The US stock market opened low and fell, with the three major indexes collectively closing lower, and the Nasdaq falling 1.49%; The S&P 500 index fell 1.11%; The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 333.59 points, a decrease of 0.77%.
Large tech stocks generally fell, with Tesla dropping 4.95% and its market value increasing by $72.1 billion (approximately RMB 526.2 billion) overnight; Nvidia fell more than 2%; Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Google, and Amazon fell more than 1%; Intel and Meta experienced a slight decline.
Most popular Chinese concept stocks closed down, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index falling 1.54%. Jike and Fangduoduo fell more than 9%, Upward Rongke, Xiaopeng Motors, and NIO all fell more than 4%, JD.com and Futu Holdings fell more than 3%, and Bilibili fell more than 2%.
COMEX gold futures fell 0.69% to $2635.7 per ounce; COMEX silver futures fell 1.38% to $29.985/ounce, with a cumulative drop of 0.3% for the week.
According to the Securities Times, however, 2025 is approaching, and several experts believe in interviews that gold prices are expected to start a new upward cycle in 2025, and the overall trend is expected to rise weakly amidst fluctuations. Recently, multiple central banks have continued to increase their holdings of gold reserves, attracting market attention. As one of the "indicators" driving the rise of gold prices, the central bank's purchase of gold is expected to drive a new round of upward trend in the gold market.
In addition, multiple institutions are also bullish on gold prices in 2025, believing that global economic uncertainty, geopolitical risks, and the direction of major economies' monetary policies will continue to drive gold demand. The World Gold Council is also optimistic about the gold trend in 2025, but believes that the increase may be more moderate.
The settlement price of international crude oil futures has risen by over 1%. WTI crude oil futures for February closed up $0.98, or 1.41%, at $70.6 per barrel; Brent crude oil futures closed up $0.91, or 1.24%, at $74.17 per barrel in February; NYMEX's January natural gas futures closed down 5.41% at $3.514 per million British thermal units.
The panic index surged by 23% at one point.
In the past few trading days, the US stock market has been rising, but there are still some uncertainties in the future.
It is worth noting that on January 10, 2025, the United States will release the latest employment data.
According to the China Securities Journal, Miller Tabak's Matt Maley said about the US stock market, "The performance of the past few weeks indicates that large tech stocks remain the main driving force in the market. These big tech stocks account for a large proportion of institutional investors' investment portfolios, and future buying is likely to focus on these stocks
According to China Fund News, Clayton Allison, portfolio manager at Prime Capital Financial, said, "As we enter the end of the year, the US stock market and investors seem to be cautious. Nobody wants to make major investment decisions before the new government takes office in 2025
With only two trading days left in 2024, the market is in the "Santa Claus market" - the peak season for stock purchases in the last five trading days of December and the first two trading days of January. According to the Stock Traders Almanac, since 1969, the S&P 500 index has risen an average of 1.3% in these seven trading days.
In addition, US Treasury Secretary Yellen officially issued a warning letter to the leadership of the US Congress regarding the debt ceiling issue, requesting Congress to take action to protect the credibility of the US government. Yellen expects to initiate extraordinary measures from January 14th to 23rd and has stated that the Treasury Department may reach a new debt ceiling between January 14th and 23rd, 2025.
On December 27th local time, the official website of the US Treasury Department announced that Yellen had sent a letter to the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in both houses of Congress regarding the debt ceiling issue. According to the letter released by the Ministry of Finance, Yellen introduced to lawmakers that the bill passed in June last year temporarily put the debt ceiling into effect, and the suspension period of the ceiling will end on January 1, 2025. Therefore, starting from January 2, 2025, the debt ceiling will restore its restrictive effect on all statutory outstanding debts at the end of January 1.
Yellen said that it is expected that the outstanding statutory debt subject to the debt ceiling on January 2 will decrease by about $54 billion, mainly due to the redemption of a non tradable security held by a federal trust fund related to Medicare payments under the plan. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance does not need to take special measures from January 2nd to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt.
Subsequently, Yellen wrote:
The Ministry of Finance currently expects to hit a new (debt) ceiling between January 14th and January 23rd, at which point the Ministry will need to begin taking unconventional measures
Subsequently, at the end of the letter, Yellen urged Congress to take action to address the debt ceiling issue, protect America's credibility abroad, and gain full trust from the outside world.
The short-term spending bill passed by the US Congress at the last minute last weekend extends the government's mandate until mid March next year, but the bill does not include a debt ceiling. Yellen's letter this Friday once again mentioned the threat of the debt ceiling.
Daily Economic News Comprehensive China Securities Journal, Securities Times, China Fund News, Public Information