The U.S. economy shows more signs of resilience, benefiting from strong consumer spending and exports. The real GDP in the third quarter accelerated to an annualized quarter-on-quarter final value revised up to 3.1%. November's existing home sales in the U.S. were unexpectedly strong, exceeding 4 million units for the first time in six months, with a year-on-year increase marking a three-year high, as home prices accelerated to new highs. Last week, the number of new unemployment claims unexpectedly declined, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will slow down interest rate cuts. On Thursday, some assets rebounded, such as large tech stocks, while most assets continued to decline, with small caps, bonds, and Bitcoin dropping, while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar continued to soar.

The Bank of Japan continued to postpone interest rate hikes in December. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda stated that there remains a high level of uncertainty regarding the economy and inflation, paying attention to next year's "Shunto" and the impact of Trump. The yen fell sharply, reaching a low of 158. The Indian rupee fell to a historical low against the dollar, dropping below 85, prompting the Reserve Bank of India to sell dollars for intervention, while the Bank of Indonesia also intervened to support the Indonesian rupiah's exchange rate. The Brazilian real rose 2.4% against the dollar after the country's central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market.

The Bank of England did not lower interest rates as expected, anticipating that inflation will continue to rise in the short term, but there are significant internal divisions, with three officials calling for a 25 basis point rate cut. Traders have increased bets on rate cuts, expecting the Bank of England to lower rates three times for a total of 61 basis points next year, higher than the previous expectation of less than 50 basis points. The two-year UK bond yield fell, and the British Pound declined. Additionally, the Swedish central bank cut rates by 25 basis points, causing the Swedish Krona to depreciate by 0.83%, while Norway kept its rates unchanged, resulting in a 0.40% appreciation of the Norwegian Krona, and Mexico's central bank cut rates by 25 basis points.

Trump stated that if the debt ceiling is not lifted or eliminated, he wants the U.S. federal government to shut down. On Thursday, after U.S. market hours, House Republicans said they have reached an agreement on a temporary spending bill to avoid a government shutdown starting this weekend. Trump supports the short-term government spending plan proposed by House Republicans and stated that next year he will cut at least hundreds of billions from the federal government's budget through reconciliation.

After a brief rise at the beginning, U.S. stocks continued to decline and closed near the day's low, with the Dow barely rising 0.04%, marking the first ten-day consecutive drop since the 1970s. Various sectors showed mixed performance, with utilities, financials, and tech stocks performing well, while real estate, materials, and energy stocks lagged. Boeing rose 2.56%, leading the Dow components, while Micron Technology, which has a poor quarterly outlook, dropped more than 16%.

• Of the three major U.S. stock indices, only the Dow managed a slight gain. The S&P 500 Index closed down 5.08 points, a decrease of 0.09%, at 5867.08 points. The Dow, closely related to the economic cycle, rose 15.37 points, an increase of 0.04%, closing at 42342.24 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 19.92 points, down 0.10%, finishing at 19372.77 points. The Nasdaq 100, which measures the performance of tech sector constituents, decreased by 0.47%, while the Nasdaq technology market cap weighted index (NDXTMC) fell by 0.43%. The Russell 2000 small cap index, which is more sensitive to economic cycles, dropped 0.45%. The VIX, or fear index, decreased by 12.78%, closing at 24.09.

The Dow ended its longest consecutive losing streak in 50 years.

• The S&P 11 sectors mostly closed lower. The Real Estate Sector fell by 1.69%, the Materials Sector fell by 1.07%, the Energy Sector fell by 0.99%, the Consumer Staples Sector fell by 0.74%, the Medical Care Sector fell by 0.73%, the Telecommunications Sector fell by 0.11%, the Industrial Sector fell by 0.1%, the Consumer Discretionary Sector rose by 0.08%, the Information Technology/Technology Sector rose by 0.19%, the Financial Sector rose by 0.4%, and the Utilities Sector rose by 0.48%.

• The "Tech Seven Sisters" showed mixed results. Tesla closed down 0.9%, Meta closed down 0.27%, Microsoft closed down 0.08%, Amazon closed up 1.26%, Google A closed up 0.06%, Apple closed up 0.7%, with reports that Apple was in preliminary talks with TENCENT and Byte, considering integrating their AI models into iPhones sold in China. NVIDIA closed up 1.37%.

