Financial Association News, October 11th (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng) With the combination of 'unexpected rise in prices + unexpected cooling in the labor market' in US economic data, the recently soaring US stock market paused, curiously waiting for statements from Federal Reserve officials.

The market also did not view this set of data as a disaster. As of the Thursday close, the S&P 500 index fell by 0.21% to 5780.05 points; the Nasdaq index fell by 0.05% to 18282.05 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell by 0.14% to 42454.12 points.

(The three major indexes maintained narrow fluctuations during the day, Source: TradingView)

Just as shown in September's meeting minutes, the twists and turns of economic data are also fueling differences of opinion among Federal Reserve policymakers. Regarding Thursday's data, New York Fed President Williams, Chicago Fed President Guerspie, and Richmond Fed President Barkin all stated 'no big deal' and could support continued gradual rate cuts. However, Atlanta Fed President Bostic has put 'only one interest rate cut at the last two meetings of the year' on the table.

Chris Larkin, E*Trade analyst at Morgan Stanley, interpreted that a slightly higher-than-expected CPI reading does not mean a new round of inflation outbreak, but combined with a sharp increase in weekly jobless claims, it may increase short-term market uncertainty. These data are not good—but that does not mean they overturn the overall outlook for stable economic growth and moderate inflation.

Before the opening on Friday, JPMorgan will release its third-quarter report, marking the start of a new round of the US stock earnings season. Goldman Sachs currently predicts that this US stock earnings season will lead to a 'relief rally.' Goldman believes that spending on artificial intelligence, interest rate paths, and the high attention to the US election have pushed the VIX index above its long-term average level, likely hindering investors from increasing their stock allocations.

While the US stock market remains calm, Chinese assets have also stabilized after the decline. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose by 0.3% on Thursday, halting the sharp 8% drop from the previous two days. With the Hong Kong stock market closed on Friday, at least there is no need to worry about the impact of external markets dragging down A-shares at the opening.

By the way, at 10 AM on Friday Beijing time, Tesla will hold an "Us, Robots" event at the Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, where concepts like self-driving taxis and robots are highly interesting to Chinese investors. Furthermore, based on footage captured by passersby, it seems that Tesla, which specially chose a movie set for the press conference, is also preparing a drone show.

(Source: X)

Popular stocks performance

Tech giants in the US stock market saw mixed movements, with Apple dropping by 0.22%, Microsoft down by 0.39%, Amazon up by 0.8%, Meta down by 1.13%, Google-A up by 0.14%, Tesla down by 0.95%, Nvidia up by 1.63%, and Intel down by 1.02%.

Chinese concept stocks continued to stabilize and rise. At the close, Alibaba rose by 1.29%, Baidu by 0.01%, Pinduoduo by 0.08%, jd.com by 0.89%, NetEase down by 1.12%, Qifu Technology up by 2.95%, Zai Lab up by 2.80%, Miniso up by 2.32%, Ctrip up by 2.29%, Weibo up by 1.90%, Nio Inc down by 0.79%, Li Auto Inc up by 0.96%.

Other news

【AMD Releases Nvidia Competing AI Chip, Stock Price Plummets】

At the new product launch event held on Thursday, AMD introduced a series of new products including the MI325X AI accelerator, the 5th generation EPYC "Turing" series server CPU, and teased the launch of the MI355X chip with a new architecture next year. However, as the event unfolded, AMD's stock price plummeted, ultimately closing 4% lower.

Toronto-Dominion Bank has agreed to pay a $3 billion fine to settle an anti-money laundering investigation.

Toronto-Dominion Bank closed 5.3% lower on Thursday. The company announced agreements with US regulators including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Justice Department to settle investigations into the bank's anti-money laundering practices for a total of $3.09 billion, and agreed to make improvements.

Morgan Stanley: Improvements in production of Blackwell GPUs seem 'quite strong'.

Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore released a report after meeting with NVIDIA executives including Huang Renxun, stating that the AI chip giant is preparing to launch its Blackwell series GPU, with production improvements seeming 'quite strong'. The delivery delays that caused a stir this summer have now been resolved, and Moore reaffirmed confidence in NVIDIA's 'billions of dollars in Blackwell revenue' for the quarter ending in January.

NVIDIA also assured him that they have no concerns about the supply of HBM3e and are 'very confident' in introducing Samsung as a third supplier.

Weight reduction platform offering a 'budget version of GLP-1 drug', stock price continues to rise, analysts warn of risks.

Long-established American weight loss platform WW International saw continuous stock price increases after introducing a 'composite version of semaglutide' on Tuesday, with a cumulative increase of nearly 150% this week, including a 22.50% rise on Thursday. The official website states that the composite version of the weight loss drug costs $129 for the first month and $189 from the second month onwards. For comparison, Wegovy costs $1349 per month.

Barclays analyst Stephanie Davis warned on Thursday that the company's stock price does not reflect the risks of this business. Research from Novo Nordisk shows that the composite version of semaglutide has various impurities and also demonstrates a tougher stance towards manufacturers of composite drugs. Limited regulatory resources are more likely to focus on large platforms like WW International. Additionally, this business model is only effective when brand weight loss drugs are in short supply.