For the first time in ten years, S&P continued to rise for five months, rising more than 10% for two consecutive quarters. The tech giant “Seven Sisters” had a sharp decline in the intraday period. Tesla fell more than 2%, fell nearly 30% in the first quarter, Nvidia fell more than 1%, then turned up, and rose more than 80% in the first quarter. Apple fell more than 10% in the first quarter, while Meta rose nearly 40%. The rating was downgraded to the AI concept stock Palantir, which was sold, falling more than 6%; Trump Media, which surged two days before listing, fell more than 6%.
After rising more than 1% in the intraday period, the China Securities Index regained more than half of its gains. After rising more than 4%, Xiaopeng Motor turned down 1%, and NIO fell more than 3%. The pan-European stock index and German and French stocks continued to hit record highs, both rising for five months and two consecutive quarters.
Federal Reserve Governor Hawk said that the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds broke away from a two-week low and fell more than 30 basis points in the first quarter; the US dollar index hit a six-week high. The offshore RMB fell more than 200 points in the intraday period and fell to 7.26. Bitcoin once rose by nearly $3,000 to reach 71,000 US dollars, approaching a two-week high. Crude oil rebounded, and US oil rose more than 2%, approaching a four-month high. Oil revenues hit a five-month high, rising more than 10% in the first quarter. Gold hit a record closing high for two days, rising nearly 8% in March to the biggest increase in more than a year.
Federal Reserve Governor Waller, who is expected to be a strong candidate for the next Federal Reserve chairman, emphasized that there is no rush to cut interest rates. On the last trading day before Easter, gains in the US stock index subsided, and the Dow, which is approaching an all-time high, hit the 40,000 mark and is weak. The US GDP for the fourth quarter, which was announced on Thursday, was revised to 3.4%. The core PCE price index for the quarter cooled down beyond expectations, helping to offset the negative impact caused by Waller. The two major stock indicators, the Dow and the Dow, hit record highs.
Blue-chip technology stocks dragged down once again, supporting the fall of Apple, which hit a record high by S&P, on Wednesday. The tech giant “Seven Sisters” once fell sharply in the intraday period. Nvidia once rose more than 1% after smoothing the decline of more than 1% in early trading, but it returned most of its gains in midday trading. Palantir, an artificial intelligence (AI) concept stock that was downgraded by analysts for the first time in more than a month, plummeted. The relevant brokerage firm pointed out that in the past year, the individual stock was “extremely well valued” due to the sharp rise in AI demand prospects, and the target price given suggests that it may fall by nearly 20% in the future.
China Securities were generally higher, with gains stronger than the market. Xiaomi, which released its first car, the Xiaomi SU7, performed the most impressive. The SU7, which started selling for 215,900 yuan, received enthusiastic responses. After accepting the reservation, the price was over 10,000 in just 4 minutes, breaking 20,000 in 7 minutes, and 50,000 in 27 minutes. Millet powder rallied in the single session, and the increase in early trading extended to more than 10%.
Although the closing day of March was mediocre, major US stock indexes have locked in a five-month winning streak, reflecting expectations of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates and the impact of the AI boom that has set off a carnival for technology stocks such as Nvidia. S&P recorded its first five-month rise in more than ten years, and the best first-quarter performance since 2019. It also created a rare record of only five times since 1950: a quarterly increase of more than 10% for two consecutive quarters.
On the bond market side, February data for the PCE price index, an inflation index favored by the Federal Reserve, will be released on Friday. Prior to the release of the major inflation data, Federal Reserve Governor Waller's hawkish speech made investors worry that Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's speech on Friday was also hawkish. The price of US Treasury bonds has generally declined, and yields have rebounded after several days of decline. Interest rate sensitive two-year US Treasury yields took the lead in recovering, smoothing out all the declines on Tuesday and Wednesday. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield broke away from a nearly two-week low. Yields all rebounded sharply in the first quarter, reflecting a marked decline in the market's expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates this year.