• Chip stocks generally fell. The PHLX Semiconductor Index closed down 1.56%. The industry ETF SOXX closed down 1.68%. The NVIDIA double long ETF closed up 2.72%. Marvell Technology closed up 3.64%, while Micron Technology closed down 16.18%, with first-quarter revenue meeting expectations but a noticeably poor outlook for next quarter. Wolfspeed closed down 3.71%, Broadcom closed down 2.37%, Intel closed down 1.24%, with reports that Intel has determined a shortlist for the next round of bidding for its Altera chip business. Arm Holdings closed down 3.27%. ON Semiconductor closed down 0.2%, KLA Corp closed down 1.36%, Qualcomm closed down 1.73%, AMD closed down 2.08%, and Taiwan Semiconductor closed down 0.47%.

• AI concept stocks mostly declined. Palantir closed up 3.78%, Oracle closed up 2.04%, CrowdStrike closed up 0.53%, BigBear.ai closed down 9.9%, Serve Robotics closed down 5.52%, BullFrog AI closed down 6.64%, Super Micro Computer closed down 3.07%, C3.ai closed down 10.68%, and SoundHound AI, held by NVIDIA, closed down 9.55%.

• China Concept Stocks showed mixed results. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose by 0.8% then closed down 0.06%. Among ETFs, FTSE China 3x Long ETF (YINN) closed up 1.68%, China Technology Index ETF (CQQQ) closed up 1.66%, Deutsche Bank Goldman Sach's China Universal CSI 300 ETF (ASHR) closed up 0.63%, and the China Internet Index ETF (KWEB) closed down 0.03%. The FTSE A50 futures index closed down 0.24% in continuous night trading at 13,377.000 points.

• Among popular China Concept Stocks, TENCENT ADR closed up 3.03%, Li Auto closed up 2.59%, New Oriental closed up 2.09%, Bilibili closed up 1.86%, Nio closed up 1.85%, XPeng closed up 1.84%, Trip.com closed up 1.48%, while Fangdd Network closed down 3.5%, Baidu closed down 3.14%, JD.com closed down 1.45%, Zhihu closed down 1.36%, and PDD Holdings closed down 0.35%.

• Bitcoin once fell 5% to nearly 0.096 million USD, and Cryptos concept stocks broadly declined. The so-called "demon stock" Ideanomics closed up 89.09%, Riot Platforms closed down 6.36%, Bitdeer Technologies closed down 6.49%, and Canaan closed down 10.81%. The major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase closed down 10.2%, BTC Digital closed down 10.82%, and MicroStrategy, a "Bitcoin holdings giant," closed down 6.63%.

• Quantum computing concept stocks had mixed results. Quantum Corporation (QMCO) closed down 39.97%, Quantum Computing (QUBT) closed down 41.04%, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) closed down 28.91%, while Honeywell (HON) slightly rose by 0.01%.

• Among other key stocks: (1) Eli Lilly and Co fell over 1.6% and closed down 0.94%. The FDA announced that the raw material for Eli Lilly's weight loss drug, semaglutide, is no longer in short supply, and compound pharmacies will stop producing generic drugs. The affordable weight loss drug concept stock Hims & Hers fell nearly 8%. (2) FedEx rose by as much as 13% in post-market trading, with second-quarter results exceeding expectations but lowering the full-year EPS guidance. (3) Boeing rose 2.56%, leading the Dow components. The company secured an order worth $36 billion from the Turkish low-cost airline Pegasus Hava Tasimaciligi AS, marking Boeing's largest commercial aircraft order to date in 2024, surpassing its competitor Airbus. Previously, the airline favored Airbus more.

Affected by the Fed's hawkish rate cuts, European stock markets suffered significant declines. The pan-European STOXX 600 Index closed down 1.51%, marking the largest single-day decline in five weeks. All sectors fell, with the technology index leading the decline at 2.44%, while real estate, energy, media, finance, and industry all fell over 2%.

• The pan-European STOXX 600 Index closed down 1.51% at 506.66 points. The Eurozone STOXX 50 Index closed down 1.58%. The FTSE Pan-European Top 300 Index closed down 1.51%.

• The German DAX 30 Index closed down 1.35%. The French CAC 40 Index closed down 1.22%. The Italian FTSE MIB Index closed down 1.78%. The Netherlands AEX Index closed down 1.55%, and the UK FTSE 100 Index closed down 1.14%. The Spain IBEX 35 Index closed down 1.53%.

