U.S. stocks close: the Nasdaq fell nearly 200 points, technology stocks and Chinese concept stocks fell and Amazon fell more than 8%

　　Financial sector news on February 4, the number of non-farm payrolls in the United States in January exceeded expectations to intensify concerns about the Fed maintaining the interest rate hike policy, while the performance of heavyweights such as Apple, Google and Amazon was less than expected to call into question the market's recent rebound, U.S. stocks closed down across the board, the Dow fell by more than 100 points, the Nasdaq fell nearly 200 points to barely hold the 12,000 mark, and the S&P fell more than 1%; All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 were wiped out on Non-Farm Day, with technology stocks leading the decline, with Ford Motor down 7%, Starbucks down 4% and Amazon down 8%.

　　At the close, the Dow was down 127.93 points, or 0.38%, at 33,926.01, the Nasdaq was down 193.86 points, or 1.59%, at 12,006.95 and the S&P 500 was down 43.28 points, or 1.04%, at 4,136.48. For the week, the Dow fell by 0.16%, the S&P 500 by 1.62%, and the NASDAQ added 3.31%.

　　April gold futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $54.20, or 2.8%, to settle at $1,876.60 an ounce. According to Dow Jones market data, the price of this most active contract closed at its lowest level since January 10. It fell 2.7% this week, the biggest one-day decline since June 17, 2021. Silver fell 5.1% to $22.405 an ounce in March, down nearly 5.2% for the week. Platinum fell 5.1% to $980.30 an ounce in April, its lowest close since December, and fell 3.6% for the week. Palladium fell 1.5%, or 1.2%, to $1,618.40 an ounce in March. Copper fell 0.8% to $4.0565 a pound in March, closing the week down 3.9%.

　　COMEX West Texas Intermediate crude for March futures fell $2.49, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $73.39 a barrel. Data from Dow Jones market data showed that the price of New York crude oil closed at its lowest level since Jan. 4, and fell 7.9% for the week. ICE Eurofutures global benchmark Brent crude futures for April fell $2.23, or 2.7%, to $79.94 a barrel, the lowest close since Jan. 9 and down 7.5% for the week. March gasoline futures fell nearly 5.4 percent to $2.321 a gallon, down more than 10 percent for the week, and March heating oil futures fell 4.2 percent to $2.7753 a gallon, down nearly 13 percent for the week. Natural gas fell 1.9% to $2.41/MMBtu in March, the lowest close since December 2020, down 15% this week and 46% so far in 2023.

　　Most of the popular Chinese concept stocks fell on Friday, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index falling 3.9%. China Automotive System rose by more than 9%, Kuke Music rose by more than 8%, Quhuo rose by more than 6%, Leju, OneConnect, Suntech Institution rose by more than 3%, Cheetah Mobile rose by more than 2%, Fangduoduo and Monster Charging rose by more than 1%, and Qinhuai Data rose by nearly 1%.

　　New oxygen fell by more than 21%, Ninth City fell by more than 13%, Daily Youxian fell by more than 12%, fog core technology fell by more than 11%, Gaotu and Hongen fell by more than 10%, Douyu fell by more than 9%, Huya fell by more than 8%, Canaan Technology and Dada Group fell by more than 7%, Zhihu, Manbang, NIO, BOSS Zhipin, Atour Group, and Kingsoft Cloud fell by more than 6%. Li Auto, 360 Digital, Zhiwen Group, Waterdrop Group, Baidu, Tencent Music, Xunlei, Bilibili, Qutoutiao fell by more than 5%, Xpeng Motors, Jiufu, Tuya Intelligent fell by more than 4%, Pinduoduo, Huanju Group, Sohu, Vipshop, Niu Electric, NetEase Youdao, Dingdong Grocery Shopping, Alibaba fell by more than 3%, JD.com, ZTO, 36Kr, New Oriental, Lanting Jishi, Tiger Securities, Happy Auto, TSMC fell by more than 2%, and Nenglian Zhidian, Jiuzhou Pharmacy, iQiyi, Ctrip, Basket Technology, and AMPLIER Digital Branch , Quantum Song fell by more than 1%, and Shell and NetEase fell by nearly 1%.