In the foreign exchange market, Waller's speech helped the US dollar index resume its upward trend, reaching an intraday high since mid-February, and is expected to rise simultaneously this week, March, and the first quarter. While the US dollar is strengthening, non-US currencies are generally falling. On Thursday, Japan's Deputy Finance Minister warned that the yen, which had risen after intervention in the foreign exchange market, would fall back. Although it is not close to the low level since 1990 set before Thursday's rise, it will fall sharply in both March and the first quarter. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's rebound, which has rushed back high in the intraday period over the past few days, once approaching the high level since mid-March set before falling on Wednesday, and rebounded nearly 3,000 US dollars from the daily low.
Among commodities, gold, which continued to rise this week, made further efforts. Spot gold and New York futures hit a record high in the intraday period after a week, and are likely to hit a new closing high for 2 consecutive days. For the first time since the beginning of the year, it has surged in a single month, and reversed the downward trend in the first quarter with a sharp rise in March. The review said that the recent rise in gold prices may be due to geopolitical tension in the Middle East, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as transaction uncertainty that has prompted investors to switch to gold as a neutral reserve asset. The cooling of inflation strengthens expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates. This is good for gold, but if the data shows high inflationary stickiness, it may hurt the price of gold.
International crude oil rebounded over the past few days, and US oil rose more than 2%, approaching a four-month high. The closing of the monthly contract hit the high level set last week since the end of October last year. Entering 2024, it has accumulated monthly gains, and was able to rebound by more than 10% in the first quarter. According to media sources, OPEC+ will not change the current production reduction policy until the June ministerial meeting. Russia's energy infrastructure continues to be attacked by Ukraine, and the reduction in the number of drills started in the US has strained crude oil supply, all driving forces for the recent rise in oil prices.
For the first time in ten years, the tech giant “Seven Sisters” had a sharp decline in the intraday period, Tesla led the decline, Nvidia turned up, and rose more than 80% in the first quarter
The three major US stock indexes opened with mixed ups and downs, with slight fluctuations in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which opened slightly higher, rose nearly 90 points and rose more than 0.2% at the beginning of the session. After turning down in early trading, it fell more than 40 points and fell 0.1%, and never reached the 40,000 point mark. The S&P 500 index, which opened slightly lower, turned up rapidly at the beginning of the session, rising more than 0.1%, then regained some of its gains. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which opened slightly lower, fell by more than 0.3% at the beginning of the session, rose by more than 0.1% after rapidly rising, then turned down a few times and fell slightly in midday trading.
In the end, of the three major indices, only the NASDAQ closed down, falling 0.12% to 16,379.46 points. After rebounding on Wednesday, it fell, and closed up only on Wednesday this week. S&P closed up 0.11% to 5254.35 points, setting the highest closing record set last Thursday for two consecutive days. The Dow closed up 47.29 points, or 0.12%, to 39807.37 points, breaking the historic high level set last Thursday, all rising for two consecutive days.
The small-cap stock index Russell 2000, which is mainly value stocks, closed up 0.48%, rising for two consecutive days, outperforming the market for two days, and breaking its closing high since January 2022 on the 2nd. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index closed down 0.14%. The Nasdaq Technology Market Capitalization Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of technology components in the NASDAQ 100 index, closed down 0.18%, falling 1.34% this week, rising 2.89% in March, and 16.9% in the first quarter.
Major US stock indexes failed to rise in unison this week. The S&P rose 0.39%, the Dow rose 0.84%, and the Russell 2000 rose 2.54%, all rising for two weeks. S&P continued to rise in the ninth week within 13 weeks of the beginning of 2024, the NASDAQ index fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq 100, which fell 0.46%, all fell after rebounding last week, and fell sharply in the fifth week of the beginning of the year.
Major stock indexes continued to rise across the board in March. The S&P rose 3.1%, the Dow rose 2.08%, the NASDAQ rose 1.79%, and the NASDAQ 100 rose 1.17%, all rising for five months. For the first time since 2013 and the second year since entering the 21st century, S&P recorded five months of continuous gains. Russell 2000 continued to rise 3.39% for two months.
