Global news： Dow rises six times in a row, Apple hits a new high, Buffett significantly reduces Activision Blizzard.
On Monday, local time, US stocks continued to rise, and the three major indexes collectively closed up. The Dow was six consecutive years, and the S&P and Nasdaq once again set a 15-month high. Technology stocks performed well, with Apple and NVIDIA hitting record closing highs, while Tesla rose more than 3%.
In the news, US Treasury Secretary Yellen said on Monday that the US labor market and inflation data made her optimistic about the prospects. "I don’t expect a recession, and we are on the road to reducing inflation." This has boosted the market’s confidence in the economic prospects of the United States to some extent.
In addition, the Goldman Sachs research report pointed out that in view of the good performance of the recently released US economic activity and inflation data, the possibility of the US economy avoiding recession in the next 12 months has increased. Therefore, Goldman Sachs lowered its forecast for the possibility that the United States will begin to fall into recession in the next 12 months, from 25% to 20%. In addition, although the Federal Reserve is expected to raise the benchmark interest rate again next week, it may be the last in a series of interest rate hikes that began last year.
It is worth noting that the Q2 earnings season of US stocks officially begins, and the market will face a test in the next few days. Whether the previous rise is a continuation of the strength of US stocks or investors rushing to run, corporate earnings reports will give an answer.
In terms of individual stock news, Microsoft welcomed the new progress in the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The British Anti-monopoly Court of Appeal ruled that the trial of Microsoft’s appeal against the ban on Microsoft’s acquisition by the British regulators was suspended, arguing that the case could be postponed "conditionally", paving the way for Microsoft and Blizzard to find an alternative to the veto by the regulators. This means that the last "roadblock" of British regulators is no longer enough to pose a threat to the transaction.
However, a person familiar with the matter said that although the transaction is likely to be reached, the completion time of the transaction may be later than the original deadline this Tuesday.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed on Monday that it significantly reduced its holdings of Activision Blizzard in the second quarter, and its position fell to about 14.7 million shares, a decrease of 70.2% from the 49.4 million shares held at the end of the first quarter. Berkshire’s shareholding ratio has shrunk sharply from 6.3% at the end of the first quarter of this year to 1.9%.
In terms of energy, crude oil soared due to the news that Saudi Arabia "extended its voluntary production reduction to the end of December 2024". WTI crude oil once rose to $76/barrel, and Brent crude oil once returned to the $80/barrel mark. Later, it retreated all the gains announced by this false news. WTI crude oil closed down 1.53% to $74.08/barrel, while Brent crude oil closed down 1.47% to $78.
[overnight U.S. stocks]
Among the large-scale Chinese stocks, Alibaba fell by 1.20%, Baidu rose by 0.30%, Netease rose by 0.84%, Tencent Music fell by 2.83% and Pinduoduo fell by 0.49%.
Among the large American technology stocks, Apple rose 1.73%, Amazon fell 0.83%, Google A fell 0.61%, and Nye soared 1.84%.
[global index]
In the European stock market, the FTSE 100 index in Britain fell slightly by 0.38% to 7406 points. The French CAC40 index fell 1.12% to 7292 points. Germany DAX index fell slightly by 0.23% to 16,069 points.
[global goods]
The main contract of WTI crude oil closed at $74.11 per barrel, down 1.74%; The main contract of Brent crude oil closed at $78.56 per barrel, down 1.64%; The main contract of crude oil in the previous period closed at 573.10 yuan per barrel overnight, down 0.83%.
Overnight, the Shanghai gold main contract closed up 0.22% to 455.70 yuan per gram; The main contract of Shanghai Bank closed down 0.12% to 5809.00 yuan per kilogram.
[overnight news]
"Saudi Arabia will extend its voluntary production reduction measures until the end of 2024"? Oolong news makes oil prices "jump up and down"
On the evening of July 17th, a news that "Saudi Ministry of Energy said it would extend the voluntary production reduction measures to the end of 2024" triggered a huge earthquake in the crude oil market. Both American oil and oil distribution rose by over 2%, and European energy stocks followed suit. However, news came out soon, and the media withdrew this report, calling it the old news on June 4. Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil retreated all their gains within 25 minutes, dropping about $1.5 per barrel. The long-short game of crude oil at the $80 mark is fierce.
US Treasury Secretary Yellen: The US economy will not decline and is on a "good track" to reduce inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Yellen said on Monday that the growth of the United States has slowed down, but the domestic labor market is still quite strong. She predicted that there would be no recession in the United States. Yellen said that she believes that the United States is on a "good track" to reduce inflation, and the labor market will not be significantly weak. Some commentators believe that Yellen’s statement is also the driving force behind the rise of US stocks on Monday.
