Hot news

• The Fed's Powell: Strongly supports the 50 basis point rate cut last week, will continue to cut rates if inflation slows as expected.

Fed board member Powell expressed strong support for the Fed's 50 basis point rate cut decision today, reflecting concerns about the job market. Powell said: "The job market still has resilience, but the FOMC now needs to balance its focus in order to make progress in eliminating inflation while avoiding unnecessary pain and economic weakness. I firmly support the decision made last week (a 50 basis point rate cut), and if inflation continues to progress as I expect, I will support further rate cuts."

• usa mortgage rates have fallen again, triggering a large-scale refinancing wave.

With more and more Americans taking advantage of the cheapest borrowing costs in two years, applications for mortgage refinancing have surged for the second consecutive week. Data from the American Mortgage Bankers Association shows that as of the week ending September 20, the association's refinancing index jumped by 20.3%, reaching the highest level since April 2022. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage contract rate dropped by 2 basis points to 6.13%, marking the eighth consecutive week of decline and the longest decline since 2018-2019.

• Will the U.S. stock market have big fluctuations? Goldman Sachs says October usually sees a rebound in volatility, with the next few weeks being crucial.

Over the past three months, the nominal trading volume of individual stock options in the US has dropped significantly due to the decline in trading of AI' pet' Nvidia. Goldman Sachs' options expert John Marshall believes this indicates that the risk appetite of retail and hedge fund investors willing to take risks has decreased. However, this sluggish trading situation may change soon. Because every October, the stock market's volatility usually experiences a seasonal rebound, so there is the potential for volatility to rise.

• The U.S. House of Representatives passed a short-term spending bill, allowing the government to avoid a shutdown by December 20.

The United States House of Representatives passed a short-term funding bill on Wednesday, allowing the government to operate until December 20, avoiding a shutdown. The bill is then sent to the Senate for a vote, expected to also pass and be submitted to President Biden for signing. The bill passed in the House with 341 votes in favor and 82 against. Similar to previous short-term funding bills, the House Republican leadership had to rely on Democrats to push the bill through, as there were disagreements within the Republican party on the bill's content and timing.

• The OECD has raised its global economic growth forecast, expecting a 3.2% GDP growth rate in 2024.

On Wednesday local time, due to major central banks entering a rate-cutting cycle and boosting household consumption capacity amid declining inflation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) raised its expectations for global GDP growth. In its latest global economic outlook report, the OECD slightly raised its forecast for this year's economic growth, expecting a 3.2% GDP growth rate in 2024, a slight increase from the 3.1% forecast in May; the growth rate for 2025 remains unchanged at 3.2%.

Gamestop's surge has dramatically narrowed, with the trading platform considering unplugging the internet of US retail investors.

• The three major indices had mixed movements, with the S&P hitting a historical new high for the 41st time during the trading session, and NVIDIA's market cap returning to 3 trillion USD.

On Wednesday Eastern Time, the three major indices had mixed movements, with the Dow and S&P 500 both falling while the Nasdaq edged slightly higher. At the close, the Dow Jones fell by 0.70%, the S&P 500 fell by 0.19%, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.04%.

However, the Dow and S&P 500 set new intraday highs. According to Dow Jones market data, the S&P 500's gain has surpassed 20% for the first time this year, marking the 41st historical high for the index this year.

Most large-cap tech stocks rose, with Intel up 3.20%, AMD up 2.34%, NVIDIA up 2.18%, Tesla up 1.08%, Meta up 0.88%, Microsoft up 0.69%, Amazon down 0.74%, Google down 0.49%, and Apple down 0.44%.

Popular China concept stocks generally fell, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index down 2.80%, Nio Inc. falling 4.88%, Li Auto Inc. falling 3.84%, Xpeng Inc. falling 2.52%, JD.com falling 2.04%, and Alibaba falling 1.78%.

• Meta platforms hit a new high again, releasing the latest model of the Meta Quest 3S head-mounted display device and the multimodal LLAMA 3.2 AI model.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms released the latest model of the Quest head-mounted display device, hoping consumers will spend more time on VR and AR games, videos, and chats. It is introduced that one model is priced at $300, while a larger storage version is priced at $400. The new products will be launched on October 15.

In addition, Meta Platforms also introduced the multimodal LLAMA 3.2 AI model, capable of understanding images and text simultaneously. Over 1 million advertisers are using its generative AI ad tools.

At the close,$Meta Platforms (META.US)$Rose 0.88%, hitting a new all-time high during trading hours.

• Surged over 14% in post-market trading, Micron Technology's first-quarter revenue outlook exceeded expectations.

Micron Technology reported adjusted revenue of $7.75 billion in the fourth quarter, analyst expectations were $7.66 billion; adjusted earnings per share of $1.18 in the fourth quarter, analyst expectations were $1.12; operating cash flow of $3.41 billion in the fourth quarter, analyst expectations were $3.63 billion; expected adjusted revenue for the first quarter is $8.5 billion to $8.9 billion, analyst expectations were $8.32 billion; expected adjusted earnings per share for the first quarter is $1.66 to $1.82, analyst expectations were $1.52.

As of press time,$Micron Technology (MU.US)$Rose more than 14% after hours.

• Legal battles escalate! Google complains to the EU, accusing Microsoft of abusing market dominance.