Major stock indexes all rose for two consecutive quarters in the first quarter, with S&P rising 10.16%. For the fifth time since 1950, the Dow rose by more than 10% for two consecutive quarters. The Dow rose 5.62%, the NASDAQ rose 9.11%, the NASDAQ 100 rose 8.49%, and Russell 2000 surged 4.81%.
Including Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google's parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook's parent company Meta, and Tesla, the tech giants “Seven Sisters” have all experienced intraday declines. Tesla, which performed the worst, closed down nearly 2.3, falling to its high closing level since March 5, which was refreshed for three days. This week it has been rising 2.9%, falling 12.9% in March, and falling nearly 29.3% in the first quarter.
Among the six major FAANMG technology stocks, Apple opened lower than 2% on Wednesday and rebound to a one-week high, closing down 1.1%; Meta closed down nearly 1.1%; Meta closed down nearly 1.7%, falling for four days and two days breaking its closing low since March 15; Microsoft turned up after falling more than 0.5% at the beginning of the session, and eventually fell close to 0.2%, falling 5 to a closing low from March 18; and Amazon closed down 1% in the early trading period; while Amazon turned down for a short period of time and closed 0.1% in early trading, breaking the closing high since November 2021 for two consecutive days; Alphabet rose 0.4% at the beginning and then turned down. After turning up in midday trading, it fell at the end of the session, and finally closed slightly higher, breaking the high level since January 30 on the 2nd.
Most of these six technology stocks fell this week. Meta fell 4.7%, Netflix fell about 3.3%, Microsoft fell nearly 1.9%, Apple fell nearly 0.5%, while Amazon rose 0.8% and Alphabet rose 0.3%; in March, Alphabet rose nearly 9%, Amazon rose more than 2%, Microsoft rose 1.7%, and Netflix rose 0.7%, while Apple fell 5.1% and Meta fell 0.9%; in the first quarter, Meta fell nearly 11%, Meta rose nearly 37%, Netflix rose nearly 25%, Amazon rose nearly 19%, Microsoft rose nearly 12% Alphabet rose 9%.
Chip stocks generally declined in the intraday period. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and semiconductor industry ETF SOXX quickly turned up after falling around 0.3% at the beginning of the session. They rose less than 0.6% when they hit a new high in early trading, then turned down again in the middle session, and narrowly closed 0.1%. After two consecutive declines, they continued to rise by less than 0.1% and 0.2% this week, respectively. They climbed about 3.8% and 3.9%, respectively, in the first quarter.
Among chip stocks, Nvidia quickly turned up after falling nearly 1.2% at the beginning of the session. It rose nearly 1.2% in early trading, recovering most of its gains, closing up 0.1%, closing down nearly 4.2% this week, and was still rising 14.2% in March, with a cumulative increase of nearly 82.5% in the first quarter; Intel and AMD, which rose more than 1% in early trading, closed up 0.9% and 0.5% respectively. Broadcom, which had declined several times in the intraday session, closed down more than 1%, and TSMC US stocks fell about 0.5%.
AI concept stocks declined overall. After being downgraded from neutral to buy by brokerage firm Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Palantir (PLTR) closed down 6.1%; at the close, Astera Labs (ALAB), known as “Little Nvidia,” which sells data center interconnect chips, fell more than 7%, BigBear.ai (BBAI) fell more than 4%, ultra-microcomputer (SMCI) fell more than 1%, C3.ai (AI), SoundHound.ai (SOUN) fell nearly 0.7%, while Adobe (ADBE) rose slightly and Oracle (ORCL) rose nearly 0.3%.
Popular Chinese securities generally rose. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC), which ended four consecutive declines, rose 1.3% in early trading and narrowed its gains by more than half in midday trading, closing up 0.3%. This week's decline was 0.3%, falling nearly 2.1% in March, and falling nearly 5.6% in the first quarter. China's ETF KWEB rose more than 1% in early trading, while CQQQ rose more than 2% in early trading. Among individual stocks, after the release of the first car, the Xiaomi SU7, the OTC stock price of Xiaomi's US stock rose in early trading, rising more than 10% and closing up 12.1%. Xiaomi's rivals and the three new car builders showed mixed results. At the close, NIO Auto fell by more than 3%, Xiaopeng Motor, which had risen by more than 4% at the beginning of the session, fell by more than 1%, and Ideal Auto, which had risen by more than 1% in early trading, rose 0.3%. Among other individual stocks, by the close, Station B and Alibaba rose more than 1%, JD rose 0.6%, Baidu and Tencent Fan rose about 0.3%, while Pinduoduo fell nearly 0.4%, and NetEase fell 0.2%.
