Pay attention to the overnight financial market situation.
On Wednesday, November 27th local time, the three major US stock indexes collectively closed down. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.31%, the Nasdaq fell 0.60%, and the S&P 500 index fell 0.38%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index up 2.82%. Chinese autonomous driving company Xiaoma Zhixing officially landed on NASDAQ, with a high opening and low closing on its first day of trading, rising over 19% at one point and closing down nearly 8%.
In terms of economic data, the number of first-time jobless claims in the United States last week was 213000, with an estimated 215000, and the previous value was revised from 213000 to 215000. The core PCE price index in the United States increased by 2.8% year-on-year in October, with an estimated 2.8%, compared to the previous value of 2.7%. The core PCE price index in the United States increased by 0.3% month on month in October, estimated at 0.3%, compared to the previous value of 0.3%.
On the news front, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, involving areas such as cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity products, and artificial intelligence products.
Bitcoin has rebounded significantly, breaking through the $97000 mark at one point during trading. Cryptocurrency concept stocks have strengthened, with Bit Digital up over 18%, Riot Platforms up nearly 11%, MicroStrategy up nearly 10%, and Coinbase up over 6%.
S&P ends consecutive gains, inflation data still has' stickiness'
On Wednesday, November 27th local time, the three major US stock indexes collectively closed down. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 138.25 points, or 0.31%, to 44722.06 points; The Nasdaq fell 115.10 points, or 0.59%, to 19060.48 points; The S&P 500 index fell 22.89 points, or 0.38%, to 5998.74 points.
Bitcoin rebounded, briefly breaking through the $97000 mark during trading. Cryptocurrency concept stocks strengthened, with Bit Digital up over 18%, Riot Platforms up nearly 11%, MicroStrategy up nearly 10%, and Coinbase up over 6%.
In terms of economic data, the latest data released by the US Department of Labor shows that 213000 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time in the week of November 23, lower than the expected 215000 people. The previous value was revised from 213000 to 215000.
However, the number of people who continued to apply for unemployment benefits rose to 1.907 million in the week of November 16, the highest level since November 2021, slightly lower than the expected 1.908 million. This number indicates that the difficulty of re employment for some unemployed individuals has increased in the current economic environment. The unadjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 1.1%, while the number of first-time applicants increased by 13.6% year-on-year.
The core PCE price index in the United States increased by 2.8% year-on-year in October, with an estimated 2.8%, compared to the previous value of 2.7%. The core PCE price index in the United States increased by 0.3% month on month in October, estimated at 0.3%, compared to the previous value of 0.3%.
The data shows that the Federal Reserve's preferred potential inflation indicator has rebounded. Although consistent with expectations, the core PCE price index rose by 2.8% year-on-year, the largest increase since April 2024. These data support the recent statements of many Federal Reserve officials that as long as the labor market remains healthy and the United States continues to grow strongly, there is no need to rush to cut interest rates. The minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting released yesterday also showed that officials are satisfied with the pace of inflation and are confident that the employment situation remains quite stable. Members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) have stated that there may be further interest rate cuts, but have not specified when or how much.
Quincy Crosby of LPL Financial, a financial services company, said, "Inflation still has' stickiness' and the road is bumpy, delaying the time to reach final expectations
In other markets, the US dollar index fell 0.86% that day and closed at 106.084 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the New York currency market, 1 euro was exchanged for 1.0563 US dollars, higher than the previous trading day's 1.0473 US dollars; 1 pound is exchanged for 1.2673 US dollars, higher than the previous trading day's 1.2546 US dollars.
Oil prices have almost closed flat. As of the close of the day, the price of light crude oil futures for January 2025 delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 5 cents, closing at $68.72 per barrel, a decrease of 0.07%; The London Brent crude oil futures price for delivery in January 2025 rose by 2 cents, closing at $72.83 per barrel, an increase of 0.03%.
Antitrust regulatory agencies take action! Microsoft under investigation
In terms of sectors, the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index rose 4 times and fell 7 times. Among them, the information technology sector led the decline, with a drop of 1.19%. The real estate and essential consumption sectors rose by 0.66% and 0.65% respectively.
Most popular technology stocks have fallen. Oracle fell over 4%, Micron Technology and Broadcom fell over 3%, Arm fell over 2%, Intel, Tesla, TSMC, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, and Amazon fell over 1%, Texas Instruments, Meta, Cisco, Qualcomm, ASML, Lilly, and Apple fell slightly, Google A and Netflix rose slightly, and AMD rose over 1%.
Dell Technologies fell 12.26%. Although the company's third quarter profit exceeded expectations, its third quarter revenue and fourth quarter performance guidance fell short of market expectations. Dell Technologies' third quarter performance for the fiscal year 2025 showed an adjusted EPS of $2.15, with analysts expecting $2.05; The overall net revenue was 24.37 billion US dollars, lower than analysts' expectations of 24.59 billion US dollars; Adjusted operating profit of $2.2 billion, analysts expect $2.16 billion. In addition, Dell Technologies expects its fourth quarter revenue to be between $24 billion and $25 billion, lower than market expectations of $25.57 billion; The expected adjusted earnings per share are $2.50, and the market expectation is $2.65.
Google A rose 0.07%. Google submitted a document to the federal appeals court on Wednesday, requesting the revocation of the antitrust ruling against its app store, Google Play. Previously, Epic Games sued Google for blocking competitor app stores from entering the market through revenue sharing agreements with mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung. In December 2023, a San Francisco jury found Google to have violated antitrust laws. In October of this year, federal judge James Donato ruled that Google needs to allow developers to establish independent app stores and provide other payment methods.
