Last week, investors continued to adjust their expectations for the prospect of Fed rate cuts, with key Treasury yields rising for the third straight week. At the same time, the earnings reports of a number of technology companies, including lithography giant ASML, were bearish, triggering a general decline in U.S. technology stocks, and the three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed last week. Among them, only the Dow Jones rose slightly by 0.01%. The S&P 500 fell 3.05%, its biggest weekly decline in nearly six months, and the Nasdaq fell 5.52%, falling for four consecutive weeks.
Last week, the international gold price rose for four consecutive weeks
In terms of precious metals, the geopolitical conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East kept the market risk-averse, and the international gold price rose 1.67% last week, rising for four consecutive weeks.
The seven major tech giants in the U.S. stock market experienced the "worst week in history" last week
The total market capitalization has evaporated by about $950 billion
Last week, chip giant Nvidia's stock price fell 13.6%, and its market value evaporated by nearly $300 billion in a week, far exceeding the market value of its main rival AMD Semiconductor (AMD) at $237 billion. Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Netflix, Tesla, the total market value of the seven major U.S. tech giants evaporated about $950 billion last week.
International oil prices fell cumulatively last week
Affected by geopolitical factors in the Middle East, international oil prices fluctuated more than last week. Investors estimate that the conflict between Israel and Iran is unlikely to escalate further, coupled with the month-on-month increase in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, the U.S. dollar index has rebounded to a five-month high, and international oil prices fell last week, of which U.S. oil futures fell 2.94%, and cloth oil futures fell 3.49%.
This week's market attention
US GDP data for the first quarter and key inflation indicators for March
This week, the market will focus on the US GDP for the first quarter, that is, the GDP data, as well as the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for March, a key inflation indicator closely tracked by the Federal Reserve. Economists generally expect that due to the impact of high interest rates, as the momentum of consumption growth weakens, the US GDP will grow at an annualized rate of 2% in the first quarter of this year, a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter of last year.
In view of the rebound in a number of US inflation data since the beginning of this year, the market expects that the US PCE data in March may also accelerate the recovery. If the data is higher than expected, the more "dovish" monetary policy tone at the Fed's March meeting may change, and the market needs to prepare for the Fed to delay the rate cut.
In terms of the U.S. stock earnings season, Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, Google and other technology giants will release their latest earnings reports this week, and investors will mainly focus on the profit growth of these companies and the profitability of their AI business.
The Bank of Japan will announce its latest interest rate decision this week
This week, the Bank of Japan will publish its latest interest rate decision and economic outlook. The market generally expects that the Bank of Japan will "hold still" at this interest rate meeting. On the one hand, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda recently said that monetary policy will remain accommodative for a certain period of time. On the other hand, the Bank of Japan has limited room to raise interest rates, and it may wait until the Fed cuts interest rates to announce a rate hike in the future.
Transferred from CCTV Finance