On December 21st local time, the US stock market opened lower and rose higher, with all three major indexes closing up more than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18%; The Nasdaq rose 1.09%; The S&P 500 index rose 1.03%.
Most large tech stocks have risen. Nvidia rose by over 3%; Intel rose more than 2%; Apple and Google have risen by over 1%; Netflix and Amazon saw slight increases; Meta fell more than 1%; Microsoft has experienced a slight decline.
Tesla reported $421.06, down 3.46%. The latest market value is $1.35 trillion, and its market value evaporated overnight by $48.5 billion (approximately RMB 353.9 billion).
Novo Nordisk's US stock market fell nearly 30% in pre-market trading, marking the largest decline on record for the company. After the opening of the US stock market, Novo Nordisk fell more than 20%. As of the close, Novo Nordisk was trading at $85, down 17.83%, with a market value of $377.541 billion. Its market value evaporated by $81.9 billion overnight (approximately RMB 597.6 billion).
The sharp decline of this pharmaceutical giant was due to the unexpected results of weight loss drug trials. Novo Nordisk's latest announcement states that the results of the REDEFINE 1 trial (Phase III of the REDEFINE project) showed that patients who received subcutaneous injection of Cagrisema lost an average of 22.7% of their weight after 68 weeks. If the sample scope includes volunteers who withdrew from the trial midway, the average weight loss effect decreased to 20.4%, which is lower than the company's previous expected level of 25%. Novo Nordisk reiterated in its third quarter report in November that CagriSema's weight loss effect can reach 25%, a significant improvement compared to Wegovy's 15%.
Analysts point out that this lower than expected data is a blow to Novo Nordisk, as the company had hoped that CagriSema would become a more powerful product than Eli Lilly's Zepbound weight loss drug to replace its predecessor, Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk has previously stated that CagriSema will effectively solve the problem of "weight rebound after discontinuation" and will not bring any additional side effects compared to the previous generation of weight loss drug Wegovy, making it the most effective weight loss drug to date. It is expected to be launched in 2026. But in the announcement on the 20th, Novo Nordisk stated that CagriSema still experienced gastrointestinal discomfort side effects similar to GLP-1 drugs.
The volatility of cryptocurrencies has intensified. On the evening of December 20th, Bitcoin fell more than 8% to $92268.0, a significant decline from its highest point of $108365.0 set this week. At the same time, other smaller cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Dogecoin have also experienced significant declines.
As of December 21st, Bitcoin has recovered its previous decline and is now reported at $97164.2.
According to Coinglass data, in the past 24 hours, the number of cryptocurrency liquidation cases on the entire network has reached 434000, with a liquidation amount exceeding 1.4 billion US dollars (approximately 10.2 billion yuan). It is worth noting that as we enter December, the total amount of liquidation in the cryptocurrency market is much higher than in the first eleven months of this year, with December 9th reaching a new high of $1.707 billion for the year.
According to Securities Times, during the rapid decline of Bitcoin, Sosovalue's data showed that on December 19th, 12 spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs), including BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC, had a record breaking net outflow of $680 million, ending 15 consecutive days of capital inflows.
The sudden pullback of Bitcoin occurred after the cryptocurrency market saw a wave of gains due to Trump's victory on November 5th. As the President elect of the United States, Trump had repeatedly expressed his support for cryptocurrency after his victory. Analysts from QCP Capital, a digital asset investment and trading company, stated that this makes digital assets vulnerable against the backdrop of the Federal Reserve's gradual tightening of monetary policy. The current market uncertainty is intensifying, especially with Trump about to take office and the possibility of implementing tariff policies on US allies and opponents.
On December 18th local time, the Federal Reserve decided to lower the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to the range of 4.25% -4.50%. This interest rate cut is in line with market expectations, but the number of interest rate cuts announced in 2025 is significantly lower than previously expected. The Federal Reserve has stated that it plans to cut interest rates only twice in 2025, rather than the four times commonly predicted by the market. QCP Capital analysts believe that as the Federal Reserve slows down its easing pace, the focus of market attention is shifting towards the acceptance of cryptocurrency assets by traditional financial institutions.
Analysts say that the Bitcoin market will continue to face a dual impact of macroeconomic and cryptocurrency industry factors in the future. The interaction between monetary policy, institutional adoption, and political situation suggests that Bitcoin will remain highly sensitive to these factors until 2025, "said Hanni AbuAgra, senior market analyst at XTB
Chris Weston, the research director of Pepperstone Group, said, "In the short term, the market needs to remain cautious. Although it does not mean that prices will collapse immediately, the current momentum has significantly weakened and buyers have lost their dominant position
Popular Chinese concept stocks fluctuated, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rising 0.53%. Douyu rose by over 3%, while NIO and New Oriental rose by over 2%; Alibaba fell more than 2%.
COMEX gold futures rose 1.25% to $2640.8 per ounce, down 1.32% for the week. COMEX silver futures rose 2.26% to $30.075/ounce, with a cumulative decline of 3.07% for the week.
The settlement price of international crude oil futures has slightly increased, with a cumulative decline of about 2% this week. The settlement price of WTI crude oil futures in February closed up 0.08 US dollars, an increase of 0.11%, at 69.46 US dollars per barrel, with a cumulative decline of 1.92% for the week. Brent crude oil futures for February closed up $0.06, or 0.08%, at $72.94 per barrel, with a cumulative decline of 2.08% for the week. NYMEX's January natural gas futures closed up 4.57% at $3.748 per million British thermal units, with a cumulative increase of 14.27% for the week.
According to the China Fund News, on December 20th, in terms of economic data, the most important inflation indicator for the Federal Reserve - the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price (PCE) index - was released.
The US Department of Labor reported that the PCE index in November increased by 2.4% year-on-year, lower than the expected 2.5%. The PCE index rose 0.4% month on month in November, lower than the market expectation of 0.5%.
Excluding food and energy items, the core PCE index increased by 0.1% month on month and 2.8% year-on-year. The month on month increase of the index reached its lowest record since May.
The PCE data shows that the potential underlying inflation indicator that the Federal Reserve values slowed down in November, which is a step in the right direction for decision-makers who hope to further cut interest rates in 2025.
B Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at Riley Wealth, said in an interview, "We overreacted to the Fed's statement on Wednesday, but this reaction is not surprising, especially as the stock market approached historical highs when we entered the meeting. I don't understand why we always need to be reminded that the Fed's failure to cut interest rates or slower rate cuts is actually good news because it means stronger economic data, and that's exactly what the Fed wants to tell us
According to Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at Fitch Ratings, the Federal Reserve may wait for changes in tariffs and immigration policies in the coming months before deciding whether to further cut interest rates. Chris Larkin, General Manager of Trading and Investment at E * Trade under Morgan Stanley, pointed out that the possibility of suspending interest rate cuts in January is still high due to the policy uncertainty brought by the incoming government.
In addition, on the evening of December 20th, Chicago Fed President Goolsby stated that the inflation rate is still expected to reach 2%, and today's data shows that the recent strengthening of inflation is just a "bump". He predicts that the interest rate path in 2025 will be slightly lower; In the next 12 to 18 months, interest rates may significantly decrease. The uncertainty of policies is partly due to the relatively shallow change in the interest rate path next year. It is expected that the Federal Reserve interest rate will be "moderately lowered" in 2025. It is widely believed within the Federal Reserve that the long-term neutral interest rate is much lower than the current policy rate.