Google pointed out in the appeal document that Donato's ruling had flaws. Firstly, he did not take into account Google's competition with Apple in the smartphone market, and another judge did not find Apple's actions to constitute antitrust violations in the Epic v. Apple case. In addition, Google believes that it is unreasonable for the jury to hear the case instead of the judge ruling directly. Google stated that if the ruling is not overturned, it will weaken its ability to compete with Apple, and claimed that this is Epic's "extraordinary attempt" to restructure Google Play operations through judicial means. Donato's ruling has been suspended, and the appeal hearing is scheduled for February 3, 2025, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Apple fell 0.06%. In 2024, the global smartphone market rebounded strongly after two years of sluggishness, with shipments increasing by 6.2% year-on-year to 1.24 billion units. However, Apple's growth rate was only 0.4%, and the market performance fell short of expectations. According to IDC data from the International Data Center, Apple is still far ahead in terms of profits, with an average selling price of over $1000 for iPhones and around $295 for Android competitors. IDC predicts that the global smartphone market will experience low single digit growth in the coming years, and the industry needs to create a new "super update cycle" through more innovation and consumer education to overcome the current situation of weak growth.
Qualcomm fell 0.34%. According to Bloomberg citing informed sources, Qualcomm's interest in acquiring Intel has significantly weakened, which could change plans that were expected to become one of the largest deals in technology history. Insiders say that the complexity of acquiring Intel, including its debt burden of over $50 billion and poor profitability of its semiconductor manufacturing business, makes the deal no longer attractive to Qualcomm. However, Qualcomm may still choose to acquire some of Intel's businesses or reconsider this plan in the future. The CEO of Qualcomm stated that the company has not identified any businesses that require large-scale acquisitions and will continue to focus on new market areas such as personal computers, networking, and automotive chips.
Microsoft fell 1.17%. Microsoft denied allegations on Wednesday that it used user data from Microsoft 365 applications such as Word and Excel to train artificial intelligence models. Previously, some users pointed out on social media that Microsoft requires users to choose to opt out of its "Connect Experience" feature, believing that the feature is used to train AI models. In response to this, a Microsoft spokesperson stated via email, "These statements are inaccurate. Microsoft will not use user data from Microsoft 365 consumer and business applications to train basic large-scale language models." Microsoft emphasizes that the company always respects user privacy and ensures data security and transparency.
According to reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, involving multiple areas such as cloud computing, software licensing, security software, and artificial intelligence products. This investigation originated from more than a year of informal interviews conducted by the FTC with Microsoft's competitors and business partners, in which detailed information requests were made to Microsoft. These requests require Microsoft to provide hundreds of pages of relevant business data. One of the focuses of the investigation is that Microsoft bundled its popular office and security software with cloud services for sale, which may be suspected of unfair competition.
The FTC's scrutiny of Microsoft has intensified, partly due to issues with the company's products in multiple cybersecurity incidents. As an important contractor to the US government, Microsoft has provided billions of dollars in software and cloud services to agencies such as the Department of Defense. This investigation also focuses on Microsoft's security software Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) and its role in user authentication. Competitors accuse Microsoft of making it difficult for them to compete with Microsoft through bundled sales.
In addition, Microsoft's free bundling of its Teams video conferencing software into products such as Word and Excel has put significant pressure on competitors such as Salesforce and Zoom, and this practice has also been accused of anti competitive behavior. The FTC believes that Microsoft's market dominance and business practices may have a negative impact on the cloud computing industry and related markets. This investigation is a continuation of the FTC's review of Microsoft, which has been 25 years since the last time Microsoft was sued for bundling Windows operating system and browser.
Financial stocks fluctuate in price. American International Group and Travelers Insurance rose over 1%, while Visa, Mastercard, Citigroup, UBS Group, Mizuho Financial, and Bank of America saw slight gains. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, First Capital Financial, Wells Fargo, Regional Finance, Bank of America, American Express, and BlackRock saw slight declines.
BlackRock fell 0.68%. Texas and 10 other Republican led states in the United States have sued the world's three major asset management companies - BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street - accusing them of violating antitrust laws by promoting climate action, affecting coal production, and driving up energy prices. The indictment alleges that these companies used market forces to pressure coal companies to reduce production and played an important role in climate initiatives, resulting in increased electricity bills for consumers. The lawsuit requests to prevent these companies from continuing to influence coal production through investment voting and demands fines for their violations of antitrust laws and Texas consumer protection laws. BlackRock responded that any suggestion that its investment in coal producers is to harm them is unfounded and goes against common sense. This lawsuit has damaged the reputation of Texas pro business and hindered investment in companies that consumers rely on.
Energy stocks rise more and fall less. Western oil rose nearly 1%, while US Energy, BP, ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger, Duke Energy, Murphy Oil, and Shell rose slightly. Apache Oil closed flat, while Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Imperial Oil fell slightly. Brazilian oil fell more than 2%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index up 2.82%. IQiyi rose over 8%, Ideal Auto and Miniso rose over 6%, JD.com rose over 5%, Xiaopeng Motors, Bilibili, Weibo, and Huya rose over 4%, Tencent Music rose nearly 4%, Vipshop and Futu Holdings rose over 3%, Douyu rose nearly 2%, Alibaba, NIO, New Oriental, and Baidu rose over 1%, NetEase and Manbang rose slightly, Pinduoduo fell slightly, and Xiaoma Zhixing fell over 7%.