The black sea food agreement is completely history? Russia says it no longer plans to negotiate.
Russia’s deputy representative to the United Nations said that the decision to terminate the agreement on the export of agricultural products at the Black Sea port was final, and no more negotiations were planned. On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the agreement on the export of agricultural products at the Black Sea port, saying that the agreement will be suspended from July 18. The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that Russia opposes the extension of the agreement on the export of agricultural products at the Black Sea port, and officially informed Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations Secretariat of the decision on the 17th.
Affected by this news, American wheat futures surged back, jumping over 4% and then turning down.
The new york Fed’s manufacturing index fell in July, but inflation cooled further.
The manufacturing index released by the Federal Reserve Bank of new york in July dropped to 1.1% from 6.6 in June, indicating that the manufacturing growth in the state has almost stopped, and economists expect it to drop to zero. Among the sub-indices, the price payment index dropped from 22 in June to 16.7, which is a sign that inflationary pressure has further cooled down.
[company news]
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard went further, but the deal may be postponed. Buffett reduced his shareholding in Blizzard by 70% in the second quarter.
Microsoft welcomed the new progress in the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and the British Anti-monopoly Court of Appeal ruled that the trial of Microsoft’s appeal against the ban on Microsoft’s acquisition by the British regulators was suspended, arguing that the case could be postponed "conditionally", paving the way for Microsoft and Blizzard to find an alternative to the veto by the regulators. This means that the last "roadblock" of British regulators is no longer enough to pose a threat to the transaction.
However, a person familiar with the matter said that although the transaction is likely to be reached, the completion time of the transaction may be later than the original deadline this Tuesday.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed on Monday that it significantly reduced its holdings of Activision Blizzard in the second quarter, and its position fell to about 14.7 million shares, a decrease of 70.2% from the 49.4 million shares held at the end of the first quarter. Berkshire’s shareholding ratio has shrunk sharply from 6.3% at the end of the first quarter of this year to 1.9%.
Tencent’s largest shareholder: It is estimated that the shareholding ratio will drop to around 24%-25% by the end of the year.
Prosus, the largest shareholder of Tencent Holdings and the Dutch subsidiary of South Africa’s Naspers Group, said that the proportion of its Tencent shares will be reduced by 2 to 3 percentage points every year, and it will drop to around 24%-25% by the end of this year. Naspers bought a third of Tencent’s shares for $34 million in 2001. In June last year, Prosus announced that it would slowly sell its Tencent shares to provide funds for stock repurchase.
Lilly announces complete report on new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.
Lilly, a pharmaceutical giant, announced in official website on Monday that the latest complete results of phase III clinical trial TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 showed that donanemab developed by the company could significantly slow down the cognitive and functional decline of patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
According to the latest complete report, among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), iADRS (comprehensive evaluation of patients’ cognitive ability and daily self-care ability) shows that the clinical decline rate has slowed down by 60%, and CDR-SB score shows that the cognitive decline rate of patients has slowed down by 46%. This means that the curative effect of donanemab is much more obvious for this group.
Tesla’s board gave up $735 million in stock and cash awards to settle investor lawsuits.
Tesla directors, including co-founder Musk, agreed to return more than $735 million in stock and cash bonuses to settle the lawsuit filed by investors. The lawsuit accused board members of providing themselves with huge salaries through improper means. According to the document filed by the Delaware Court of Equity on July 14th, Tesla directors denied the existence of the misconduct alleged by investors, but said that they agreed to solve the case to eliminate the uncertainties, risks, burdens and expenses that may be brought about by further litigation.
Ford slashed the sales price of electric pickup trucks.
On Monday, local time, Ford Motor Company of the United States drastically lowered the price of F-150 Lightning. Among them, the entry-level model F-150 Lightning PRO, with the biggest drop, started at US$ 59,974 and fell to US$ 49,995, down by about 16%. The price reduction of other models is roughly 6%-14%.
[AI dynamic]
Server energy consumption has tripled, and the fierce AI competition is becoming more and more important for power competition.
According to the latest report released by Digital Information World, the energy consumption generated by data centers for training AI models will be three times that of conventional cloud work. It is estimated that by 2030, the power demand of data centers in the United States will increase at an annual rate of about 10%. Computing power is the foundation of the development of the AI world, and the bottleneck of computing power is electricity in the final analysis. With the increasingly fierce arms race for AI, the competition for electricity has become more and more important.
[financial calendar]
