On Thursday, October 18, financial news (Editor: Niu Zhanlin) U.S. stocks closed mixed on Thursday Eastern Time, with the Dow hitting a new high again, marking the fourth consecutive closing record in nearly five trading days, and the S&P 500 Index setting a new intraday high again.

The U.S. September retail sales data released that day exceeded market expectations, while the number of initial jobless claims unexpectedly decreased last week, confirming that the U.S. economy continues to grow healthily.

Specifically, U.S. September retail sales increased by 0.4% month-on-month, estimated to grow by 0.3%, with the previous value at 0.1% growth. The number of first-time jobless claims in the U.S. last week was recorded at 0.241 million people, lower than the market's expected 0.26 million.

The start of the third-quarter earnings season was generally optimistic, with strong economic data and the Federal Reserve entering a monetary easing cycle, all of which are contributing to the rise of U.S. stocks.

Josh Jamner, an investment strategy analyst at ClearBridge Investments, stated that due to strong economic data alleviating concerns about an economic recession, investors have been revising their expectations for economic and corporate profit growth. "Overall, this has allowed the market to rise, but perhaps more moderately than expected."

Quincy Krosby, an analyst at LPL Financial, believes: "Retail data far exceeded expectations, continuing to refute the notion of a weak economy. The impact on monetary policy largely depends on whether the Federal Reserve is concerned that a strong economy could drive inflation higher, but it is still expected that the next meeting will lower rates by 25 basis points."

Bret Kenwell, an analyst at eToro, claimed that if economic data continues to be strong, it may compel investors to lower their expectations for future rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. "While rate cuts are indeed important to the market, they are not the only factor. Even with significant rate fluctuations this year, the market performance remains strong because corporate earnings and the economy are driving the stock market higher." He emphasized, "As long as these pillars remain stable, the outlook for the stock market should be optimistic."

Market Dynamics

As of the close, the Dow rose 161.35 points, up 0.37%, to 43,239.05 points; the Nasdaq rose 6.53 points, up 0.04%, to 18,373.61 points; the S&P 500 index fell 1.00 point, a decrease of 0.02%, to 5,841.47 points.

Most of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 index declined, with the medical care sector dropping by 0.58%, the industrial sector falling by 0.25%, the real estate sector declining by 0.68%, and the information technology/technology sector closing up 0.42%.

US industry ETFs closed mixed with gains and losses, with semiconductor ETFs up nearly 2%, regional bank ETFs, banking ETFs, and global technology ETFs all up by less than 1%. However, utility ETFs fell by almost 1%, medical industry ETFs, biotechnology index ETFs, and daily consumer goods ETFs all fell by about 0.5%.

Popular stocks performance

Large technology stocks had mixed performances, with Netflix dropping by over 2%, Google dropping by over 1%, and Tesla slightly declining; Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta all rising slightly.

Taiwan Semiconductor surged nearly 10%, closing at a record high of $205 per share, with a total market value of $1.07 trillion. Taiwan Semiconductor previously announced its third-quarter financial report, with all indicators stronger than expected, and also raised its performance guidance.

Boosted by Taiwan Semiconductor, chip stocks generally rose, boosting investors' optimistic sentiment on the demand for processors used in artificial intelligence applications. Nvidia hit a new all-time high intraday, but narrowed its gains to 0.89% at the close.

Aviation and aerospace diagnostic equipment supplier Snap-on rose 9.97%, achieving its best single-day performance since April 2020.

Most of the popular china concept stocks fell, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index dropping by 3.61%. Fangdd Network fell more than 24%, Ke Holdings fell over 11%, Miniso and Xpeng dropped by 7%, Nio Inc fell by over 6%, Bilibili, Weibo, Li Auto Inc, and others fell by over 5%, JD.com, Tencent Music, and others fell by over 4%.

Company news

Netflix added 5.07 million net new streaming paid subscribers in the third quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of an increase of 4.52 million.

Netflix's third-quarter EPS was $5.4, exceeding analysts' expectations of $5.12; the net addition of streaming paid subscribers in the third quarter was 5.07 million, surpassing analysts' expectations of an increase of 4.52 million; expected revenue for the fiscal year 2025 is $43 billion to $-44 billion, analysts expect $43.4 billion; expected EPS for the fourth quarter is $4.23, analysts expect $3.90; expected revenue for the fourth quarter is $10.13 billion, analysts expect $10.05 billion.

Meta partners with Hollywood's Blumhouse to develop an AI movie generation model.

On Thursday local time, US tech giant Meta announced that it has partnered with Hollywood company Blumhouse Productions, known for popular horror films like 'The Purge' and 'Get Out', to jointly develop their artificial intelligence (AI) video model Movie Gen. Blumhouse has selected filmmakers such as Anish Chaganty and Cassie + Fleck to test Movie Gen and will use scenes generated by this tool in their films. Earlier this month, Meta released a new AI model, Movie Gen, which can create realistic video and audio segments based on user prompts, claiming it rivals the text-to-video models of startups like OpenAI and ElevenLabs.

Is 'Optimus Prime' just a marketing gimmick? Tesla's official video tries to address doubts.

On Thursday, Tesla's Optimus social media account posted a 90-second video showing Optimus moving around inside the factory, walking to the charging station for self-charging, handling a box of batteries, and climbing stairs. At the end of the video, Optimus also distributed bottled drinks and popcorn to the human employees in the factory. Tesla CEO Musk also reposted the video, with sources revealing that Musk personally approved the video. Media analysts suggest that Musk hopes to counter external doubts about robots with this video. According to previous media reports, insiders have pointed out that Tesla employees remotely supervised many interactions between Optimus and guests, which may not have demonstrated as much intelligence as portrayed.