The 10-year US Treasury yield rose by about 6 basis points, and the spread between the 2-year and 10-year US Treasury yields briefly exceeded 27 basis points. Mid- and long-term German Treasury yields rose by about 6 basis points the day after the Fed's rate cut, while the 2-year UK Treasury yield fell by about 4 basis points on 'Bank of England decision day', and long-end UK Treasury yields rose over 4 basis points.

• US Treasuries: Toward the end, the yield on the 10-year benchmark US Treasury rose by 5.82 basis points, closing at 4.5722%. It traded between 4.5% and 4.5923% during the day, continuing to approach the April 25 peak of 4.7351%, rising more than 42 basis points cumulatively since trading ended on December 6. The 2-year US Treasury yield fell by 4.01 basis points, closing at 4.3144%, remaining in a downtrend throughout the day, dropping to 4.2826% at 23:57 Beijing time.

Long-term bond yields continue to rise, while short-term bond yields decline.

• European Bonds: In late European trading, the benchmark 10-year German government bond yield in the Eurozone rose by 6.1 basis points, closing at 2.306%. The 2-year German bond yield rose by 2.1 basis points. The UK 10-year government bond yield rose by 3.4 basis points, while the 2-year UK bond yield fell by 3.9 basis points, closing at 4.424%. The 10-year French government bond yield rose by 6.3 basis points, and the 10-year Italian government bond yield rose by 6.7 basis points.

The USD index holds the daily gains made on the Fed's interest rate cut day, continuing to reach a new high not seen in over two years. The yen falls towards 158, the British Pound drops over 0.5%, and the offshore RMB briefly falls below 7.32 yuan to a 15-month low. The Australian Dollar and New Zealand Dollar hit two-year lows during the day, while the Canadian Dollar reaches a four-and-a-half-year low at one point.

• USD: The USD index DXY rises by 0.35%, reporting 108.401 points, with an intraday trading range of 107.821-108.485 points. The Bloomberg Dollar Index increases by 0.21%, reporting 1303.75 points, rising to 1305.26 points at 02:05 Beijing time.

The USD continues to rise, reaching its highest point in two years.

• Non-USD currencies: The euro rises 0.10% against the USD to report 1.0364, the British Pound falls 0.55% against the USD to report 1.2505, and the USD drops 0.31% against the Swiss Franc to report 0.8985. Among commodity currencies, the Australian Dollar rises 0.32% against the USD, the New Zealand Dollar rises 0.12% against the USD, and the USD falls 0.35% against the Canadian Dollar. The Brazilian Real rises 2.44% against the USD to report 6.1398 Reais. The Korean Won falls 1.5% against the USD, hitting its lowest level since March 2009.

• HSBC expects the USD to remain strong, the euro to likely fall below parity, and the yen to drop towards 160.

• Yen: The yen falls 1.69% against the USD at the close, reporting 157.41 yen, with an intraday trading range of 154.44-157.81 yen. After the Bank of Japan held its stance, hedge funds bought bullish options on USD/JPY. Nomura believes the sharp drop of the yen may trigger verbal intervention from Japanese authorities in the currency market.

• Offshore RMB (CNH): The offshore RMB (CNH) rises by 158 points against the USD at the close, reporting 7.3091 yuan, trading overall within the range of 7.3269-7.3053 yuan.

Due to caution from central bank governors in the USA, Europe, and Asia regarding relaxing monetary policy, concerns about soft economic activity potentially weakening oil demand next year have led to a decline in oil prices on Thursday. U.S. oil prices fell over 0.9%, retreating below $70, while New York natural gas rose over 6%.

• U.S. Oil: WTI January crude oil futures fell by $0.67, a decrease of nearly 0.95%, closing at $69.91 per barrel.

U.S. oil has retreated below $70.

• Brent Oil: February Brent crude oil futures fell by $0.51, a decrease of 0.69%, closing at $72.88 per barrel.

• Natural Gas: U.S. January natural gas futures rose by 6.22%, closing at $3.5840 per million British thermal units.

In the third quarter, U.S. economic growth exceeded expectations, while the decrease in initial jobless claims was also greater than expected. U.S. data reinforced market expectations that the Federal Reserve will take a cautious approach to easing in the coming year. Gold prices surged and then retreated on Thursday, with spot gold rising 1.6% before ultimately edging higher, and silver futures falling by 5% at one point, while gold futures dropped about 2% at one point.

• Gold: COMEX gold futures rose by 0.08% at the close, settling at $2610.1 per ounce. Spot gold increased by 0.2% to $2592.39 per ounce at the close.

