiak said on social media platform X that this is a tribute to Apple's AI ambitions and that the event will be “very surprising.”

• Tesla launched the North American FSD free trial, and the stock price increased by nearly 3%

$Tesla (TSLA.US)$Information updated on the official website this week shows that starting this week, new car users in the US and Canada can try FSD for free within a month. Musk then publicly announced that this benefit will be extended to existing eligible car owners. Also, according to an internal letter reported by the media, Musk has requested Tesla employees to bring customers to demonstrate the assisted driving function when delivering a new car. As of press release, Tesla's fully autonomous driving feature is priced at $12,000. Due to the combined influence of news discussing the construction of a factory in Italy, Tesla rose by more than 6% on Tuesday, and the increase narrowed to 2.92% at the close.

• It is expected that Chaolilai, Gannuo, and Nord, the “diet pill upstart” Viking trial results are impressive, and the stock price has skyrocketed

“Upstart of diet pills”$Viking Therapeutics (VKTX.US)$Early research results on its novel oral diet drug VK2735 were released, which proved that in the first phase of clinical trials, the drug could lose 5% of weight within 28 days according to the maximum dose. This remarkable weight loss effect is comparable to Novo Nordisk, and may even be superior to Eli Lilly. Overnight, the diet drug concept stock Viking once rose nearly 28.8% intraday. By the close, the company was up nearly 17% and has risen 334% since the beginning of the year.

• US stock bears are betting 11 billion dollars on the digital currency market, and concept stocks are shorting as they rise

According to the latest report released by S3 Partners, the total short positions in cryptocurrency concept stocks have increased to nearly $11 billion so far this year, with more than 80% of short positions concentrated on “large Bitcoin holders”$MicroStrategy (MSTR.US)$and digital currency exchanges$Coinbase (COIN.US)$these two companies.

According to the analysis, if shorters make mistakes in betting on cryptocurrency concept stocks, they may face huge losses, especially if it triggers a shorting market. MicroStrategy, Coinbase, and Cleanspark are all likely to fall short due to rising stock prices and a limited number of stocks available for shorting.

• Despite long-term optimism, it is still difficult. Joint Parcel has plummeted 8%

The world's largest express delivery company$United Parcel Service (UPS.US)$An Investor Day event was held on Tuesday and a vision for the next three years was revealed. Although the company set revenue guidelines for 2026 between $108 billion and $114 billion, which exceeded the consensus estimate of $101,313 billion. However, CEO Carol Tome also warned that the current quarter will be the “most difficult” quarter of 2024, and profits may drop 40% year over year. By Tuesday's close, UPS closed down 8.16%.

• Maersk's stock price fell when a chartered ship crashed into an American bridge

Danish shipping giant$A.P. Moller - Maersk A/S Unsponsored ADR (AMKBY.US)$A statement was issued on Tuesday saying that the container ship that previously collided with a bridge in Baltimore was chartered by the company. Affected by this news, Maersk US stocks closed down 2.44% on Tuesday.

Top 20 US stock turnover

Hong Kong Market Outlook

• Beishui added a Hong Kong stock ETF to raise more than HK$400 million for Tencent

On March 26 (Tuesday), Southbound made a net purchase of HK$4,526 billion in Hong Kong stocks.

$CSOP Hang Seng TECH Index ETF (03033.HK)$,$TENCENT (00700.HK)$,$XIAOMI-W (01810.HK)$Received net purchases of HK$819 million, HK$446 million and HK$323 million respectively;

$MEITUAN-W (03690.HK)$,$YANKUANG ENERGY (01171.HK)$,$HSBC HOLDINGS (00005.HK)$Net sales were HK$319 million, HK$177 million and HK$105 million respectively.

• Ali announced plans to acquire shares of Cainiao employees and shareholders, and withdrew its listing application

$BABA-SW (09988.HK)$On March 26, it was announced that in order to better strengthen e-commerce business collaboration with Ali and continue to support Cainiao's expansion of investment in the global logistics network, it was decided to withdraw Cainiao's listing application and offer to acquire shares already owned by Cainiao's minority shareholders and the shares already owned by employees. The acquisition involved an amount of $3.75 billion.

• BYD: Net profit increased 80.72% year-on-year in 2023

$BYD COMPANY (01211.HK)$According to the announcement, revenue in 2023 was 602,315 billion yuan, up 42.04% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 30.41 billion yuan, up 80.72% year on year, with basic earnings per share of 10.32 yuan.

Today's attention

Keywords: API, EIA crude oil inventory; Eurozone consumer confidence index

On Wednesday, there were relatively few major economic data. API, EIA crude oil inventories, and the Eurozone consumer confidence index required investors' attention.

In terms of major financial reports, Hong Kong stocks$CG SERVICES (06098.HK)$,$CHINA LIFE (02628.HK)$Results will be announced today; US stocks$Carnival (CCL.US)$The financial report will be released in advance of the US stock market.

Futubull Chen read:

The key to life is to position yourself accurately.
—Buffett

Editor/Somer