Intel is a blockbuster.
On Friday, September 20, local time, the three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed. At the close, the Dow rose 0.09% to hit another all-time high, the Nasdaq fell 0.36%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.19%.
On the news front, Fed Governors Waller and Bowman expressed different views on interest rate policy.
Intel's stock price rose sharply in late trading and triggered a trading halt at one point, and Qualcomm reportedly recently approached Intel to discuss the acquisition.
The Dow Jones and gold hit new highs
On September 20, local time, the three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed. At the close, the Dow rose 38.17 points, or 0.09 percent, to 42,063.36, another all-time high, the Nasdaq fell 65.66 points, or 0.36 percent, to 17,948.32, and the S&P 500 fell 11.09 points, or 0.19 percent, to 5,702.55.
Friday is the so-called "Three Witch Day", when a large number of derivatives contracts related to stocks, index options and futures will expire in a concentrated manner, so the index has experienced wild swings in late trading.
On the news side, two Fed officials expressed different views on the expected interest rate policy. Fed Governor Waller said favorable inflation data persuaded him to support the Fed's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point this week. United States inflation is falling faster than he expected, so the Fed has more room to ease as it pivots to support a weak labor market. His speech reinforced expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates by 50 basis points at its November meeting.
Subsequently, Fed Governor Bowman noted that she is not in favor of a 50 basis point rate cut by the Fed this week, preferring instead a 25 basis point cut to move towards a more neutral policy stance at a prudent pace.
Currently, CME Group's FedWatch tool shows a more than 50% chance of another 50 basis point rate cut in November.
(Source: CME FedWatch Tools)
JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon said he remains skeptical about a soft landing for the economy after the Fed cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years. "I'm more skeptical than anyone else, I think a soft landing is less likely, and I certainly hope that a soft landing will actually happen, but I'm more skeptical that inflation will go away so easily, not because it's not coming down, but whether it can go down more," he said at the Atlantic Festival event in Washington on Friday. ”
Michael ·Hartnet, strategist at United States Bank, believes that optimism in the stock market after the Fed cut interest rates has exacerbated bubble risks, making bonds and gold attractive hedges against recessions or a new round of inflation. According to the strategist, the stock market is now pricing in further easing by the Fed and expectations of an increase in earnings from the S&P 500 by about 18% by the end of 2025.
In other markets, Treasury yields closed up collectively, with the 2-year Treasury yield up 1.4 basis points at 3.604%, the 3-year Treasury yield up 1.3 basis points at 3.488%, the 5-year Treasury yield up 1.7 basis points at 3.502%, the 10-year Treasury yield up 2.8 basis points at 3.744%, and the 30-year Treasury yield up 3.5 basis points at 4.085%.
London gold futures and COMEX gold futures continued to hit new highs. London gold is up 1.36% at $2,621.740 an ounce, up 1.71% for the week. COMEX gold futures rose 1.24% to $2,647.1 an ounce, up 1.39% for the week. London silver is up 1.29% at $31.168 an ounce, up 1.49% for the week. COMEX silver futures rose 0.23% to $31.495 an ounce, up 1.35% for the week.
International oil prices fell. By the end of the day, the price of light crude oil futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3 cents, or 0.04%, to close at $71.92 a barrel; London Brent crude futures for November delivery fell 39 cents, or 0.52 percent, to settle at $74.49 a barrel.
Intel's intraday rally triggered a trading halt
In terms of sectors, the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 Index rose 3 and fell 8. Among them, the communication services sector and the utilities sector led the gains, with increases of 2.34% and 2.69% respectively. The industrial sector and the materials sector were the top decliners, falling by 0.69% and 0.64% respectively.
Popular tech stocks were mixed. Supermicro computer rose more than 4%, Intel rose more than 3%, Broadcom rose more than 2%, Micron Technology, Cisco rose more than 1%, Amazon, Google A, Meta, Oracle rose slightly, Apple, Netflix, Chaowei Semiconductor, Microsoft fell slightly, Arm, TSMC, Nvidia fell more than 1%, Texas Instruments, Tesla, Qualcomm fell more than 2%, and ASML fell nearly 4%.
