News from the Financial Associated Press on January 18 (edited by Xia Junxiong)On Tuesday, Eastern Time, the three major indexes were mixed. Only the Nasdaq closed up slightly, and the Dow fell more than 1%.
(The Dow fell more than 1%, source: Yingwei Finance) As of the close, the Dow Jones index fell 1.14% to 33,910.85 points; the S&P 500 index fell 0.20% to 3,990.97 points; the Nasdaq index rose 0.14% to 3,990.97 points; 11,095.11 points.
Goldman Sachs shares fell 6.44% on Tuesday. The bank’s Q4 earnings fell short of market expectations, and its net profit fell by more than 60% year-on-year. Its performance was pressured by the decline in investment banking and asset management revenue. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley rose 5.91% on Tuesday after reporting better-than-expected results thanks to record wealth management revenue.
So far this year, the Nasdaq has risen 6.01%, leading the three major indexes, with the S&P 500 and the Dow up 3.95% and 2.30%, respectively. Investors have piled into tech stocks that have been battered last year, signaling growing optimism for an improving outlook for growth stocks.
Market performance this year suggests some investors are not convinced a deep recession is imminent. Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Golub said the chances of a recession are lower than people think, inflation is slowing, earnings are growing, wages are rising and consumer spending remains strong.
Performance of popular stocks
Most of the large technology stocks fell, Apple rose 0.88%, Amazon fell 2.11%, Meta fell 1.18%, Google fell 0.90%, Microsoft rose 0.47%, and Netflix fell 1.98%.
New energy auto stocks were mixed, Tesla rose 7.43%, Workhorse rose 4.93%, Rivian rose 2.92%, Lordstown rose 2.61%, Nikola rose 1.96%, Weilai Auto fell 3.31%, Xiaopeng Motors fell 6.31%, Ideal Auto fell 2.80%, Faraday Future fell 5.80%, and Lucid fell 1.23%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally fell, Alibaba fell 1.56%, JD.com fell 5.72%, Pinduoduo fell 2.22%, Bilibili fell 5.11%, Baidu fell 6.02%, New Oriental fell 11.98%, Netease rose 0.79, Tencent Music fell 5.56% %, iQiyi fell 16.44%.
company news
[Microsoft is said to be laying off more than 10,000 employees and reducing recruitment by 1/3]
According to multiple media sources, Microsoft plans to lay off more than 10,000 employees, and may reduce the size of recruiters by as much as 1/3.
It is reported that Microsoft may announce a worldwide layoff plan within a few days, and the company is considering cutting about 5% of its workforce. According to filing documents, as of June 30 last year, Microsoft had 221,000 employees worldwide, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 overseas. A 5% layoff ratio means that about 11,000 Microsoft employees will lose their jobs.
In addition, there is news that Microsoft plans to lay off some engineering departments on Wednesday, but the exact scale of the layoffs is not yet clear.
People familiar with the matter said that Microsoft may cut the size of its recruiting staff by as much as a third. Given that many of Microsoft’s teams have frozen hiring, it is expected that it may take one to two years for the company to return to the same recruitment scale as before the freeze began.
【Apple releases new MacBook Pro and Mac Mini】
Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new MacBook Pro with a new M2 chip and a new Mac mini with the M2 and M2 Pro. Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro will start at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro will start at $2,499. The Mac mini starts at $599.
[Netease responds to the collapse of cooperation talks with Blizzard: Unable to accept unequal cooperation conditions and did not seek IP control]
On Tuesday night, NetEase responded to a reporter from the “Kechuangban Daily” that, for unknown reasons, last week Blizzard sought NetEase again, and proposed the so-called six-month extension of the game service and other conditions, and clearly stated that in the contract Negotiations with other potential partners will not be stopped during the continuation period. According to NetEase’s understanding, all negotiations between Blizzard and other companies during the same period were based on a three-year contract period. Considering the unequal, unfair and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two parties failed to reach an agreement in the end.
[Tesla rose more than 7%, the largest single-day increase since December last year]
Tesla closed up 7.43% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day gain since December 2022, on news that Tesla, BYD and Hyundai Motor are finalizing an investment agreement in Indonesia.
[iQiyi plummeted by more than 16%]
iQiyi closed down 16.44% on Tuesday. The company announced before the market that it plans to issue 76.5 million ADSs at $5.90 per share. Net proceeds from the offering of American depositary shares are expected to be $442.3 million.
[United’s fourth-quarter adjusted EPS was $2.46 analysts expected $2.12]
United’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share were $2.46, analysts expected $2.12; first-quarter adjusted earnings per share were expected to be $0.50 to $1.00, analysts expected $0.22; adjusted capital expenditures were expected to be $8.5 billion in 2023 , analysts expected $8.25 billion; operating income in the fourth quarter was $12.40 billion, analysts expected $12.23 billion.