　　U.S. nonfarm payrolls jumped by 517,000 in January, and the unemployment rate hit a 53-year low

　　On Friday, February 3, data released by the US Labor Bureau showed that the number of new non-farm payrolls in January was 517,000, far exceeding expectations, compared with 185,000 expected and 223,000 in the previous month (revised 260,000). The unemployment rate fell, remaining at a nearly 50-year low, and average hourly earnings rose 4.4 percent year-over-year, slightly above expectations of 4.3 percent, highlighting the resilience of the U.S. labor market. The market generally believes that a cooling US labor market is the only way for the Fed to slow core inflation to 2%.

　　Because the fiery labor market may be reflected first in wages, many Fed officials see it as a proxy for potential inflationary pressures. If wage growth slows to 4%, it will be one step closer to achieving the 2% inflation target. The swap market showed that traders' expectations for the peak Fed policy rate in June rose to 4.96% compared to 4.91% ahead of the non-farm payrolls report.

　　San Francisco Fed President Daley: The Fed's December dot plot is still a good indicator of the path of interest rates

　　After U.S. employment data on Friday, San Francisco Fed President Daley said Fed officials' December forecasts for interest rates remained a good indicator of where borrowing costs were headed.

　　Daley said the Fed's rate forecast in December was "a good indicator of where policy is at least going." The Fed's forecast in December put the median expectation for interest rates by the end of 2023 at about 5.1%. "The most important thing that needs to be conveyed to the audience right now is that the direction of policy is further austerity and then maintain this restrictive stance for some time," she said.

　　Mr. Daley was the first official to speak out after Fed policymakers met earlier this week and Chairman Jerome Powell's news conference in Washington on Wednesday. She has no voting rights on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year.

　　Powell's words must be listened carefully The non-farm payrolls data has taught financial markets a lesson

　　January's non-farm payrolls data is expected to make the Fed more determined to raise interest rates above 5% and maintain them at that level until the end of the year. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that two or three more rate hikes were expected before the hike stopped, but he did not strongly dismiss the market's expectation of only one subsequent rate hike and predictions of a rate cut before the end of the year.

　　Thomas Costerg, senior U.S. economist at Pictet Wealth Management, said that "the jobs data could mean at least two more 25bp rate hikes, and it is not ruled out that the issue of a 50bp hike at the next meeting will again be of concern to some Fed officials."

　　The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against the board members of Iran's drone manufacturing company

　　On February 3, local time, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against 8 board members of Iranian drone manufacturer Paravar Pars. Paravar Pars, an Iran-based company, has previously been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for manufacturing the Shahed series of drones for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force.

　　Summers: US economy may "suddenly come to an emergency stop" after surge in nonfarm payrolls

　　After the larger-than-expected increase in nonfarm payrolls, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers highlighted the risk of a sudden downturn in the economy. "A key question after the surge in U.S. nonfarm payrolls is whether people will spend their income to boost economic growth, or whether companies will find at some point that they have too many employees and too much inventory," Summers said. If it is the latter, we will see a rather sudden brake on the economy".  

　　"I still think there's a risk of falling off a cliff suddenly," Summers said. He said the pattern of recent layoffs by big tech companies could be replicated more broadly across the economy, but added that it wasn't a sure prediction. Another key question, Summers argues, is whether the recent slowdown in wage growth will continue. Economic models do not predict a significant increase in corporate earnings in the second half of 2022, and the current pace of growth is more in line with their previous expectations.

　　"I think the Fed has done a great job of describing significant uncertainty in the economy, and policymakers know it's going to be very difficult, they're going to have to try to interpret the data month by month, and there's going to be a lot of surprises," Summers said. The risk, he said, is that the decline in inflation may be short-lived, "and that risk is greater than I think the Fed thinks."

　　Bank of America warns that the stock market rally is too much, and investors must beware of sleepwalking into a brutal sell-off

　　Bank of America strategists said the rally in U.S. stocks was overdone and investors would face a brutal plunge if economic growth collapses in the second half of the year. The "most painful deals" are always "long-overdue catastrophe," strategists led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note. The risk, they said, is that inflation will surge again in the coming months and the U.S. economy will slip deeper into recession in the second half of the year, following resilience in the first six months of 2023.

　　The report, citing EPFR Global data, said global equity funds had inflows of $44.7 billion in the past four weeks. Stocks have risen since the start of 2023, helped by optimism about signs of cooling inflation and market expectations that a slowing economy will force global central banks to pause rate hikes. Hartnett recommends investors start selling when the S&P 500 exceeds 4200, which is 0.5% above its latest close. He expects the benchmark index to hit first-quarter highs by Feb. 14.

