Zhitong Finance and Economics learned that the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq hit a record high on Friday, and technology stocks continued to be sought after due to artificial intelligence, and the decline in U.S. Treasury yields also provided further support for technology stocks.
[U.S. stocks].As of **, the Dow Jones is up 9099 points, an increase of 023% at 3908738 points; The Nasdaq rose 18302 points, an increase of 114% at 1627494 points; The S&P 500 rose 4081 points, an increase of 080% at 513708 o'clock. Most of the popular technology stocks**, Broadcom (**go.).US) rose more than 7%, and AMD (AMDUS) rose more than 5%, and Nvidia (NVDAUS) rose nearly 4%, and Qualcomm (QCOMUS) rose more than 3%, and Meta (MetaUS) rose more than 2%.
This week's Dow Jones has accumulated **011%, S&P 500**095%, NASDAQ**174%。On Friday, the S&P 500 peaked at 5140At 33 points, the Nasdaq peaked at 1630224 points, both hit intraday record highs.
[European stocks].The main index of European stocks**, Germany's DAX30 index rose 032%, the British FTSE 100 index rose 069%, the French CAC40 index rose 009%, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 035%。
[Asia-Pacific**].Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index fell 006%, Vietnam's VN30 index rose 01%, Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 019%。
CryptocurrencyBitcoin rose more than 2% to $62,417; Ethereum rose more than 27% at 3433$81.
comex*** rose 180% at 2091$60 oz; comex*** rose 201% to 23$345.
WTI*** rose 198% to 79$81 barrel; Brent *** up 178% at 83$37.
[Metal].Most of the London metals closed higher, and London nickel fell 071%；London aluminum rose 054%, London copper rose 037%, London zinc rose 021%。
[Macro news].
U.S. consumer confidence fell in February for the first time in three months. U.S. consumer confidence fell for the first time in three months in February, reflecting a deterioration in current and expected views of the economy. The final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 76 in February from 79 in January9。Despite the decline in market sentiment, market sentiment has largely improved over the past two years as inflation has come back down and the economy has not been damaged much. In addition, the outlook for consumers tends to be sensitive to changes in gasoline, which was significantly higher in the previous month. "Since the start of the new year, consumers have seen little change in economic conditions, and they seem confident that inflation will continue on a good trajectory," Joanne Hsu, the head of the investigation, said in a statement. ”
U.S. factory activity contracted at an accelerated pace in February. A measure of U.S. factory activity shrank at a faster pace in February, with orders, output and employment all shrinking, suggesting that the manufacturing sector is struggling to find momentum. Data released on Friday showed that the ISM manufacturing PMI in the United States in February was 1 from a 15-month high in January3 o'clock, to 478. Lower than market expectations. The new orders index softened demand in February after posting its biggest monthly increase in more than three years. Both the output and employment indices fell to their lowest levels since July last year. The latest data frustrated U.S. purchasing and management executives, who have been optimistic that the manufacturing sector, which has been in contraction since late 2022, is on the verge of expansion. ISM data also showed that factory inventories contracted faster last month than at the beginning of the year, suggesting that corporate inventories remained at a low level.
Fed's semi-annual monetary policy report: inflation has slowed "significantly", but remains 2% above target. The Federal Reserve released its semi-annual monetary policy report on Friday. The report shows that employment and income disparities have narrowed by gender, race, ethnicity and educational attainment due to strong labour demand, but large disparities between different groups remain. The Fed said inflation had slowed "significantly" but remained above target by 2%. While demand for labour has eased, the labour market remains "relatively tight". The Fed also said that the banking system is sound and resilient, but that last year's bank failures have put sharp pressure and that there are still several areas of risk that should be monitored.
Bank of America: U.S. debt increases by $1 trillion every 100 days, which is good for assets such as bitcoin. Bank of America strategists say that U.S. liabilities are increasing by $1 trillion every 100 days, which helps explain why assets such as Bitcoin are close to all-time highs. Strategists, led by Michael Hartnett, said in a note on Friday that the pace of debt inflation is also accelerating. They estimate that it will take only 95 days to go from $34 trillion to $35 trillion. According to BofA, the consequence for the market is that with **and bitcoin in the near future**, transactions related to "bond depreciation" prove attractive. The increase in debt is due to economic stimulus to fight the pandemic and recession, as well as funding for wars abroad, with budget deficits equivalent to 9 percent of gross domestic product over the past four years, the report said3%。In a note this week, PIMCO warned that fiscal profligacy risks returning the U.S. bond market to where it was in the 1980s. "There is a good chance that the deficit will continue to increase," PIMCO warned.
Apollo analysts: The Fed will not cut interest rates in 2024. Torsten Sloks, chief economist at Apollo Management, said the re-acceleration of the U.S. economy, coupled with a rise in underlying inflation, would prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates in 2024. "The Fed will fight inflation for most of 2024," SLOKS said Friday. He noted that after the Fed pivoted to a looser monetary policy in December, U.S. economic growth expectations "jumped sharply" and financial conditions eased, and the Fed will remain on hold this year. He also pointed to a tight labor market and stable wage inflation, while manufacturing, services and leasing data are also trending upward. "Heading into 2024, the market is expecting six rate cuts from the Fed, and the reality is that the U.S. economy is not slowing down at all. ”
[**Message].
US press: Boeing (BA.).US) in talks to acquire the embattled leader Spirit Aerosystems. Boeing is reportedly in talks to acquire Spirit Aerosystems, an air structure company. The company, a troubled airframe vendor spun off from Boeing two decades ago, has been at the center of quality issues affecting the 737 MAX jet. Spirit has hired bankers to explore strategic options and has held preliminary discussions with its former employer, according to people familiar with the matter. There is a chance that no agreement will be reached in the negotiations. The company is also exploring a business in Ireland**, which produces parts for Boeing's main rival, Airbus. Spirit Aerosystems, which has a market capitalization of about $3.3 billion, has been closely watched for manufacturing issues that have affected Boeing's production. Last fall, the company ousted its chief executive and hired a former Boeing executive to run it.
Musk sues OpenAI and its CEO Ultraman. On Thursday evening local time, Tesla (TSLAUS) CEO Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco Superior Court for breach of contract. Musk said in the lawsuit that Altman and OpenAI violated an agreement reached when the AI research company was founded to develop technology for the benefit of humanity rather than profit. Musk claims that OpenAI's recent relationship with tech giant Microsoft has damaged the company's initial commitment to public, open-source artificial general intelligence.
Li Auto (LiUS): Invest at least 6 billion yuan in the next few years to build 5C supercharging stations. Li Auto's 2024 spring press conference was held. At the event, Li Xiang, founder and chairman of Li Auto, revealed that in the next few years, Li Auto will invest at least 6 billion yuan to build more than 5,000 directly-operated 5C supercharging stations, so that the ideal 5C supercharging stations can cover 95% of the country's high-speed and important national highways, and urban charging stations using the franchise model will also be implemented on a large scale in 2024.
New York Community Bank (NYCB.)US): Loan reserves have taken into account significant deficiencies and do not need to be provided for more. The New York Community Bank said its disclosure of "material deficiencies" in its approach to risk tracking did not require additional provisions for loan losses. "Our provision for credit losses takes these deficiencies into account and is not expected to be adjusted," Alessandro Dinello, who succeeded Thomas Cangemi as chief executive this week, said in a statement Friday. On Friday, the bank also appointed George FBuchanan is Chief Risk Officer and Colleen McCullum is Chief Audit Officer. The executives' predecessors left in the months before the bank slashed dividend payouts in late January and made massive loan loss provisions, triggering a crisis that caused its stock price**.