①The three major indices collectively rose, with S&P and Nasdaq hitting a new closing high; ②Most large technology stocks rose, with Meta rising nearly 6%; ③China concept stocks were generally down, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index falling 2%.
On Friday, July 6th, Caixin reported that the latest employment data boosted market expectations of a Fed rate cut. As a result, the three major indexes collectively rose, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting record closing highs.
(Three major index minute chart, source: TradingView)
As of the close, the Dow Jones index rose 0.17% to 39,375.87 points; the S&P 500 index rose 0.54% to 5,567.19 points; and the Nasdaq index rose 0.90% to 18,352.76 points.
Data released on Friday showed that the seasonally adjusted non-farm payroll employment in the US increased by 0.206 million in June, higher than the market expectation of 0.19 million, but the data for the previous two months was significantly revised downward and the unemployment rate continued to rise to 4.1%.
CME's FedWatch tool shows that after the release of the June non-farm data, investors increased their bets on a September rate cut, with the probability of a 25 basis point cut rising from around 64% a week ago to about 77%.
Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist at Principal Global Investors, warned that while the latest employment report increased the likelihood of a Fed rate cut in September, these data also raised concerns about the direction of the US economy. A large amount of economic data shows that the US economy is slowing down, and Friday's report further confirms this.
Popular stocks performance
Most large tech stocks rose, with Apple up 2.16%, Microsoft up 1.47%, Tesla up 2.08%, Google up 2.57%, Amazon up 1.22%, Meta up 5.87%, Nvidia down 1.91%, and AMD up 4.88%.
China concept stocks were mostly down, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index falling 2.02%, Alibaba falling 1.39%, JD.com falling 0.41%, Pinduoduo falling 0.84%, NIO falling 5.13%, XPeng falling 4.81%, Li Auto falling 1.25%, Bilibili falling 0.37%, Baidu falling 1.21%, NetEase falling 4.13%, Tencent Music falling 2.74%, and iQiyi falling 1.29%.
Company news
Analysts downgrade Nvidia rating but bullish on AMD and TSMC
On Friday, July 5th, New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu downgraded Nvidia's stock rating from Buy to Neutral and gave a one-year target price of $135.
Ferragu is bullish on the stock price performance of AMD and TSMC, with 12-month target prices of $235 and NT$1200, respectively, representing increases of 38% and about 19% over their current stock prices.
Amazon CEO Bezos sells $0.3331 billion in stock
SEC documents show that Amazon CEO Bezos sold a total of 1.664886 million shares of Amazon stocks in two transactions on July 2-3, cashing out a total of $0.3331 billion.
EU officials warn of preliminary investigation into Nvidia AI chip supply issues
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Competition of the European Commission, warned that Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) chip supply is facing a "huge bottleneck".
Vestager told the media during her visit to Singapore that the EU regulatory agencies are still considering whether and what actions to take, "we have been questioning them, but this is just a preliminary step for regulation."
Vestager mentioned that AI chips are facing supply shortages, and the secondary market may help stimulate innovation and fair competition. But she pointed out that companies that occupy a dominant position may face certain behavioral restrictions in the future.
Intel and other giants reportedly abandon new investment projects due to lack of incentives
According to media reports citing government documents, Vietnam has missed out on billions of dollars in investment from multinational corporations such as Intel and LG Chemical due to a lack of incentives. The Vietnamese Ministry of Investment said in a document at the end of June that US chip giant Intel had planned to invest $3.3 billion in Vietnam and requested 15% cash support from the country, but ultimately decided to move the project to Poland.
Meanwhile, South Korea's LG Chemical also abandoned plans to invest in Vietnam, opting instead to invest in a battery project in Indonesia. The company had previously requested that Vietnam bear 30% of the investment cost.