$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$Filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the European Commission on Wednesday, accusing$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$Using unfair licensing agreements to stifle competition in the cloud computing industry worth billions of dollars. Google's core complaint accuses Microsoft of using unfair licensing terms to 'lock in' customers and control the cloud market. Google alleges that Microsoft, through its dominant Windows Server and Microsoft Office products, makes it difficult for its large customers to use any products other than its Azure cloud infrastructure products.

• Morgan Stanley downgrades American car stocks, with GM and Ford stock prices dropping more than 5% at one point.

On Wednesday, September 25, Eastern Time, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas released a report downgrading American car stocks. Jonas wrote at the beginning of the report, "We are downgrading our rating on the American car industry from 'attractive' to 'as expected.' Overall, our rating downgrade is based on various factors such as international, domestic, and strategic considerations, which we believe investors may not fully appreciate yet."

As a result, American car stocks were under pressure on Wednesday, falling nearly 5%.$General Motors (GM.US)$ Dropping almost 5%.$Ford Motor (F.US)$Down more than 4%.

• Paypal allows setting up a business account to buy, hold, and sell cryptos.

$PayPal (PYPL.US)$Allowing US businesses to directly buy, hold, and sell cryptos from their Paypal business accounts. The feature is not available in New York when it launches. The company also offers the function of transferring cryptos externally for corporate accounts.

• Oklo, a nuclear energy startup supported by OpenAI's Altman, enters the initial construction phase with micro-reactors.

Media reports that Oklo, a nuclear energy startup chaired by OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, announced on Wednesday that its first commercial micro-reactor is entering the initial construction phase. Oklo's CEO, Jacob DeWitte, stated in a CNBC interview that the US Department of Energy has approved the company to begin site selection surveys focusing on infrastructure planning, environmental surveys, and geotechnical assessments. He anticipates that Oklo will break ground at the Idaho site in 2026 and aims to have the reactor operational in 2027.

As of press time,$Oklo Inc (OKLO.US)$Rose nearly 2%.

• Media: OpenAI plans to cancel the control of the non-profit board and give equity to Altman.

According to sources cited by the media, the AI research company OpenAI is devising a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit welfare corporation, no longer under the control of the non-profit board, making it more attractive to investors.

Following the restructuring, the newly formed for-profit company is expected to reach a valuation of $150 billion, and OpenAI CEO Altman will for the first time acquire company shares.

Top 20 US stock transactions

BeiShui crazily bought China Mobile for nearly HKD 1.8 billion and sold Tencent for about HKD 200 million. On Monday (June 3rd), Southbound funds net purchased HKD 3.4 billion of Hong Kong stocks.

• Beishui grabs over 2.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in Alibaba, selling more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars of Tencent and Meituan.

On September 25 (Wednesday), southbound funds net sold 5.38 billion Hong Kong dollars of Hong Kong stocks.

$BABA-W (09988.HK)$,$WUXI BIO (02269.HK)$,$KUAISHOU-W (01024.HK)$Received net purchases of 2.615 billion Hong Kong dollars, 0.289 billion Hong Kong dollars, 0.124 billion Hong Kong dollars respectively; among them, Beishui has been buying Alibaba for 9 consecutive days, with a total purchase amount of 31.554 billion Hong Kong dollars.

$TENCENT (00700.HK)$,$MEITUAN-W (03690.HK)$,$XIAOMI-W (01810.HK)$Net sales of 2.087 billion Hong Kong dollars, 2.031 billion Hong Kong dollars, and 0.861 billion Hong Kong dollars respectively.

The company's overall sales volume in 2023 was 18,000 kiloliters, with a year-on-year increase of 28.10%, indicating significant growth. In terms of product structure, the operating income of products worth 10-30 billion yuan were 401/1288/60 million yuan respectively.

Keywords: Final US Q2 GDP Annualized QoQ; Initial Jobless Claims; Powell Speech

In terms of financial data, the initial jobless claims in the United States until September 21st, the final value of the annualized seasonally adjusted GDP for the second quarter/real personal consumption expenditures seasonally adjusted annual rate/final Core PCE Price Index annualized seasonally adjusted rate, and the August durable goods orders rate, and the August pending home sales index rate will be released successively.

In terms of financial events, Boston Fed President Collins chaired an online meeting on central bank regulation and financial inclusion, with Fed Governor Quarles in attendance; Fed Chairman Powell recorded a video in advance for an opening speech at an event; FOMC permanent voters and New York Fed President Williams delivered speeches; Fed Governor Brainard delivered a speech.

In addition, the Swiss National Bank will announce the interest rate decision; ECB President Lagarde, Vice President de Guindos, and Banking Supervision Committee Chairman Buch will deliver speeches.

In terms of financial reports, $Accenture (ACN.US)$ Will release financial report ahead of the U.S. pre-market trading, $Costco (COST.US)$Please use your Futubull account to access the feature.$BlackBerry (BB.US)$ Will announce financial report after the U.S. post-market trading.

Futubull Morning News:

Margin of safety: When building a bridge, you insist on a load of 0.03 million pounds, but only allow trucks weighing 0.01 million pounds to shuttle through. The same principle applies to the investment field.

- [US] Buffett

Editor/ping