• Silver: COMEX silver futures fell by 4.12% at the close, settling at $29.475 per ounce, with an intra-day drop of about 5%. Spot silver also dropped by over 2% at one point.

Gold prices briefly retreated below $2600.

• London Industrial Metals fell across the board, with London Copper down more than 1.6%, and London Nickel and Tin down over 2%: London Copper fell by $146, a decline of nearly 1.62%, reported at $8,883 per ton. London Aluminum fell by $22, reported at $2,507 per ton. London Zinc fell by $28, reported at $2,967 per ton. London Lead fell by $10, reported at $1,972 per ton. London Nickel fell by $395, down about 2.55%, reported at $15,113 per ton. London Tin fell by $717, more than 2.46%, reported at $28,399 per ton. London Cobalt remained flat, reported at $24,300 per ton.

• New York Cocoa fell over 6%, moving away from its historical high. Analysts pointed out that recently, New York Cocoa futures prices have continuously touched historical highs during trading. International coffee trader Volcafe predicts that in the 2025 to 2026 period, the global coffee bean production is expected to experience a shortage of 8.5 million bags, which, if realized, would mark the fifth consecutive year of supply shortages for coffee beans. Additionally, although Colombia's coffee exports have increased this year, industry insiders analyze that this cannot compensate for the shortfall caused by reduced production in Brazil and Vietnam, and coffee prices in the international market may remain high next year.

The following is an update before 23:00 Beijing time on December 19.

The Dow briefly rebounded by nearly 461 points, hoping to end the first ten-day losing streak since 1974.

• The three major U.S. stock indexes fluctuated after an initial rise. The S&P 500 Index rose nearly 1.1% before halving its gains. The Dow, which is closely related to the economic cycle, initially rose nearly 461 points or 1.1% before retracting most of its gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 1.2% before slight retreat.

• Various Industry ETFs rose initially. Regional Bank ETFs and Banking ETFs at least rose over 2.4%, while Financial Sector ETFs, Global Airlines ETFs, Internet Stock Index ETFs, and Energy ETFs each rose at least 1.1%. However, the Semiconductor ETFs still fell over 0.3%, and the Biotech Index ETFs fell over 0.8%.

• The 'Technological Seven Sisters' rose together. Tesla briefly rose nearly 3.7%, Amazon exceeded 2.3%, Google A briefly rose nearly 2.5%, and Meta briefly rose nearly 2.4%. Apple exceeded a rise of 1.1%, and according to media reports, Apple is in preliminary talks with Tencent and ByteDance to consider embedding their AI models into iPhones sold in China. Microsoft briefly rose nearly 1.3%, and NVIDIA briefly exceeded 2.4%.

• Chip stocks showed mixed results. The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose over 0.4% before falling more than 0.4%. Marvell Technology briefly rose over 4.6%, Broadcom rose nearly 2% before its gains were halved, while Micron Technology briefly fell over 17.6%.

• Most AI concept stocks rose. SoundHound AI, in which NVIDIA holds shares, once climbed over 14%, Palantir rose over 7.1%, BigBear.ai increased over 18.5% before giving back most of its gains, Oracle jumped over 2.7%, while C3.ai fell over 7.8% at one point.

• Most China concept stocks rose. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index once rose nearly 0.7%. Among popular China concept stocks, Li Auto surged over 4.5%, NIO rose over 3%, ZEEKR climbed over 3.3%, and Bilibili jumped over 2.6%.

• Quantum computing concept stocks had mixed performance. Quantum Corporation (QMCO) dropped over 44% at one point, Quantum Computing (QUBT) fell nearly 35.3%, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) declined over 24.4%, and Honeywell (HON) initially rose over 2.9% before retracting most of its gains.

• Among other key stocks: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) dropped 16%, marking its worst intraday performance since October 2020. Mid-term clinical research results showed that the company's painkiller was not more effective than placebo. The company will continue testing the medication.

The following are updates before 22:00.

On Thursday, December 19, U.S. stocks and bonds experienced a double whammy overnight, causing the Asia-Pacific stock market to plummet, European stocks opened lower and continued to decline, while U.S. Pre-Market Trading rose slightly. Oil, gold, and Bitcoin plummeted, and the dollar soared to a two-year high, putting pressure on global markets, with the yen breaking below the 157 mark and the won hitting a 15-year low.

Overnight, the Federal Reserve hinted at slowing down the pace of interest rate cuts. Powell stated that the Federal Reserve is in a "new phase of the process," with borrowing costs nearing neutral interest rates. The dot plot indicates that the Federal Reserve expects only two 25bp rate cuts in 2025, two fewer than the September dot plot, and one fewer than the market's general expectations for the dot plot.

