Source: Wall Street See
Authors: Fang Jiaoyao, Du Yu, Long Yue, Bu Shuqing
Before the US presidential election debate, the Dow and small-cap stocks fell, while the S&P and Nasdaq rose for two consecutive days. The chip index rose by more than 1%, and bank stocks fell by 3.6% at one point. Tesla rose by 4.58%, Apple fell by 1.9% before closing at a 0.4% decrease. JPMorgan fell by 7.5% at one point but ultimately closed down by 5.19%, while Alibaba's US stocks rose by nearly 3% and BMW's European stocks fell by over 11%. During the US oil trading, there was a sudden 5% drop, Brent oil fell below $70, and on Wednesday, the bond market's anticipated inflation fell below the Fed's target and there was strong demand for short-term debt, causing US bond yields to decline.
Investors bought technology stocks on the dip, leading to a second consecutive day of gains for the Nasdaq:
Mixed performance for the three major US stock indices: the S&P 500 closed up 0.45%. The Dow, closely linked to the economic cycle, closed down by 0.23%. The Nasdaq, with mostly tech stocks, closed up 0.84%.
"The Big Seven Tech Sisters" saw more gains than losses. Tesla closed up by 4.58%, and reports suggest that the EU is expected to lower proposed tariffs on electric cars imported from China. Among these, the tariff rate for Tesla electric cars imported from China is expected to be adjusted from 9% to just under 8%. In addition, Elon Musk's space exploration technology company SpaceX announced the launch of the "Polaris Dawn" mission with 4 commercial astronauts, attempting to complete the first commercial spacewalk.
Microsoft rose by 2.09%, Amazon by 2.37%, Google's Class A shares fell by 0.03%, Meta rose nearly 1.9% before giving up most of the gains and ultimately closing flat, Nvidia rose by 1.53%, and Apple fell by 0.36% due to the company losing a €13 billion lawsuit related to Irish tax in the EU court.
Chip stocks had more declines than gains. The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose by 1.19%; Arm rose by 1.34%, Taiwan Semiconductor's US stocks closed down by 0.22%, Intel fell by 0.47%, Micron Technology rose by 0.67%, ON Semiconductor fell by 1.67%, while Marvell Technology rose by 3.87%.
Many AI concept stocks fell, with Serve Robotics falling 6.93%, Palantir rising 0.46%, Snowflake rising 0.28%, SoundHound AI, a company held by Nvidia, falling 0.43%, while Oracle rose over 11% to continue to create historical highs.
China concept stocks fluctuated. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index in China edged up by 0.06%. Among the popular Chinese concept stocks, Nio fell 1.62%, Tencent ADR fell 1.16%, while Pinduoduo rose 0.65%, Alibaba rose 2.9%, DIDI Chuxing rose 2.58%, and Li Auto rose 3.87%.
OPEC has lowered its global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 and 2025 for the second time in two months, exacerbating investor concerns about oversupply, causing US crude oil to fall by 4.3%, and Brent crude oil to lose the psychological support level of $70 for the first time since December 2021.
WTI October crude oil futures fell by $2.96, a decrease of nearly 4.31%, to $65.75 per barrel. In the early Asian market, US crude oil hit a daily high, rising more than 0.5% to break through the $69 psychological level, then continued to decline and accelerated its decline in early US market trading, with the lowest falling by over 5% to below the $65 psychological level at noon.
Brent November crude oil futures fell by $2.65, a decrease of about 3.69%, to $69.19 per barrel. In the early Asian market, Brent crude oil hit a daily high, rising more than 0.6% to break through the $72 psychological level, then continued to decline and accelerated its decline in early US market trading, hitting a low of nearly 4.4% below the $69 psychological level at noon.
On the news front, OPEC announced a two-month delay in reinstating oil supply limits and forecast that global oil demand will increase by 2.03 million barrels per day this year and by 1.74 million barrels per day in 2025, lower than the previous forecast of 2.11 million barrels per day and 1.78 million barrels per day. It's worth noting that this is the second time in two months that OPEC has lowered its demand forecasts. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has lowered its near-term outlook for Brent oil prices and slightly raised its forecast for U.S. oil production this year in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).
Natural gas: US October natural gas futures closed up by about 2.56% at $2.2320 per million British thermal units.
As US inflation data is released, the price of gold remains above $2,500:
Gold: COMEX December gold futures rose 0.49% in the end session, reaching $2,545.1 per ounce. Spot gold, which had been rising earlier, fell more than 0.2% to test the $2,500 mark during the mid-session of European stocks, but then continued to rise. At the end of the session, it reached a daily high of nearly 0.5% at around $2,520.
Silver: COMEX December silver futures rose 0.29% in the end session, reaching $28.735 per ounce. Spot silver continued the earlier upward trend, rising more than 0.7% to break through $28.50 in pre-market trading of US stocks. However, it then dropped sharply, with US stocks hitting a daily low of more than 1.1% near $28, but ultimately rebounded.
Analysts say that the price of gold is currently trading in an extremely narrow range, and the market is waiting for the next catalyst, which is likely to be tonight's US presidential debate, as well as Wednesday's CPI data and Thursday's PPI data. It is expected that CPI will rise 0.2% month-on-month in August, unchanged from the previous month.
Most London industrial metals fell. Dr. Copper, the economic bellwether, fell 0.78%, to $9,026 per tonne. London zinc fell $19. London nickel fell by about 1.02%. London aluminum fell $14. London tin fell by about 0.87%, while London lead rose $2.
Editor/Jeffy
