Source: Caixin News

On Thursday, Eastern Time, the US stock market opened high but closed lower, with the three major indices nearly flat; the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq both slightly fell, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average narrowly ended a 10-day losing streak with a 0.04% gain.

At the close, the Dow Jones Index rose by 0.04%, reporting at 42,342.24 points; the S&P 500 Index fell by 0.09%, reporting at 5,867.08 points; the Nasdaq Index fell by 0.10%, reporting at 19,372.77 points.

On the previous trading day, the US stock market was hit by a wave of selling due to the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance when announcing the interest rate decision, with all three major indices falling by over 2.5%, and the Nasdaq leading the decline with nearly a 3.6% drop. The Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates only twice next year, down from the four cuts predicted in September.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond broke above 4.5%, rising for the second consecutive day, putting pressure on the stock market.

Data released on Thursday showed that the annualized quarterly GDP for the US in the third quarter after adjustment was 3.1%, exceeding economists' expectations.

"If the Federal Reserve keeps rates stable, it is because the economy is still advancing at a pace higher than the trend, so I find it difficult to draw a truly negative conclusion from this," said Steve Wyett, Chief Investment Strategist at BOK Financial.

Micron Technology saw a sharp drop of over 16%; the news indicates that Micron's first fiscal quarter performance generally met market expectations, but the guidance for the second fiscal quarter was below expectations.

Performance of Popular Stocks

Large technology stocks showed mixed performance, with Apple rising 0.70%, Microsoft falling 0.08%, NVIDIA increasing 1.37%, Google gaining 0.06%, Amazon up 1.26%, Meta down 0.27%, and Tesla declining 0.90%.

China concept stocks experienced varied performance, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index down 0.06%, Alibaba falling 0.81%, JD.com down 1.45%, PDD Holdings decreasing 0.35%, NIO rising 1.85%, XPeng Motors up 1.84%, Li Auto increasing 2.59%, Bilibili gaining 1.86%, Baidu falling 3.14%, NetEase up 0.45%, Tencent Music rising 0.17%, and iQIYI down 1.93%.

Quantum Computing concept stocks underwent a correction, with Quantum Computing dropping over 41%, Qantum down nearly 40%, Rigetti Computing falling over 30%, D-Wave Quantum decreasing nearly 29%, and Arqit Quantum down over 27%.

Company news

[Intel is reportedly finalizing the shortlist for the next round of bidding for its ALTERA chip business.]

Sources reveal that Intel has shortlisted a number of acquisition companies for the next round of bidding for its subsidiary Altera. This indicates that the struggling chip manufacturer has made progress in advancing a process initiated by its now-departed CEO. Confidential sources, requesting anonymity due to the nature of the discussions, stated that private equity firms including Francis Partners and Silver Lake Management will participate in the competition along with Lattice Semiconductor.

[SK Hynix received a $0.458 billion chip subsidy from the USA.]

On December 19 local time, the USA Department of Commerce confirmed that it would provide a direct subsidy of $0.458 billion to South Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix under the CHIPS and Science Act incentives. This funding is intended to support SK Hynix in building an advanced packaging production facility for AI chips in Indiana. As a supplier to NVIDIA, SK Hynix announced in April that it would invest $3.87 billion to construct an AI-compatible chip packaging plant in Indiana. In addition to the grant, the USA Department of Commerce also plans to offer SK Hynix project a government loan of up to $0.5 billion.

[Accenture: First-quarter revenue of $17.7 billion for fiscal year 2025, a year-on-year increase of 9%]

Accenture announced its performance on December 19, with first-quarter revenue of $17.7 billion for fiscal year 2025, marking a 9% year-on-year increase. Accenture expects second-quarter revenue for fiscal year 2025 to be between $16.2 billion and $16.8 billion.

Accenture's stock rose 7.06% at closing on Thursday.

[Nike's second-quarter revenue of $12.35 billion, market estimate $12.13 billion]

Nike's second-quarter revenue reached $12.35 billion, exceeding the market estimate of $12.13 billion; the second-quarter gross margin was 43.6%, compared to an estimate of 43.1%; the second-quarter EPS was $0.78, down from $1.03 in the same period last year; inventory for the second quarter was $7.98 billion, above the estimate of $7.65 billion.

Nike's stock rose more than 10% after Post-Market Trading.

[FedEx's revenue for the second fiscal quarter was $22 billion, will add $0.5 billion for share buyback in fiscal year 2025]

FedEx's revenue for the second fiscal quarter was 22 billion USD, while Analyst expectations were 22.15 billion USD; the adjusted operating profit for the second fiscal quarter was 1.38 billion USD, with Analyst expectations of 1.35 billion USD; the adjusted operating margin for the second fiscal quarter was 6.3%, with Analyst expectations of 6.06%; Federal Express revenue for the second fiscal quarter was 18.846 billion USD, which was in line with Analyst expectations of 18.84 billion USD; FedEx Freight revenue for the second fiscal quarter was 2.18 billion USD, while Analyst expectations were 2.36 billion USD.

FedEx will spin off its freight business FedEx Freight, which has a scale of 30 billion USD, into a publicly traded new company, and will add 0.5 billion USD in Share Buyback in the fiscal year 2025.

In Post-Market Trading, stocks once rose over 13%.

编辑/jayden