U.S. Stock Market Pre-Market: Tesla Demonstrates Terror Pricing Power The market waits for Powell to finalize the expectation of a rate hike

Financial Associated Press, April 21 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) With a series of large companies disclosing favorable quarterly reports, the US stock market on Thursday was frequently blown by the warm wind before the market, and the three major futures indexes collectively strengthened.

Tesla's strong earnings report temporarily put aside the market's fears of Netflix's plunge, and today's market focus has also shifted to Powell's speech. Powell's appearance at an IMF event on Thursday afternoon was also the fed chairman's last official appearance before the May FOMC meeting, according to the official schedule, and the market is expecting him to finalize expectations for a 50 basis point rate hike in May.

Edward Park, chief investment officer at Brooks Macdonald, said investors were more eager to hear what Powell had to say as new signs that inflation might be peaking, which was part of the reason for the slight pullback in the 10-year Treasury yield. However, given Powell's temper, a major change in tone is unlikely.

By the way, the Fed's hawkish bannerman Bullard also had a public campaign schedule tonight, and the last time he encouraged the Fed to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, the US stock market trembled.

Market dynamics

As of 20:31 Beijing time, The Dow Futures (June 2022 contract) rose 0.67%, the S&P 500 Futures rose 0.86%, and the Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 1.21%.

The three major stock indexes rose and fell in the last trading day, and Netflix plunged to drag down the overall mood of technology stocks. As of the close, the S&P 500 was down 0.06 percent at 4459.45 points; the Nasdaq was down 1.22 percent at 13,453.07 points; and the Dow was up 0.71 percent at 35,160.79 points.

European stocks continued to strengthen on Thursday, with several major stock indexes up more than 1 percent, fueled by comments from ECB officials and a favorable Macron election.

(European stocks on Thursday, source: Investing)

Company news

[Show horror pricing power Tesla Q1 gross margin hit a new high]

After the hours on Wednesday, Tesla, which has attracted much attention from investors, released a quarterly report, in which revenue reached $18.756 billion (up 81% year-on-year) and net profit of $3.736 billion (up 255% year-on-year), both better than market expectations. To the envy of the entire automotive industry, Tesla's automotive business gross margin was as high as 32.9%, up 6% year-on-year and a record high. As of press time, Tesla is up 7.38% before the session.

[Regulation is pressing step by step, Apple Q1 invests record money to lobby]

According to a report released Wednesday by Apple, the company spent a record $2.5 million on lobbying in the first three months of 2022, up more than 34 percent from $1.86 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and setting a new quarterly high. The previous record high was $2.2 million in the second quarter of 2017.

[Bill Ackerman bids hundreds of millions of dollars to liquidate Netflix stocks]

Affected by the thunderstorm of Netflix's earnings report, Bill Ackman, a well-known hedge fund manager, sent a public letter to investors on Wednesday, announcing that he had thrown away all 3.1 million shares of Netflix bought at the end of January. Ackerman said Netflix's unpredictable outlook had caused them to lose confidence in the company.

【Blackstone's first quarter distributable earnings surged 63% year-on-year】

Asset management giant Blackstone released a quarterly report before market hours on Thursday, although the hedge fund business was affected by the decline in management fees and performance revenue, but the strong performance of the real estate and credit business made the company's distributable income reach $1.9 billion in the quarter, a 63% year-on-year increase, corresponding to earnings per share of $1.55, far exceeding market expectations. As of press time, Blackstone is up 3.91% before the session.

[United airlines, American airlines are expected to achieve profitability in the second quarter]

United's quarterly report on Wednesday showed a loss of $1.38 billion, or $4.24 per share, in the first quarter, but an improvement from a loss of $7.50 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter increased to $7.57 billion from $3.22 billion in the year-ago quarter. To investors' surprise, executives expect profitability in the second quarter and full year of this year. They forecast an operating margin of 10 percent in the second quarter, while achieving "the largest quarterly revenue in the company's history."

Ahead of market hours on Thursday, American Airlines announced its first quarter 2022 results, in which revenue reached $8.899 billion, which was better than market expectations of $8.82 billion, equivalent to 84% of revenue in the same period in 2019. CEO Robert Isom said the demand environment was very strong and based on current fuel price assumptions, the company expects to be profitable in the second quarter. In addition, the company expects capacity to recover to 92%-94% in the same period in 2019.

As of press time, United was up 8.23 percent ahead of the session and American was up 11.14 percent.

【Knowing that tomorrow's Hong Kong stocks are double listed, the dark market closed down 21.7%】

Zhihu will be officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange tomorrow, and today Futu closed down 21.7% in the dark market at HK$25.1 per share. The issue price of Zhihu is HK$32.06 per share.

[Manchester United announces that Tenhach will become the new manager, and the stock price rises before the market]

Premier League Club Manchester United announced in pre-market on Thursday that current Ajax manager Eric Tenhach will succeed Ronnick as manager at the end of the season. Affected by this news, Manchester United rose 3.06% before the session.

Events worth paying attention to in the US stock market time period (Beijing time)

April 21

20:30 U.S. Jobless Claims for the Week to April 16, PHILADELPHIA Fed Manufacturing Index for April

22:00 US March Consultative Conference Leading Indicators

23:00 Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivers a speech and U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen holds a press conference

April 22

00:30 St. Louis Fed President Bullard speaks

01:00 Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and ECB President Christine Lagarde participate in IMF activities

01:15 IMF President Georgieva holds a press conference

04:30 Foreign central banks hold U.S. Treasuries for the week until April 16