Hot News

• The number of initial jobless claims in the USA dropped to the lowest level in a month last week, but the duration of unemployment is longer.

The number of initial jobless claims in the USA fell last week to the lowest level in a month, aligning with the situation of a cooling but still healthy labor market, which may prevent Federal Reserve officials from further rate cuts in the short term. As of the week ending December 21, initial jobless claims slightly decreased to 0.219 million. However, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits rose to its highest level in over three years, further indicating that it takes longer for the unemployed to find jobs. As of the week ending December 14, the number of continued unemployment claims rose to 1.91 million.

• What to do about the slowdown in chip demand for Datacenters? NVIDIA suppliers: AI smartphones will take over.

Against the backdrop of a potential slowdown in global Datacenter investments, the Semiconductor industry is facing new challenges. However, Doug Lefever, CEO of Advantest, a leading global chip testing equipment supplier, stated on December 26 that the demand for AI Smart Phones could bring new growth opportunities for the Semiconductor industry, helping it avoid a 'vicious' recession. Currently, the demand for AI phones is not substantial, with some Analysts predicting that existing AI features may not be sufficient to stimulate large-scale consumer upgrades.

• Top VC investors predict the AI industry in 2025: smaller models will exhibit greater value, the rise of AI agents, and an explosion of Robots.

The tech media Business Insider interviewed venture capitalists from 35 companies, including A16z, Insight Partners, IVP, and Sapphire Ventures. Many venture capitalists believe that 2025 will be a crucial year for AI, transitioning from proof of concept to actual commercial value, shifting the focus from general large models to more specialized and practical small language models. Simple 'GPT shells' and chatbots will give way to more complex AI Agents, which will be capable of handling more complex business workflows.

• Bitcoin is experiencing a pullback, with large open options set to expire potentially triggering violent market fluctuations.

On Thursday, Bitcoin briefly fell below 0.096 million USD, while other smaller cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Solana, and Dogecoin, also generally declined by about 3.5%. However, some traders warned that due to the enormous amount of open contracts for Bitcoin and Ethereum derivatives approaching expiration, the market might experience volatility in the coming days. On Friday, the Deribit derivatives exchange will face a record 43 billion USD open contract expiration, including 13.95 billion USD in Bitcoin options and 3.77 billion USD in Ethereum options.

Review of the U.S. stock market.

• The Dow Jones has risen for five consecutive days, and Apple has set a historic high for the fourth trading day in a row.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed mixed, with the Dow rising 0.07% for its fifth consecutive day of gains, the S&P 500 Index falling 0.04%, and the Nasdaq dropping 0.05%.

Most large tech stocks fell, with Tesla dropping over 1%, and Microsoft, NVIDIA, Netflix, Google, Amazon, and Meta slightly declining; Intel and Apple saw slight increases. Among them, Apple continued to set a historic high for the fourth consecutive trading day, with a total market cap of 3.92 trillion USD.

Drone concept stocks surged, with Lilium rising over 70%, Palladyne AI over 47%, Vertical Aerospace over 31%, and Unusual Machines over 20%. Quantum computing concept stock Rigetti soared 36%, and SEALSQ Corp climbed over 60%.

China Concept Stocks fluctuated, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rising 0.42%. Fangdd Network increased nearly 13%, Li Auto and DouYu rose over 3%, and XIAOMI-W jumped over 2%.

• NVIDIA launched the GB200 NLV4, and may launch the GB300 in March next year.

Recently, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ NVIDIA launched the mid-range platform GB200 NLV4, equipped with Grace CPU and Blackwell GPU, achieving a balance between performance and energy efficiency, specifically designed for modern datacenters. The GB200 NLV4 from NVIDIA fills a critical market demand. Furthermore, NVIDIA plans to release its next-generation GB300 AI server platform, featuring the new B300 AI GPU, with a power capacity of up to 1400W and FP4 performance that is 1.5 times that of the B200 at the GTC conference scheduled for March 17 to 20, 2025.

• Wedbush: Raised Apple’s Target Price to $325, expecting to welcome a 'Golden Growth Era' next year.