Intel rose 3.31% and Qualcomm fell 2.87%. Intel rose in a straight line at the end of the session, up 5.87%, once triggering a suspension of trading, and then expanded to more than 8%, as of the close, the increase narrowed to 3.31%.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Qualcomm recently launched a takeover offer for Intel Corp. The report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that although the success of the deal is uncertain, Intel is open to Qualcomm's offer, but a deal of this size will also cause antitrust scrutiny. To complete the transaction, Qualcomm may consider selling some of Intel's assets or business.
Intel has been trying to reverse the decline by focusing on its chip foundry unit and artificial intelligence processors, but its shares have fallen sharply in recent months due to layoffs, a suspension of dividends and the resignation of a high-profile board member. Intel shares have fallen 57% this year, making it the worst-performing stock on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Although Intel once dominated the chip industry, it has struggled to maintain its advantage in the era of artificial intelligence, lagging behind chip giants including Nvidia, Chaowei Semiconductor and TSMC.
Tesla fell 2.32%. United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Friday that it plans to seek sanctions against Elon ·Musk for failing to appear in his court-ordered testimony into his investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now renamed X. The S.E.C. said in a court filing that it was seen disrespectful to the court to ask Musk to explain why he did not show up three hours before the testimony scheduled for Sept. 10. Musk's lawyers called the sanctions "extreme" and unnecessary, and said his testimony had been rescheduled for Oct. 3. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.
Google A rose 0.89%. Google is expected to be hit by another blow from EU regulators, and if the company does not act quickly to give competitors more room to grow, it could face a hefty fine and be ordered to change its business model. EU officials are preparing a formal statement of charges against Google under the Digital Markets Act, mainly about how Google displays competitors' product results across different search services, such as Google Flights and Google Hotels. If it doesn't comply, Google could face heavy fines of up to 10% of its annual global revenue. The EU's preliminary findings are likely to be released before the end of October, and Google still has time to allay concerns from EU authorities in light of the upcoming reshuffle at the top of the European Commission, which could be delayed, according to people familiar with the matter. The final verdict on the case will be made before the end of March next year.
Nvidia fell 1.59%. Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence company G42 Group announced on its website on Friday that it is working with United States chip giant Nvidia to create a climate technology lab, which is also the first cooperation between the two companies. According to the G42 website, the focus of the collaboration is on developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that can dramatically improve the accuracy of global weather forecasts. The research will be based on NVIDIA's open platform, Earth-2, which accelerates climate and weather predictions through interactive, AI-enhanced, high-resolution simulations. According to NVIDIA's official website, climate scientists can access generative AI-based models through Earth-2's AI service, which can sample distributions thousands of times to generate large-scale collections of practical, high-resolution predictions.
Financial stocks fell more than they rose. UBS, Bank of United States, Citigroup, Regional Finance, Goldman Sachs fell more than 1%, United Bank of United States fell nearly 1%, BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Capital One Financial, United States International, Visa, Mastercard fell slightly, United States, JPMorgan Chase, Travelers Insurance, Wells Fargo rose slightly, Morgan Stanley rose nearly 1%, and Mizuho Financial rose nearly 3%.
Bank of United States fell 1.47%. Warren · Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway recently started another sell-off on United States bank stocks. Berkshire sold $896 million worth of shares in three trading days from Sept. 17 to Sept. 19, reducing its stake in the big bank to $33.66 billion, or 10.8 percent, according to Berkshire Hathaway's latest filing with the United States SEC. Excluding tax implications, Buffett's total proceeds from selling BofA shares since mid-July, plus dividends since 2011, have exceeded the $14.6 billion he spent on BofA shares. This means that Berkshire's current holdings of $33.66 billion worth of shares will be Berkshire's net profit.
Energy stocks mostly fell. Brazil Petroleum, Apache Oil, Murphy Oil fell more than 1%, Schlumberger, Occidental Petroleum, Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, United Kingdom Oil, Imperial Oil, United States Energy fell slightly, Marathon Oil, Chevron rose slightly, and Duke Energy rose more than 1%.
Most of the popular Chinese concept stocks closed down, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index falling 0.60% and rising 3.90% for the week. Futu Holdings fell more than 3%, Weilai fell more than 2%, iQiyi, Weibo, Vipshop, and Full Bang fell more than 1%, Baidu, NetEase, Tencent Music, JD.com, Alibaba, and Pinduoduo fell slightly, Huya closed flat, New Oriental and Bilibili rose slightly, Li Auto rose more than 1%, Xiaopeng Motors rose more than 2%, and Douyu rose more than 3%.
Source: Securities Times
Editor: Xiaoya