U.S. stocks close: only the Nasdaq rose among the three major indexes, the Dow fell more than 1%, Tesla rose more than 7%

Cai Lian News, January 18 (Editor Xia Junxiong) On Tuesday, Eastern time, the three major indexes were mixed, only the Nasdaq closed slightly higher, and the Dow fell more than 1%.

(The Dow fell more than 1%, source: Yingwei Finance)

By the close, the Dow was down 1.14% at 33,910.85; The S&P 500 fell 0.20% to 3,990.97; The Nasdaq rose 0.14% to 11,095.11.

Goldman Sachs shares fell 6.44 percent on Tuesday as the bank's Q4 earnings missed market expectations and net profit tumbled more than 60 percent year-on-year, as its performance was weighed on by falling investment banking and asset management revenues. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley posted better-than-expected results, thanks to record wealth management revenue, with its shares up 5.91% on Tuesday.

So far this year, the NASDAQ is up 6.01%, leading the three major indexes, with the S&P 500 and Dow up 3.95% and 2.30% respectively. Investors are buying tech stocks that have been hit hard last year, suggesting that there is growing optimism that the outlook for growth stocks will improve.

The market's performance this year suggests that some investors are not convinced that a deep recession is coming. Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Golub said a recession is less likely than expected, inflation is slowing, earnings are growing, wages are rising and consumer spending remains strong.

Popular stock performance

Big tech stocks mostly fell, with Apple up 0.88%, Amazon down 2.11%, Meta down 1.18%, Google down 0.90%, Microsoft up 0.47%, and Netflix down 1.98%.

New energy vehicle stocks were mixed, with Tesla up 7.43%, Workhorse up 4.93%, Rivian up 2.92%, Lordstown up 2.61%, Nikola up 1.96%, NIO down 3.31%, Xpeng Motors down 6.31%, Li Auto down 2.80%, Faraday Future down 5.80% and Lucid down 1.23%.

Popular Chinese concept stocks generally fell, with Alibaba down 1.56%, JD.com down 5.72%, Pinduoduo down 2.22%, Bilibili down 5.11%, Baidu down 6.02%, New Oriental down 11.98%, NetEase up 0.79, Tencent Music down 5.56%, and iQiyi down 16.44%.

Company news

[Microsoft is said to cut more than 10,000 employees or cut 1/3 of the scale of recruitment]

According to multiple media reports, Microsoft plans to cut more than 10,000 employees and may cut up to 1/3 of the size of recruiters.

Microsoft is likely to announce a worldwide layoff plan in a few days, and the company is considering cutting about 5% of its workforce. According to the filing documents, as of June 30 last year, Microsoft had 221,000 employees worldwide, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 overseas, and the 5% layoff ratio means that about 11,000 Microsoft employees will lose their jobs.

In addition, there is also news that Microsoft plans to cut employees in some engineering departments on Wednesday, but the exact scale of the layoffs is not yet clear.

Microsoft could cut recruiters by as much as one-third, and given that many of Microsoft's teams have frozen hiring, it is expected that it may take one to two years for the company to return to a hiring size comparable to before the freeze began, people familiar with the matter said.

Apple Releases New MacBook Pro and Mac Mini

Apple on Tuesday unveiled the new MacBook Pro with a new M2 chip and a new Mac mini with the M2 and M2 Pro. Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $1,999; The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $2,499. Mac mini starts at $599.

[NetEase responds to the collapse of cooperation with Blizzard: unable to accept unequal cooperation conditions and did not seek IP control]

On Tuesday evening, NetEase responded to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter that for unknown reasons, Blizzard re-sought NetEase last week, put forward a proposal for a six-month extension of game services and other conditions, and made it clear that it would not stop continuing negotiations with other potential partners during the contract extension. According to NetEase, Blizzard's negotiations with other companies during the same period were all based on a three-year contract period. Considering the unreciprocity, unfairness and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two sides were ultimately unable to reach an agreement.

[Tesla jumped more than 7%, the biggest one-day increase since December last year]

Tesla closed up 7.43 percent on Tuesday, its biggest one-day gain since December 2022, on news that Tesla, BYD and Hyundai Motor are finalizing investment deals in Indonesia.

[iQiyi plunged more than 16%]

iQiyi closed down 16.44 percent on Tuesday after the company announced before market that it intends to issue 76.5 million ADSs at $5.90 per share. Net proceeds from the offering of American depositary shares are expected to be $442.3 million.

[United's fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share were $2.46, analysts expected $2.12]

United reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.46 in the fourth quarter, versus analysts' expectations of $2.12; first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.50 to $1.00 versus analysts' expectations of $0.22; adjusted capital expenditures of $8.5 billion in 2023 versus analysts' expectations of $8.25 billion; and fourth-quarter operating income of $12.40 billion versus analysts' expectations of $12.23 billion.