On Friday (April 19), the three major U.S. stock indexes were extremely differentiated, with the share price of heavyweight Nvidia plummeting 10%, dragging the S&P and Nasdaq down for six consecutive days, while the Dow rebounded for the second consecutive trading day.
At the close, the S&P 500 fell 0.88% to 4,967.23, having last closed below 5,000 two months ago. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.05% to 15,282.01 points, both of which recorded six consecutive daily declines, which is also a record of consecutive declines not seen since October 2022.
At the same time, thanks to the strong performance of constituents such as American Express (+6.23%) and JPMorgan Chase (+2.51%), the Dow Jones, which excludes Nvidia, rose 0.56% to 37,986.40 points, rebounding for the second consecutive session.
Dow heat map
On the weekly line, the three major indexes also performed differentially, with the Dow rising 0.01% this week, ending a two-week losing streak; The S&P 500 fell 3.05%, its worst weekly performance since March 2023. The Nasdaq fell 5.52%, recording its biggest weekly decline since November 2022, and its four-week losing streak is also the longest losing streak since December 2022.
Nasdaq weekly chart
On a macro front, explosions were heard in Isfahan province in central Iran earlier in the day. Some US media reported that Israel had attacked a site in Iran that day. Iranian President Raisi said a few days ago that any behavior that further harms Iran's interests will be met with a stronger and larger-scale response.
At the same time, as the US inflation data has not improved significantly in recent months, a number of Fed officials have been "hawkish" one after another, and some of them are even open to further interest rate hikes. Even the "big dove" Chicago Fed President Goolsbee said that it is necessary to wait for the price path to become clearer before raising interest rates.
Bill Northey, investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, said, "U.S. inflation is worse than the market expects, and even more than the Fed expects, which makes the stock market need to digest a lot of shocks." ”
Mark Hackett, head of investment research at Nationwide, commented that geopolitical uncertainty, combined with inflation in the United States and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, has led to a rapid and dramatic shift in the market landscape and investor sentiment. ”
Ulrich Urbahn, head of cross-asset strategy and research at Berenberg Bank, said he remains slightly bearish on U.S. equities because it is "the most crowded and expensive market," and that the upside for U.S. equities will be limited after the U.S. election and until we get clearer information, and expect some volatility in the interim. ”
Top stock performance
On Friday, Nvidia fell 10%, its biggest daily decline since March 2020, and its total market value evaporated by more than $200 billion (about 1,448 billion yuan) in one day, and its share price closed at $762 per share, the lowest level since February 22 and the first time since November last year that it closed below the 50-day moving average.
Supermicrocomputer, which is closely linked to Nvidia, closed down 23.14%, the biggest one-day drop since August last year and also closed at the lowest level in more than two months. Supermicro announced on Friday that it will release its quarterly report on April 30. But the lack of initial results as usual has led to a sharp drop in the stock price and dragged down Nvidia.
The Associated Press has previously mentioned that Nvidia's weight in the S&P 500 is not the same as it was a year ago, which has boosted its accelerating rally, but also made it vulnerable to a pullback, especially when critics say Nvidia and other stocks caught up in the AI frenzy are rising too much and too fast.
During the day, Microsoft, another "AI vane", closed down 1.27%, and its market value fell below $3 trillion; Apple fell 1.22%; Google C fell 1.11%, surpassing Nvidia to return to the "third place in the US stocks".
Amazon fell 2.56%, Meta Platforms fell 4.13%; Tesla fell 1.92%, and its market capitalization was overtaken by ExxonMobil (+1.15%) for the first time since January 2023.
In terms of Chinese concept stocks, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 1.04% to 5,817.95 points, down 2.09% for the week.
Most of the popular Chinese concept stocks were lower, with Li Auto down 9.6%, NIO down 5%, Xpeng Motors down 3.35%, New Oriental down 2.19%, Tencent Music down 1.90%, Good Future down 1.89%, Baidu down 0.55%, Pinduoduo down 0.18%, JD.com up 0.2%, and Alibaba up 0.28%. (Source: Finance Associated Press)