　　U.S. Treasury yields soar Non-farm payrolls data shakes rate cut expectations

　　U.S. Treasuries tumbled on Friday as stronger-than-expected nonfarm payrolls and the ISM services indexes dented market forecasts for a Fed rate cut by the end of the year. Short-term Treasury yields rose nearly 20 basis points. After this round of sell-off, the gains accumulated by the market after the Fed's rate hike on Wednesday were almost wiped out.

　　The yield on the 2-year Treasury note rose 19 basis points intraday to 4.29% before stabilizing around 4.26%. In response to rising inflation, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points this week to 4.5%-4.75%.

　　Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed income strategy at Wisdom Tree Investments, said: "Economic data like this makes it difficult to maintain yields this week, and it is doubtful that the 2-year yield can remain close to 4% in the context of continued Fed rate hikes." The non-farm payrolls report is strong overall."

　　The Bank of England hinted that the aggressive rate hike cycle is nearing its end

　　Two of the BoE's policymakers have hinted that the central bank's most aggressive tightening cycle in three decades could be nearing its end. Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill said on Friday that policymakers must avoid going too far in raising interest rates. Governor Bailey did not rule out another rate hike, but the wording no longer included the phrase "very likely to raise rates further."

　　"It's important, as I mentioned, that we do enough to get inflation back within the target range, and of course, it's just as important to guard against the possibility of going too far," Pill said in an interview. He said policymakers needed to maintain a "zen balance" in interest rates, and the full impact of previous rate hikes was yet to be felt.

　　Pill said it was "too early" to tell whether interest rates would rise further. "Our task is to get inflation back down to the 2 percent target level and stay at that level," Pill said, "and we will make whatever decisions are necessary to ensure that that target is met." ”

　　Bank of America Warning: U.S. stocks rebound excessively Recession in the second half of the year is a significant risk

　　Bank of America strategists, led by Michael Hartnett, said the rally in U.S. stocks has gone too far, and investors will face a brutal decline if economic growth collapses in the second half of the year. Analysts say the "most painful deals" are always "postponed revelations" and that the risk is that inflation will intensify again in the coming months and that the U.S. economy will face a deeper recession in the second half of the year after remaining resilient in the first half of the year.

　　Bank of America, citing EPFR Global, said there had been $44.7 billion in inflows into global equity funds over the past four weeks. Since the beginning of 2023, stocks have continued to rally as inflation shows signs of cooling, optimism about China's reopening and expectations that slowing economic growth will force global central banks to pause interest rate hikes.

　　Musk's Mars colonization plan has been approved again! Bill Gates: It's better to spend too much money than to invest in vaccines

　　As the founder of the American space exploration technology company SpaceX, "Iron Man" Elon Musk has ambitious plans to colonize Mars, and he claims that he created SpaceX to achieve this goal. However, Musk's idea has been poured cold water on many times, and even Bill Gates, who also has the label of a genius entrepreneur, does not support Musk's plan.

　　In a media interview broadcast Friday local time, the Microsoft co-founder expressed skepticism about Musk's vision of colonizing Mars. Asked if going to Mars was worth the money, Gates said: "In my opinion, it's not worth it. He added that funding vaccine development is better than sending people to Mars. Gates explained that going to Mars is actually quite expensive, but if the money is used to buy a measles vaccine, it will only cost $1,000 per life saved.

　　Approved by financial regulators, Apple Pay will land in South Korea this year

　　After years of discussions with local authorities, South Korea's Apple Pay has received approval from financial regulators, paving the way for the launch of a mobile payment system in the first half of this year.

　　"Taking into account the relevant rules and regulations and their interpretations, we confirm that credit card companies can facilitate the introduction of Apple Pay services because they have followed the necessary procedures," the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a press release. ”

　　The FSC stressed that credit card companies should not transfer fees incurred using Apple Pay to customers or stores, while calling for measures to ensure customers are protected from risks such as personal information theft. The service was initially expected to launch late last year. But experts now say Apple Pay could launch in the middle of the first half of this year.

　　Qudian re-meets the minimum share price requirements for listing on the New York Stock Exchange

　　Qudian said it had received a notification letter from the NYSE on Feb. 1 that the stock had re-met the minimum share price requirements under the NYSE listing rules. It is reported that the company received a notice of non-compliance from the New York Stock Exchange on September 22, 2022, stating that the company's American depositary shares (ADSs) were trading at a price below the continuous listing standard of the New York Stock Exchange.