As the US inflation issue seems to be easing at a slow and stable pace, the three major US stock indexes rose last night and this morning, with the Nasdaq reaching a historic closing high. The S&P 500 index also saw a slight increase, hitting a historic closing high for the 14th time this year.
Krishna Guha, Vice Chairman of Evercore Investments, interpreted that the PCE report can only be said to have "no new bad news" in terms of inflation dynamics, and June remains the first choice for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
As for whether the Federal Reserve officials led by Powell have loosened their stance at present? Next week, Powell will attend monetary policy hearings in both houses of Congress, during which the Federal Reserve Chairman will have ample time to articulate his views.
It is worth mentioning that although Dell continued its AI glory after Thursday's trading in the US stock market, there were also bearish news from New York Community Bank's "another thunderstorm" and SoundSound AI's financial reports falling short of expectations. These stocks will also be closely monitored in Friday's trading.
In terms of commodities, due to the significant increase in US bond yields in February, the overall performance of base metals and agricultural futures was weak. Of course, when it comes to price increases alone, there is no benchmark that can be compared to alternative asset Bitcoin.
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Microsoft launches financial AI chatbot
Microsoft released a Copilot for finance on Thursday, providing AI support for finance and industry professionals. Previously, Microsoft had launched AI chatbots for sales and customer service personnel. Microsoft stated that each member of a financial planning and analysis team consisting of thousands of people spends one to two hours a week reconciling accounts, while with the new Copilot, this process only takes 10 to 20 minutes.
India's GDP unexpectedly accelerated to 8.4% in the fourth quarter
According to data released by the Indian Ministry of Statistics on Thursday, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, far exceeding market expectations of 6.6%. The revised growth in the previous quarter was 8.1%. For the entire fiscal year ending in March, the country's statistics department has raised its growth forecast from 7.3% to 7.6%.
Trump is accused of sudden dilution of equity, and concept stocks plummet
As of Thursday's close, Trump's concept stock, Digital World Acquisition Company (DWAC), plummeted by 8.86%. On the news front, Trump Media Technology Group, which is about to merge with the company, is embroiled in a shareholder dispute. United Atlantic Ventures, which holds 8.6% of the shares, accused Trump of attempting to dilute his equity before going public on the US stock market, causing their equity to fall below 1%.
[Zuckerberg's Asian Tour Meets with Japanese and South Korean Leaders One after Another to Discuss Industries such as AI and XR]
According to a statement released by the Office of the President of South Korea, President Yoon Seok yeol met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Presidential Palace in Seoul on Thursday. Both sides discussed their vision for an open AI digital ecosystem and ways to strengthen cooperation between Meta and Korean companies. Prior to this, Zuckerberg also met with the management of Samsung and LG to discuss cooperation in the fields of artificial intelligence chips, semiconductors, and XR.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zuckerberg was also invited to visit the Prime Minister's residence in Tokyo. According to NHK, Zuckerberg had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for about 30 minutes, and the two sides exchanged views on the risks of generative artificial intelligence.
[Intel Reboots Altera Name to Challenge IPO with AI Dongfeng]
Intel announced on Thursday that it has officially named its newly independent Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) group Altera. This also means that in the coming years, this semiconductor industry veteran who has taken advantage of the AI trend is expected to return to the US stock market. In 2015, Intel spent $16.7 billion to acquire Altera, which is also the company's largest acquisition transaction to date. Altera's CEO Sandra Rivera stated that the company is targeting opportunities between ASIC and GPU chips, and this market will continue to grow as artificial intelligence hardware continues to evolve.
[Microsoft, Nvidia, and others invest in humanoid robot companies Figure]
On Thursday local time, humanoid robot startup Figure announced that it has raised approximately $675 million in funds from giants such as Amazon founders Bezos, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Microsoft, bringing its valuation to $2.6 billion. As part of the agreement, Figure will also collaborate with OpenAI to develop an AI model for the next generation of humanoid robots, and will use Microsoft's Azure cloud services to build artificial intelligence infrastructure and store data.
[Significant deficiencies in internal control: New York Community Bank's significant impairment of goodwill and CEO turnover]
Due to issues with the loan review process, New York Community Bank (NYCB. N) wrote down $2.4 billion in goodwill. The bank stated in the document that "management has identified significant deficiencies in internal controls related to internal loan reviews, which are due to ineffective supervision, risk assessment, and monitoring activities." On Thursday evening, the bank announced that a new leadership has been appointed to address the current volatile situation. Alessandro DiNello will replace Thomas Cagemi as CEO. The bank also stated that due to strengthening internal controls, more time is needed to submit its annual report to regulatory authorities.