Source: Sina US Stocks On the evening of the 20th Beijing time, the US stocks opened mixed on Thursday, and then the three major indexes rose slightly. Nvidia hit another new high and consolidated its position as the largest market cap company in the US stock market. Initial jobless claims in the United States last week were higher than expected, and real estate and manufacturing indexes were below expectations. Until the manuscript was submitted, the S&P 500 index rose 0.29% to break through 5500 points, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.37%, and the Dow Jones Index rose 0.13%. The US stock market was closed on Wednesday due to the June holiday (Juneteenth). On Tuesday, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq both set new historical highs. The US stock market is expected to record gains this week. The S&P 500 index set its 31st new high this year on Tuesday. Due to the continued AI craze and the resilience of economic growth, it is expected to continue to support corporate profits, especially in the technology sector. Nvidia's stock price hit another new high. The AI darling and chip maker surpassed Microsoft last Tuesday and became the world's most valuable company. Against the background of the continued AI craze boosting the stock market, Nvidia's stock price has risen 174% from 2024 to date. As Nvidia consolidates its position as a thriving market leader in the AI theme market, its market value has surpassed that of Apple in early June. "Nvidia is still the most important stock in the world," said Chris Weston, head of Pepperstone research, in a report. However, Weston warned that the overall performance of the index market was poor, and the market participation was mediocre, suggesting that the rise was built on an unstable foundation. "The fact remains that the market is still very bullish on AI-related stocks and large tech stocks, and given the lack of clear immediate risks, the path of least resistance is for stock indices to rise." While consumer spending has shown signs of slowing and hints at potential economic weakness, investors continue to flock to the AI giant. The rise of Nvidia has also boosted its peers. Chip maker Broadcom has surged more than 60% from 2024 to date. Scott Chronert, Citigroup's US stock strategy director, wrote in a report on Tuesday: "We still believe that Wall Street (the S&P 500) is diverging from the corporate sector (the foundation of the US economy), is this strange? There is no doubt that generative AI is currently infiltrating the US stock market environment as a sustained driver of growth." Nevertheless, some commentators have noted that while this doldrums has not yet fully affected the US stock market, which repeatedly sets new highs, the rise lacks breadth beyond the largest tech companies, and this situation may continue to deteriorate. Thomas Fitzpatrick, managing director of R.J. O'Brien and Associates, said, "There's a feeling of AI theme that's very similar to the 2000-2001 US stock style, but as we know, markets stay irrational longer than you stay solvent. But for now, it's hard to stop the speeding train." Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, said that due to three major unfavorable factors that will suppress stock prices, the US stock market will see a correction. This Wall Street veteran pointed out that so far this year, the stock market has performed strongly, with the S&P 500 index up 15% from 2024. However, he predicted that the benchmark index would fall 5% due to unfavorable interest rates, inflation, and stock valuations. The inflation rate is declining but still above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%, leading Fed officials to expect only one interest rate cut by year-end. As for Thursday's economic data, the initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States were almost unchanged last week, and the data for the previous week rose sharply. These data tend to fluctuate before and after holidays and school vacations. Data released by the US Department of Labor on Thursday showed that as of June 15, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits decreased by 5,000 to 238,000. The number of continued claims for unemployment benefits as of June 8 rose to 1.82 million. In the past year, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has remained low as the labor market has shown resilience in the face of high prices and high interest rates. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims rose to 232,750, the highest level since September last year.

The opening ceremony of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which was highly anticipated by investors, started on Monday, with its annual five-day conference running through to Friday, June 14. On Monday, Apple CEO Cook announced the "Apple Intelligence" feature, which integrates AI language models into a wide range of Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Users can use AI to write articles and check and proofread content in various situations, and can even allow AI to generate images when sending messages. Apple also announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate the latter's ChatGPT.$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 6.36% to $54.749 billion. Reports on Monday indicated that the company delayed the release of its new AI chip. Due to design flaws, Nvidia's upcoming AI chip will be delayed by three months or longer, which could affect billions of dollars worth of orders from clients such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft.

Last week, brokerage firm Elliott Management warned investors that large US tech stocks such as Nvidia were in a "bubble category". The firm said there was doubt as to whether large tech companies would continue to buy Nvidia's graphics processors. Artificial intelligence "has been overhyped, and many applications are not ready for their golden age".

