On Thursday, April 18, Eastern time, the three major U.S. stock indexes closed mixed, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both recording a fifth consecutive day of decline, and the president of the New York Fed said that he was not in a hurry to cut interest rates, and even had the possibility of raising interest rates. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note then rose, approaching the high of the range.
Musk admits that the severance pay for layoffs is too low. Tesla fell 3.55%, hitting a new closing low since January 2023.
Chinese assets broke out, popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, and the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 0.99%.
New York Fed President Williams: No rush to cut interest rates, maybe even raise
The Fed's monetary policy outlook remains in focus.
New York Fed President Williams said on Thursday that monetary policy is in a good state and there is no rush to cut interest rates, and that the terminal interest rate will need to be lowered, and that it will be cut at some point, and the economy will decide the timing.
"A rate hike is not a base case prediction, and if the data calls for a rate hike, the Fed will raise rates. Williams also said.
Fed's Kashkari also said that the Fed can cut interest rates once inflation continues to fall back to 2%, but it may not do so until 2025. As political pressure mounts, the Fed is paying more attention to its own mission.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note rose 5 basis points to around 4.99% at one point on Williams' "likely rate hike" speech, close to the high of the recent volatility range.
In stocks, the Dow rose 0.06% to 37,775.38 on Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.22% to 5,011.12, and the Nasdaq fell 0.52% to 15,601.5, with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recording their fifth consecutive day of decline.
Musk admits that the severance pay is too low, and Tesla has closed at a new low since January last year
On April 15, local time, Tesla planned to lay off more than 10% of its employees worldwide, and on the day the news was released, Tesla's stock price fell by more than 5%.
According to media reports, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an internal email to employees on Wednesday, saying that the severance pay paid this week was too low for some of the employees who were laid off.
Musk said that in the process of restructuring Tesla, he noticed that some severance payments were unreasonably low and were being corrected immediately.
Tesla fell 3.55% on Thursday, hitting a new closing low since January 2023.
Technology stocks mostly fell, with Apple down 0.57%, Amazon down 1.16%, Netflix down 0.41%, Google up 0.32%, Facebook up 1.54%, and Microsoft down 1.82%.
In other news, synthesized from Wind, sources said that Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI could face an EU antitrust investigation.
Meta Platforms said it has partnered with Google to include its search results in its assistant's responses. In addition, Meta launched a new version of its AI large language model, LLAMA, and at the same time released an updated version of the AI assistant.
Google said it will integrate teams dedicated to R&D and building Google's DeepMind model.
Netflix hints at slowing growth and plunges 5% after hours
After trading on Thursday, streaming giant Netflix announced its financial results for the first quarter of this year, and the overall situation was better than expected.
Netflix added a net 9.33 million paid streaming subscribers in the first quarter, nearly double analysts' expectations of 4.84 million. The number of paid members was 269.6 million, which also exceeded analysts' expectations of 264.52 million.
At the same time, Netflix issued an early warning that "seasonal factors will cause the increase in users in the second quarter to be lower than in the first quarter", that is, hinting that the positive momentum of user growth will slow down, triggering an after-hours decline in stock prices, which once fell more than 5%.
WTI crude oil closed slightly higher
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) crude futures for May delivery closed up $0.04, or 0.05%, at $82.73 a barrel.
WTI fell more than 3% on Wednesday as traders believe a war between Israel and Iran could disrupt crude supply.
According to Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, Sina, "Now that we've experienced such a big sell-off, people are quietly coming back. He said oil demand looked stable as there were no signs of an imminent slowdown.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index up 0.99%, Gaotu Group up 8.69%, EHang up 5.66%, Dajian Yuncang up 5.29%, Weibo up 3.73%, Zai Lab up 3.64%, ZTO Express up 3.63%, Zhiwen Group up 2.9%, NetEase up 2.85%, Lufax Holdings up 2.76%, and New Oriental up 2.74%.
In terms of declines, Canaan Technology fell 17.11%, Canadian Solar fell 3.9%, Legend Biotech fell 3.5%, and Melco Resorts & Entertainment fell 2.66%.
China's new energy vehicle stocks were mixed, with NIO up 2.17%, Xpeng down 3.44%, and Li Auto up 1.57%.
(Compiled by Zhao Xinyi)
Editor: Xiao Mo
Review: Muyu