Wedbush raised the target price of $Apple (AAPL.US)$ from $300 to $325, maintaining an 'Outperform' rating. The firm indicated that Apple’s AI strategy is expected to drive the tech giant into a 'Golden Growth Era' by 2025. The 'hundreds of applications' being developed by Apple are expected to create billions of dollars in revenue streams each year. The firm believes Apple is likely to reach the $4 trillion market cap threshold, becoming the first member of this club. Recently, Apple has been consistently hitting new highs.

• Additional upward momentum? MicroStrategy plans to sell more shares to raise funds for purchasing Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency giant $MicroStrategy (MSTR.US)$ recently announced plans to continue increasing its shareholding in Bitcoin by issuing additional stocks. According to a preliminary proxy statement submitted to the SEC on Monday evening, MicroStrategy is seeking shareholder approval to increase the authorized stock count of Class A common stock and preferred stock. This will provide more funding support for the company, which has transformed from a software manufacturer into a Bitcoin accumulator.

• The American battery technology company KULR Technology is crossing over to invest in Bitcoin.

$KULR Technology (KULR.US)$ On its official website, the company announced the launch of a 'Bitcoin Reserve,' and completed a transaction for a total price of approximately 21 million dollars to purchase 217.18 Bitcoins, spending an average of 96,556.53 dollars per Bitcoin. By the close of trading, KULR's stock price surged by 40.35%.

• Novo-Nordisk A/S suffered another blow: Musk revealed he switched to using Eli Lilly and Co's weight loss drug, claiming fewer side effects.

Musk revealed on the social media platform X on Wednesday that he is using $Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$ The company's Mounjaro is used for weight loss, and it was revealed that he initially tried using Ozempic for weight loss, as using this drug in high doses would make him "fart and burp like Barney from The Simpsons." "Mounjaro seems to have fewer side effects and works better," he added. Ozempic is a diabetes medication from Novo-Nordisk with the active ingredient Semaglutide. Mounjaro, on the other hand, is a diabetes medication launched by Eli Lilly and Co, with the active ingredient Tirzepatide.

Top 20 by trading volume

Hong Kong market outlook

• Report: Xiaomi is building a GPU ten-thousand-card cluster and will invest heavily in AI large models.

On December 26, it was reported by the media. $XIAOMI-W (01810.HK)$ Efforts are underway to build a GPU cluster with 10,000 cards, which will be heavily invested in AI large models. The Xiaomi large model team already had 6,500 GPU resources at the time of its establishment. A source revealed that the plan has been in implementation for several months, with Lei Jun playing an important leadership role in it. "In the matter of AI hardware, the core lies in smartphones rather than glasses; Xiaomi cannot afford to not be 'all in' in this field."

• Alibaba is taking action overseas again! It will form a joint venture with the South Korean retail company E-Mart.

$BABA-W (09988.HK)$ There is new news regarding overseas expansion. According to reports, Alibaba plans to merge its South Korean business with the e-commerce platform Gmarket under the South Korean retail company E-Mart to consolidate its position in Korea's fiercely competitive online retail sector. Analysts point out that Alibaba will promote its overseas strategy mainly through Taobao, while possibly optimizing previously expanded overseas businesses through acquisition or investment, focusing more on and efficiently advancing its global layout.

• Contemporary Amperex Technology: Planning to issue H Shares and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Contemporary Amperex Technology announced that in order to further promote the company's Global Strategy layout, build an international capital operation platform, and enhance comprehensive competitiveness, the company intends to issue overseas listed foreign-invested shares (H Shares) and apply for a listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (referred to as "Hong Kong Stock Exchange").

Today's focus

Keywords: Summary of the opinions of the committee members from the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting in December; Youjia Innovation is going public today.

On Friday, economic data will be released, including Japan's unemployment rate for November, as well as EIA Crude Oil Product inventory, EIA Strategic Petroleum Reserve inventory, and EIA Henry Hub Natural Gas inventory data for the week ending December 20 in the USA.

In financial events, the Bank of Japan will release a summary of the opinions of the committee members from the monetary policy meeting in December.

In terms of IPOs, in the Hong Kong stock market, $MINIEYE (02431.HK)$ is going public today, $INNOSCIENCE (02577.HK)$ 、 $HEALTHYWAY INC (02587.HK)$ 、 $XUNFEIHEALTH (02506.HK)$ will announce the lottery results.

Futubull Morning News:

Avoid haphazardly changing the trading strategy of held Stocks without appropriate reasons.

——William Gann

Editor/new