On August 5, as tech and AI stocks led a major sell-off in European and US markets, it was reported that Huang Renxun, Nvidia's co-founder and CEO, had sold a record $0.323 billion worth of company stock in July.

The second.$Apple (AAPL.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 4.82%, to $24.911 billion. According to data released by Berkshire on Saturday, the company reduced its shareholding in Apple by almost half in the second quarter, reducing its stake value from approximately $140 billion at the end of March to around $84 billion currently.

Some analysts interpreted the sell-off as a sign that Buffett lacks confidence in Apple's growth prospects.

The third.$Tesla (TSLA.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 4.23%, to $19.717 billion. Tesla CEO Musk reopened his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Altman on Monday. Musk claimed once again that OpenAI prioritized profits and commercial interests over public interests, going against its promise to share or open source the company's technology, and exclusive licensing it to Microsoft.

Ranked fourth.$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 3.27%, to $16.079 billion. Tesla CEO Musk sued OpenAI and its two founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, in Northern California federal court on Monday, alleging that the two conspired to extort him and asking the court to annul the large-model license granted to Microsoft by OpenAI.

The sixth.$Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$The company's trade volume rose by 1.75%, to $10.186 billion. As per AMD's recent financial report, its datacenter business achieved revenue of $2.8 billion in Q2 2024, a year-on-year increase of 115%, and the market is optimistic about its Q3 performance, with sales of AMD's AI chips showing signs of acceleration.

The eighth.$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$Google lost its antitrust lawsuit relating to search in the US Department of Justice.

US antitrust regulators on Monday accused Google of illegally maintaining a monopoly on online search and related advertising for decades. According to the government agency, Google has paid billions of dollars to Apple, Samsung and other companies over the decades, making it the default search engine for smartphones and web browsers. This has helped Google become the world's most commonly used search engine, generating more than $300 billion in annual revenue, most of it from search ads.

Google says it will appeal against the antitrust ruling of the US court.

11th place$Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 1.27%, to $4.48 billion. According to reports, Nvidia recently approached Intel for advanced packaging services as TSMC's advanced packaging CoWoS capacity remains in short supply. Supply chain vendors pointed out that TSMC's CoWoS-S is similar to Intel's Foveros packaging technology, which can provide packaging capacity quickly.

Ranked 14th.$Coinbase (COIN.US)$ The company's trade volume fell by 7.32% following the sharp drop of Bitcoin on Monday, which led to a general decline in crypto-related stocks.

16th place.$Berkshire Hathaway-B (BRK.B.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 3.42%, to $3.184 billion. Recently, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway released its Q2 report, showing that as of the end of Q2, Berkshire's cash reserve was $276.9 billion, a record high. The most surprising news to the market was that Berkshire's holdings of Apple were valued at around $84.2 billion, a decrease of about 50% from the end of Q1.

In addition to reducing its holdings in Apple, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently disclosed a series of information showing that since mid-July, Berkshire Hathaway has sold about 90.42 million shares of Bank of America for a total of about $3.8 billion.

At the same time, selling the two major long-term holdings of Apple and Bank of America, for Buffett, in addition to the Fed's monetary policy shift, the high valuation of American stocks may be the factor he considers more. Looking back, from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of 2024, except for adding positions to a few petroleum stocks, Berkshire Hathaway was a net seller of most of its holdings in stocks.

The 17th$Intel (INTC.US)$The company's trade volume fell by 6.38%, continuing the sharp decline of more than 26% on Friday, to $2.947 billion.

The company's second-quarter performance was far below market expectations, and it is expected to continue to be lower than analyst expectations in the third quarter. It also announced a major layoff plan of more than 15% (about 0.015 million people) within this year.

In the second quarter, the company's revenue was $12.8 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 1%. The net loss attributable to the company was $1.6 billion, while in the same period last year, the net profit attributable to the company was $1.5 billion, turning from profit to loss on a year-on-year basis. The adjusted net profit not following US GAAP was $0.1 billion, while in the same period last year, the adjusted net profit not following US GAAP was $0.5 billion, a significant year-on-year decrease of 85%.

In the second quarter, Intel's adjusted EPS and revenue both failed to meet Wall Street analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, the company's outlook for adjusted EPS and revenue in the third quarter is also lower than expected.

Editor/Lambor