The three major US stock indexes collectively fell, with the Dow down 0.25%, the Nasdaq down 0.41%, and the S&P 500 down 0.12% as of the close.
The performance of large technology stocks is divided, with Tesla falling more than 7%, Google falling nearly 3%, Apple falling more than 2.50%, and Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft following suit. Some artificial intelligence concept stocks saw the highest gains, with ultramicro computers rising over 18% and the stock price reaching a historic high. Intel rose more than 4%, Nvidia rose more than 3% to reach a new historical high, and Nvidia's market value surpassed Saudi Aramco to become the third largest company in the world.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally fell, with Ideal Automobile falling more than 13%, Weibo and Xiaopeng Automobile falling more than 8%, NIO and Vipshop falling more than 7%, JD.com and iQiyi falling more than 4%, Pinduoduo, Alibaba and Baidu falling more than 3%, Tencent Music falling more than 2%, and NetEase falling more than 1%; Bilibili rose by over 3%, while Futu Holdings saw a slight increase.
Tesla plummeted by over 7%
On Monday, Tesla's stock price opened low and continued to decline. As of the time of writing, it fell 7.16% to close at $188.14, and its market value evaporated overnight by $46.1 billion, equivalent to approximately RMB 332.3 billion.
An analysis suggests that Tesla's sharp decline on Monday is related to its latest sales data in China; In addition, Tesla's price reduction launched in China in January and the new incentive measures launched last week both highlight the immense competitive pressure in the market.
On March 4th, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released estimated wholesale sales figures for new energy vehicles from major passenger car manufacturers in February 2024: BYD's wholesale sales were 121748 vehicles, while Tesla's wholesale sales in China were 60365 vehicles. Tesla's sales decreased by 19% year-on-year, the lowest since December 2022. It should be noted that February coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, with a decrease in car purchasing activities.
BYD and Tesla, two leading new energy car companies, opened a new round of price reduction on March 1. The "price war" in the the Year of the Loong car market continues to heat up, which may further accelerate the market reshuffle. The new car price war is "full of smoke".
Tesla's latest promotional policy remains the usual limited time insurance subsidy of 8000 yuan. Officially, various policies have been combined, with the highest discount approaching 35000 yuan. This is not Tesla's first promotional move this year. This year, Tesla has launched multiple direct price reductions or preferential subsidy activities, and the frequency of price adjustments is close to last year. In 2023, Tesla conducted four rounds of promotions, including a user referral reward.
The increasing frequency of price adjustments does not necessarily mean that Tesla has given consumers prices that exceed expectations. Last January, Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y products plummeted by 20000 to 48000 yuan, driving several car companies in the same price range, including Wenjie and Xiaopeng, to follow suit. This year, Tesla has only made one direct price reduction, ranging from 6500 to 15500 yuan, with the Model 3 not yet breaking its all-time low.
Under the prevailing market sentiment of price reductions, consumers have become more cautious and less sensitive to Tesla promotions. Market analysts have revealed that Tesla's latest round of discounts has not brought significant growth in store entry and transaction volume. The potential crisis behind it is that Tesla is losing its price dominance in the segmented market of 250000 to 300000 yuan.
According to Securities Daily, according to incomplete statistics by reporters, 9 car companies have announced price reductions or limited time discounts since March, with a maximum price reduction of 47000 yuan. "From the industrial point of view, the new energy vehicle market is shifting from incremental development to stock competition." Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the CAE Member, told reporters that on the one hand, the new energy vehicle industry's own survival of the fittest, on the other hand, the game between new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles has reached a decisive stage, and the competition between independent brands and joint venture brands has reached a white hot degree.
NVIDIA's market value surpasses Saudi Aramco's
Nvidia has achieved a new milestone, surpassing Google's parent companies Alphabet, Amazon, and other giants in market value. It has recently surpassed Saudi Aramco to become the third largest company in the world, second only to the two major technology giants Microsoft and Apple.
As of the close of the US stock market on Monday, Nvidia rose 3.6%, breaking its all-time high above $852, with a market value of $2.1 trillion, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $2.01 trillion.
At the close of last Friday, Nvidia's market value closed above the $2 trillion mark for the first time. Last month, after briefly breaking through $2 trillion during trading for the first time, Nvidia's market value plummeted rapidly. At present, at least in the short term, the important threshold of $2 trillion has shown signs of "standing firm".
Despite the AI boom last year, Nvidia experienced a cumulative surge of about 240% throughout the year. However, this year's surge has not stopped. In just over two months of 2024, Nvidia achieved a staggering increase of about 70%, with a market value increase of about 880 billion US dollars. The fierce growth in ultra large technology stocks can only be compared to Tesla's frenzy in the past few years.
Behind Nvidia's soaring performance is its strong performance support. Last month, Nvidia's financial report showed that its fourth quarter revenue, profit, and first quarter guidance exceeded expectations. Nvidia's revenue and profit have set historical records for three consecutive quarters, with a revenue growth of 126% for the entire fiscal year 2024.
According to media reports, Richard Clode, portfolio manager of Janus Henderson Investors, told reporters that since mid-2023, the market's debate over Nvidia has mainly focused on its growth trends in 2025 and beyond, rather than its current strong performance. "Through the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the beginning of this year According to recent financial reports, Nvidia has largely proven to the market that its development will not come to a standstill soon
Tejas Dessai, a research analyst at Global X ETFs, is also optimistic about Nvidia's long-term potential. He analyzed to reporters that in the coming years, Nvidia's data centers will replace chips worth trillions of dollars to complement the development of generative AI and provide Nvidia with a huge potential market; Nvidia has a leading position in the high-end AI chip field and is expected to still occupy the majority of the market share by 2030; In addition to AI processors, Nvidia's extensive products, such as networking solutions, greatly enhance its profitability in emerging computing fields; In addition to hardware, Nvidia's CUDA platform also helps to consolidate its position in software. This platform allows AI developers to effectively deploy workloads and use clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs). This software is uniquely positioned to help Nvidia defend market share while establishing user loyalty.