News from the Financial Associated Press on April 7 (edited by Niu Zhanlin)U.S. stocks opened lower and moved higher on Thursday Eastern Time, with all three major indexes closing slightly higher. It is worth noting that Thursday is the last trading day for US stocks this week, and Friday is Good Friday. the health of the economy.
Big tech stocks led gains after St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he did not think tighter credit conditions stemming from recent banking turmoil would tip the economy into a recession, noting that demand for loans remained strong. This brought some optimism to the market, pushing stock indexes higher in volatility.
Investors focused on the latest signs of a slowdown in the U.S. economy after a series of economic data suggested the U.S. economy was under increasing pressure. On Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the number of initial jobless claims last week was 228,000, and the previous value was revised up from 198,000 to 246,000. The number of continuing jobless claims also rose significantly, indicating that the labor market deterioration.
Former Merrill Lynch trader Tom Essaye said a “too hot” non-farm payrolls report would undermine expectations for a rate cut, while a “too cold” jobs report would exacerbate recession fears as investors have aggressively priced in rate cuts this year. Therefore, Essaye pointed out that in order to maintain the recent gains, we need a ‘just right’ employment data, otherwise we should brace ourselves for more volatility.
On the same day, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that as banks tighten credit, the US economy has become more likely to fall into recession. In an interview with the media, he said that the turmoil in the banking industry will not necessarily force a recession, but it has created the conditions for a recession.
Market Dynamics
As of the close, the Dow rose 2.57 points, or 0.01%, to 33485.29; the Nasdaq rose 91.09 points, or 0.76%, to 12087.96; the S&P 500 rose 14.64 points, or 0.36%, to 4105.02.
Most of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 Index closed up. Among them, the telecommunications sector led the way with a rise of 1.71%, utilities, real estate, and information technology/technology sectors rose up to 0.74%, the financial sector rose 0.31%, and the industrial sector closed down less than 0.1%. , the raw materials sector fell more than 0.2%, and the energy sector fell 1.47% to perform the worst.
Most of the ETFs in the U.S. stock industry closed up. The regional bank ETF, which had been under continuous pressure before, rebounded 1.48% and led the way. The biotechnology index ETF rose 1.19%, the banking industry ETF rose 1.17%, the public utility ETF rose 0.71%, and the Internet stock index ETF rose 0.56%. The technology sector ETF rose 0.55%. Only the energy industry ETF fell 1.52% dragged down by the sharp drop in natural gas prices.
Performance of popular stocks
Most of the large technology stocks rose, Google rose 3.77%, hitting a closing high since September 2022, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he plans to add artificial intelligence (AI) dialogue functions to the search engine; Meta, Microsoft rose More than 2%, Apple and Amazon rose slightly; Netflix fell slightly.
The Biden administration is about to introduce the most stringent car pollution restrictions in the history of the United States, which will narrow the decline in the new energy vehicle sector. Nikola rose 4.3%, Tesla closed down 0.25%, and Lucid Group closed flat.
AI concept stocks generally rebounded. SoundHound AI rose more than 15%, BigBear.ai rose more than 14%, and C3.ai rose more than 8%.
Most of the semiconductor sector fell, Nvidia rose 0.58%, Qualcomm fell 0.03%, AMD fell 0.1%, ASML fell 1.02%, and Intel fell 0.06%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 1.47%, and fell 3.20% this week. Alibaba rose by more than 4%, Vipshop rose by more than 3%, Li Auto and Xiaopeng Motors rose by more than 2%, Futu Holdings, Manbang, Bilibili, Netease, and iQiyi rose by more than 1%, JD.com, Weibo, Weilai, Baidu, and Tencent Music rose slightly. Pinduoduo fell slightly.
company news
【Boeing will increase production of 737 series aircraft to increase cash flow】
Boeing plans to ramp up production of its 737 family of planes to 38 a month by the middle of the year, months earlier than analysts had predicted, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. planemaker has been briefing its customers on plans to ramp up production of the 737 family of planes in the coming months, while also hiring and training staff to ramp up production, the person said. Speeding up the manufacturing and delivery of the 737 Max could allow Boeing to reach its goal of $10 billion in annual free cash flow by 2025 or 2026 without ceding market share to rival Airbus.
【Wal-Mart builds electric vehicle charging network across borders】
Walmart announced on Thursday that it plans to set up new electric vehicle (EV) fast charging stations in Walmart stores and Sam’s Club stores across the United States. By 2030, Walmart’s EV fast charging network will cover thousands of stores across the United States. This would be a massive expansion of Walmart’s EV charging network. Because Walmart pointed out in a statement on Thursday that it has nearly 1,300 EV fast charging stations in more than 280 stores. The following is the rendering of the charging station in the store displayed in the statement.
[Disney names Asad Ayaz as the company’s first chief brand officer]
Disney has named Asad Ayaz as the company’s first chief brand officer, effective immediately. Reporting to company CEO Iger, the newly created position will be responsible for “elevating the Disney brand globally across the company’s entire ecosystem of touchpoints and consumer experiences.” Ayaz will also continue as president of marketing, a position he has held since 2018 and report to Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. It is reported that Ayaz has worked in this company for 18 years.
[Costco’s U.S. sales growth rate fell to the lowest in nearly three years]
Costco said in a statement Wednesday that U.S. comparable sales rose just 0.9% in March, the smallest gain in three years, after excluding the impact of changes in gasoline prices. Based on longer-term trends, Costco’s results may rebound in April, and the retailer’s long-term outlook remains promising, Evercore ISI analyst Greg Melich said in a note to clients on Thursday.
[Microsoft has integrated the “text to image” function into the browser]
Technology giant Microsoft has integrated functionality from a trial version of the Bing Image Creator into the sidebar of Microsoft Edge, an executive at tech giant said on Wednesday. Mikhail Parakhin, CEO of the company’s advertising and web services division, said on social media that with the help of the new feature, “users can insert the generated image directly into any content they are editing.” On the sidebar of the editor, there is an icon similar to “Drawing”. After entering “Vinyage” and “Computer”, four pictures of very old computers are displayed, and the user can insert the pictures into the content of the mail.