Hot News

• The Federal Reserve's meeting minutes suggest a pause in interest rate cuts, with "almost all" policymakers believing that Trump's policies may drive up inflation.

In the minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting in December 2024, Fed officials expressed concerns about inflation being higher than expected and the potential inflationary effects of policies introduced after Trump's administration, suggesting they would slow down the pace of interest rate cuts due to uncertainty in the future. Regarding this meeting's minutes, senior Fed reporter Nick Timiraos, known as the 'New Federal Reserve Correspondent,' pointed out that the Fed will not continue to lower interest rates for now.

• The Trump team reportedly considers declaring a national economic emergency to implement high and widespread tariffs.

According to media reports, four insiders revealed that Donald Trump, the elected president of the USA, is considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide a legal basis for imposing high and widespread tariffs on other countries. One insider noted that Trump is particularly fond of this law because it grants broad jurisdiction on how to implement tariffs, and there are no strict proof requirements regarding whether the tariffs are for national security reasons.

• The Trump team is moving to restructure the leadership of the Federal Reserve, with Bowman likely being promoted to Vice Chair for Financial Regulation, and adjustments made to the list of Powell's successors.

On Wednesday, January 8, according to media citing informed sources, Trump's advisors are considering how to reshape the leadership of the Federal Reserve, including promoting Federal Reserve Governor Bowman to Vice Chair responsible for financial oversight. Potential candidates for the next Federal Reserve Chair include: Hassett, who is set to become the Director of the National Economic Council, former White House officials of the Bush administration, Lindsay and Summers, former World Bank President Malpass, former Fed official Walsh, and Fed Governor Bowman.

• The USA's December 'small non-farm' figures fell short of expectations, with wage growth declining to a three-and-a-half-year low.

The December ADP private sector employment data, known as the "little non-farm report," has been released, showing a simultaneous slowdown in the growth rate of jobs and wage increases in the USA. The ADP report stated that, after seasonal adjustments, there were 0.122 million new jobs added in December, lower than the 0.146 million in November and below economists' consensus expectation of 0.136 million. This also represents the smallest increase since August of last year. Meanwhile, wage growth increased by 4.6% year-on-year, which is also the lowest growth rate since July 2021.

Review of the U.S. stock market.

• The three major stock indices showed mixed results, with a comment from Jensen Huang causing a collapse in the Quantum Computing Sector.

On Wednesday Eastern Time, the three major US stock indices closed mixed, as investors lacked a clear trading direction amid complex economic data and policy uncertainty. By the close, the Dow rose by 0.25%, closing at 42635.20 points; the Nasdaq fell by 0.06%, closing at 19478.88 points; and the S&P 500 Index rose by 0.16%, closing at 5918.24 points.

Large technology stocks had mixed performance, with Meta down 1.16%, Google A down 0.79%, NVIDIA down 0.02%, whereas Amazon closed up 0.01%, Tesla rose 0.15%, Apple increased 0.2%, and Microsoft up 0.52%.

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.67%, with most China Concept Stocks falling, Xpeng down over 5%, NIO and Kingsoft Cloud down over 4%, and Bilibili down over 3%; TAL Education rose over 5%, and NetEase rose over 2%.

• Bearish surprise! A statement from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang triggered a collective drop in USA quantum computing stocks.

On Tuesday,$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$CEO Jensen Huang stated that a "very useful" quantum computer may still be several decades away. Huang's remarks sparked a strong reaction in the Capital Markets. On Wednesday, Quantum Computing Concept Stocks fell sharply, $IonQ Inc (IONQ.US)$ down 39%,$Quantum Computing (QUBT.US)$down 43.34%, $D-Wave Quantum (QBTS.US)$ down 36.13%,$Rigetti Computing (RGTI.US)$Closed down 45.51%.

• Under EU antitrust regulations, Meta has proposed a solution: to display eBay product information, resulting in a nearly 10% surge in the latter's stock price.

The product list of the social media giant $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ announced that it will showcase Commodity listings from its competitor $eBay (EBAY.US)$ to respond to the EU's antitrust ruling. This news propelled eBay's stock price to rise over 13% during Regular Trading Hours, ultimately closing up nearly 10%.

• Bitcoin briefly fell below 93,000 USD, and Bitcoin concept stocks declined across the board.

Overnight, Bitcoin briefly fell below 93,000 USD and has now rebounded above 95,000 USD. Cryptos concept stocks all fell. $CleanSpark (CLSK.US)$ Fell nearly 6%. $Hut 8 (HUT.US)$ Dropped over 5%, $MicroStrategy (MSTR.US)$ Dropped nearly 3%.

• One of the largest mergers in the power generation sector! Constellation is close to acquiring Calpine for nearly 30 billion dollars.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that $Constellation Energy (CEG.US)$ is in talks with private equity investors of Calpine, one of the largest independent power generation companies in the USA, regarding an acquisition. The deal valuation could reach 30 billion USD (including debt), potentially becoming one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the history of the power generation industry. The final announcement is expected to be released in the coming weeks, but negotiations may still encounter changes.

Top 20 by trading volume

Hong Kong market outlook

• Northbound funds have continuously been buying Hong Kong stocks for several days! Today, the net inflow is nearly 15 billion Hong Kong dollars, with a further purchase of Tencent amounting to nearly 8.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

On January 8 (Wednesday), southbound funds net purchased Hong Kong stocks for 14.873 billion Hong Kong dollars.

$TENCENT (00700.HK)$、$TRACKER FUND OF HONG KONG (02800.HK)$、$CHINA SHENHUA (01088.HK)$Net purchases were 8.496 billion Hong Kong dollars, 1.924 billion Hong Kong dollars, and 0.569 billion Hong Kong dollars respectively.

$MEITUAN-W (03690.HK)$、$SUNNY OPTICAL (02382.HK)$、$BABA-W (09988.HK)$Net sales were 0.779 billion HKD, 0.265 billion HKD, and 0.107 billion HKD respectively.

Today's focus

Keywords: US stock market closed all day, China's macroeconomic data.

On Thursday, economic data will be released in China, including M2 money supply, CPI, PPI, social financing data, new RMB loans, etc.; the USA will announce unemployment data, including the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits and the number of layoffs reported by Challenger.

Regarding new stocks, in the Hong Kong stock market, $CONCH MAT TECH (02560.HK)$、 $CONTIOCEAN (02613.HK)$ is listing today; $BLOKS (00325.HK)$ 、 $NUMANS (02530.HK)$ Announced the lottery results. In the US stock market, $COR3 & Co (COC.US)$ Announced the lottery results and was listed.

In terms of financial events, in 2026, FOMC voting member and President of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Harker spoke at an event regarding the economic forecast for 2025, and the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) entered its third day.

In addition, in commemoration of the passing of former President Carter, the Nasdaq, the NYSE, and Cboe Global Markets will halt trading for the entire day.

Futubull Morning News:

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