On Wednesday Eastern Time, the three major U.S. stock indices closed mixed, with large Technology stocks reaching historic highs, driving. $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ A first-time breakthrough of 20,000 points, following the inflation report released in the USA that boosted market expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Data released earlier by the U.S. Labor Department showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the USA in November rose by 0.3% month-on-month and by 2.7% year-on-year, both accelerating by 0.1 percentage points compared to October data.

After the report was released, the Wall Street Fear Index fell below 14, indicating that there are no significant risks to watch in the short term, and the stock market will continue to rise.

Although inflation data increased, it was largely in line with market expectations, and traders increased their bets on the Federal Reserve rate cut. The CME's 'FedWatch' tool indicates that the market expects over a 96% probability of a 25 basis point rate cut by the central bank next Wednesday.

Peter Cardillo, Chief Market Economist at Spartan Capital Securities, stated: 'The Nasdaq Index has risen on the prospects of the Federal Reserve rate cut next week and has further room to rise.'

The Chief Investment Officer of Sarmaya Partners, Wasif Latif, claims that investors seem to be relieved as this is yet another steady and improving report. "Fortunately, there were no surprises; the stock market seems to have prepared for higher-than-expected inflation numbers."

In addition to the favorable data, Trump's latest appointment is also a reason for the surge in tech stocks. Trump stated on Wednesday that he will appoint Andrew Ferguson to lead the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), replacing current chairwoman Lina Khan, who is known for blocking acquisitions by large tech companies.

Trump posted: "Ferguson will become the most America-first and innovation-supporting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in our history."

Market Dynamics

By the closing bell, the Dow fell 99.27 points, a decrease of 0.22%, to 44,148.56 points; the Nasdaq rose 347.65 points, an increase of 1.77%, to 20,034.89 points; and the S&P 500 Index increased by 49.28 points, or 0.82%, to 6,084.19 points.

Among the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 Index, the Communications Services Sector rose 3.08%, the Financial Sector increased by 0.26%, the Medical Care Sector fell by 1.3%, and the Information Technology Sector rose by 1.5%.

Most of the industry's ETFs in the US stock market closed higher, with the Penghua Guozheng Semiconductor Chip ETF rising by 2.45%, the Internet Stocks Index ETF increasing by over 2%, the Global Aviation Industry ETF, GF CSI All-Share Index Consumer Discretionary ETF, Technology Industry ETF, and Global Technology Stocks Index ETF rising between 1.81% and 1.17%, while the Medical Industry ETF closed down by 1.36%.

Performance of Popular Stocks

Large Technology Stocks rose broadly, with Tesla, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Netflix all hitting historic highs. Among them, Tesla rose 5.93%, Google rose 5.52%, Amazon rose 2.32%, Meta rose 2.16%, and Netflix rose 2.54%. Additionally, NVIDIA rose 3.14%, Microsoft rose 1.28%, and Apple fell 0.52%.

Bitcoin has risen back above $0.1 million, with Concept Stocks in the Cryptos sector soaring collectively. MicroStrategy rose over 9%, Riot Platforms soared over 6%, and Bit Digital and Coinbase rose nearly 4%.

Gold and silver mining stocks rose broadly, with Coeur Mining rising over 5%, Pan American Silver rising over 3%, and Harmony Gold Mining and Hecla Mining rising nearly 3%.

Video game retailer GameStop's stock price rose 7.5% after the company reported profitability in the third quarter due to cost-saving measures.

Medical insurance companies, including The Cigna Group, CVS Health, and UnitedHealth, saw stock prices drop over 5% after U.S. lawmakers proposed legislation discussing whether to require medical insurance companies to sell their pharmacy businesses, which is believed to harm these companies' profits.

The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closed down 0.74%, with most popular China Concept Stocks declining. Tencent Music fell over 5%, JD.com fell over 3%, Xpeng Motors fell over 2%, Bilibili, NIO, and PDD Holdings fell over 1%. On the gainers' side, Tiger Securities rose over 3%, Youdao and Gaotu Techedu rose over 1%.

Company news

[News reports that Apple is collaborating with Broadcom to develop AI Chips.]

According to reports from Technology media, a person with direct knowledge of the project revealed that $Apple (AAPL.US)$ is developing a server chip designed specifically for AI and is collaborating with $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$ to develop the network technology for this chip. The new chip from Apple is internally codenamed "Baltra" and is expected to enter mass production in 2026. Analysts point out that this reflects Apple's longstanding position of avoiding purchasing chips from NVIDIA, which currently dominates the AI Chip market.

[Apple's iPhone SE 4 is reportedly set to be released around March next year, featuring its own modem.]

The Apple iPhone SE 4 is reportedly set to be officially released around March next year, possibly bringing a significant upgrade to the SE series. The new device will adopt a notch screen design, introduce Face ID, remove the Home button with Touch ID, but will not include the Dynamic Island feature. According to Gurman, Apple has designed a new modem codenamed Sinope, which integrates seamlessly with its other components. This design not only saves space but also reduces power consumption. Compared to the Qualcomm modem currently used by Apple, Sinope still has a significant gap, as its chip performance is inferior to Qualcomm. For example, Sinope only supports the Sub-6 GHz 5G band and does not support millimeter wave (mmWave). Although the performance of the related modem is not as good as Qualcomm’s, Gurman believes that the biggest advantage of Apple’s self-developed solution lies in reducing dependence on Qualcomm, thereby saving licensing fees.

[Google launches the next generation AI model Gemini 2.0.]

Google launched its next-generation important AI model Gemini 2.0 Flash on Wednesday, which can natively generate images and audio while also supporting text generation. 2.0 Flash is also capable of using third-party applications and services, enabling access to Google Search, execution of code, and other functions. Starting Wednesday, the experimental version of 2.0 Flash will be available through the Gemini API and Google's AI development platform (AI Studio and Vertex AI). However, the audio and image generation features are only open to 'early access partners' and are planned for full launch in January next year.

[Musk becomes the first person in the world with a net worth exceeding 400 billion USD]

Musk has become the first person to reach a net worth of 400 billion USD, breaking the world's richest milestone. The recent catalyst was the internal stock sale transaction of SpaceX, which increased Musk's net worth by approximately 50 billion USD to 439.2 billion USD. At the end of 2022, Musk's net worth briefly declined by over 200 billion USD, but after Trump won the election last month, Musk, as his main backer, saw his wealth soar. On Wednesday, SpaceX and its investors agreed to purchase a total of 1.25 billion USD worth of stock from employees and other company insiders. This transaction values the private space exploration company at approximately 350 billion USD, making SpaceX the most valuable private startup globally.

[Adobe's 2025 revenue outlook falls short of expectations]

$Adobe (ADBE.US)$ Fourth-quarter revenue was 5.61 billion USD, expected to be 5.54 billion USD; fourth-quarter adjusted EPS was 4.81 USD, expected 4.67 USD; projected 2025 revenue is 23.3-23.55 billion USD, analysts expect 23.78 billion USD. Adobe's stock fell over 5% in Post-Market Trading.

Editor/rice