At 20:00 Beijing time tonight, the Bank of England will announce its latest interest rate decision; the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the third quarter GDP and core PCE price index at 21:30.

The three major US stock index futures are up in Pre-Market Trading.

Dow futures are up 0.29%, S&P 500 futures are up 0.37%, Nasdaq 100 futures are up 0.46%, and E-mini Russell 2000 futures are up 0.47%.

Tech stocks are generally rising. Tesla is up over 3%, Meta is up over 1%, and NVIDIA is up over 2%.

Due to the company's guidance for the next fiscal quarter being only 'in line with market expectations', which is far from enough, Micron Technology continues to decline, now down over 14%.

Under the pressure of the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance, European stocks opened lower collectively, and the Asia-Pacific stock markets fell broadly.

The Europe Stoxx 50 index opened down 1.4%, the DEGUODAXZHISHU fell 1%, the UK FTSE100 Index fell 1.1%, and the France CAC40 Index fell 1.2%.

Today, Asia-Pacific stock markets fell broadly, with the stock markets of Japan, South Korea, and India all declining.

By the close, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.87%, the South Korean KOSPI Composite Index was down 1.87%. The Indian NIFTY 50 Index and SENSEX Index both fell over 1%, and the Australian stock index once fell by 2%, marking the largest drop in three months, while Australian bond yields rose.

Analyst Tony Sycamore from IG in Sydney stated:

The dual impact of rising U.S. Treasury yields and soaring U.S. dollar is expected to lead to a decline of 1.5-2% in Asian stock markets at the opening, while the weakening yen will provide a buffer to suppress the decline of the Nikkei Index.

The U.S. dollar reached a two-year high, while non-U.S. currencies plummeted, with the yen breaking below 157.

The U.S. dollar rose against other currencies on Wednesday, hitting its highest level in two years.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against six currencies, briefly rose to 108.260, the highest level since November 2022, and latest increased to 108.16.

The offshore RMB to USD exchange rate is 7.321, stabilizing near a 13-month low.

The euro rose 0.5% against the U.S. dollar during the day, reported at 1.0403.

The Bank of Japan announced it will continue to delay interest rate hikes in December. In a speech in the afternoon, Governor Ueda Kazuo stated that the economy and inflation still have a high degree of uncertainty, leading to a further acceleration of the yen's decline, which fell consecutively below the 155, 156, and 157 levels during the day, with a decline of 1.4%.

Analysts indicate that a decline in the yen below a key level may trigger verbal intervention from Japanese authorities and amplify pressure on the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates.

The Korean won fell 1.5% against the US dollar to 1,460.2 won per dollar, the lowest level since March 2009.

The Bank of England is also expected to maintain interest rates, and following the Federal Reserve's decision, the British Pound slightly weakened against both the euro and the dollar. The Pound fell to a three-week low.

Wells Fargo's senior economist Mike Puglisi stated that the dollar has been rising since Trump won the election last month, as people expect tariffs to trigger a new wave of inflation, but the Fed's decision on Wednesday "added fuel to the fire."

Overnight, US stocks and bonds both took a hit.

Overnight, US Treasury yields rose across the board, with the policy-sensitive two-year and ten-year Treasury yields both increasing by more than 10 basis points, closing above 4.5% for the first time since May.

The S&P 500 Index experienced its largest single-day drop since August, marking the biggest decline on the day the Fed's decision was announced since 2001. The Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 3.6%, which is the second largest single-day decline of the year and the largest drop since July.

Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions senior vice president Gokhman stated that Powell is a "hawk in dove's clothing."

Although he downplayed the recent phenomenon of inflation slowing down and boasted strong economic growth momentum, the forecast of two rate cuts in 2025 is necessary as the policy must remain restrictive.

Goldman Sachs' Whitney Watson expects the Federal Reserve to avoid rate cuts in January and to resume easing in March.

Bitcoin continues its downward trend, while Gold slightly rebounds.

After Powell stated overnight that the Federal Reserve has no intention of participating in any government holding of the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin briefly plummeted 5% and is now continuing its decline, down over 2%.

Overnight, gold prices were again hit hard and fell below the 100-day moving average, now rising more than 1% to $2,620.17 per ounce.

Crude oil prices have declined due to the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance, with WTI crude oil prices retreating to near $70.