Among the most volatile individual stocks, Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), a media company under Trump, which closed up more than 10% on the first day of listing and moved low on the third day of listing. It rose 5.5% at the beginning of the session and fell about 9% in the midday session, closing 6.4%; after disclosing that the company's CEO and Chief Operating Officer (COO) sold 500,000 shares and 514,000 shares respectively, with a total value of nearly 33 million US dollars, “American Tieba” Reddit (RDDT), which fell more than 10% on Wednesday, continued to spit back until this week A two-day increase, closing down 14.6%, due to a sharp rise of 30% on Monday and still rising 7.2% this week; AMC Cinemas (AMC) closed down 14.3% after announcing that it would sell shares worth 250 million US dollars; after the third fiscal quarter revenue and fourth quarter guidance were lower than expected, and warning demand would continue to weaken due to high interest rates, geopolitical risks, and delays in the US property market, the furniture and home improvement company MillerKnoll (MLKN) closed down 18.9%; after internal investigation discovered that executives manipulated cash flow to achieve bonus-related goals, it was announced that it would cooperate with US prosecutors and counterparties Financial operations Chemours (CC), the internally audited chemical company, dropped nearly 9.1%.
The luxury retailer RH (RH) in the home and furniture industry is expected to rise 17.3% after customer demand will pick up this year as interest rates fall, and annual demand and revenue growth will be strong; beauty giant Estée Lauder (EL) closed 6.3% after Bank of America upgraded its rating from neutral to buying, optimistic about improved profitability, new product launches, and increased influence in the high-end beauty sector.
In terms of European stocks, the pan-European stock index rose for four consecutive days. For the third day in a row, the European Stoxx 600 index hit a record high of closing last Thursday. Major European stock indexes failed to continue their sharp rise. The German stock index rose for eight consecutive trading days, setting a new closing record for eight consecutive days. French stocks rose slightly, and British stocks rose for three consecutive days. French stocks set new closing record highs for 2 consecutive days, and British stocks continued to break new highs in the past year. Meanwhile, the Italian and Spanish stock indexes, which closed at record highs for seven consecutive days, retreated.
Among all sectors, retail sales rose 1.2%. After announcing that this year's pre-tax profit would meet its own guidelines and appease investors' concerns about its prospects, sports brand retailer JD Sports surged 15.6%, travel rose more than 0.8%, while utilities fell 0.5% and technology fell 0.4%.
This week, the Stoxx 600 index rose for ten weeks. Stock indices from various countries collectively rose. Italian stocks, German stocks, Western stocks, and British stocks continued to rise for nine weeks, eight weeks, four weeks, and three weeks respectively. French stocks, which stopped rising for two weeks last week, rebounded. Retail is far ahead of other sectors this week, with a cumulative increase of more than 5%.
The Stoxx 600 index climbed nearly 3.7% in March, rising for five consecutive months. Stock indices from various countries rose sharply. German, French and Italian stocks rose for five months, and British stocks and Western stocks, which declined in February, rebounded. The retail sector, which surged this week, rose more than 14% in March and continued to lead the way, with banks rising more than 9%.
The Stoxx 600 index rose about 7% in the first quarter, rising for two consecutive quarters. Stock indices from all countries continued to rise in the first quarter. Italian stocks and British stocks rose for six and three quarters respectively, while German, French and Spanish stocks rose for two consecutive quarters. The banking sector, which was supported by the March surge, rose nearly 12.6% in the first quarter. The technology sector only rose 0.6% in March, and still rose nearly 12.6% in the first quarter. Thanks to the high rise in March, the retail sector rose nearly 11% in the first quarter.
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