On Thursday, April 25, Eastern time, the U.S. GDP in the first quarter increased by 1.6% year-on-year, far below the 2.4% forecast by economists, and the three major stock indexes closed down across the board, and the U.S. Treasury yields climbed.
Google's parent company Alphabet beat expectations in revenue and earnings in the first quarter, and announced its first dividend, and its stock price rose more than 14% after hours.
IBM posted its biggest intraday decline since 2021 as the results of its consulting division disappointed investors.
U.S. oil fell after the release of GDP data before rebounding nearly 1% to close at a new high in more than a week.
GDP data fell short of expectations, and market rate cut expectations were postponed
U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter was lower than expected. The preliminary annualized quarterly rate of real GDP in the United States rose by 1.6% in the first quarter, with an expected increase of 2.4%, and the final value in the fourth quarter of last year rose by 3.4%, the revised value rose by 3.2%, and the preliminary value rose by 3.3%.
GDP data weighed heavily on market rate hike expectations, with traders delaying expectations for the Fed's first rate cut of the year until December.
Another data showed that the core PCE price index in the United States in the first quarter rose by 3.7% on an annualized basis, with an expected increase of 3.4%, and the final value in the fourth quarter of 2023 rose by 2.0%, the revised value increased by 2.1%, and the preliminary value rose by 2.0%.
"Fed mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos noted that Thursday's GDP report was the latest wake-up call for investors and Fed policymakers, who have been holding their breath in the hope that lower inflation could allow interest rate cuts to begin in earnest this summer.
Following the release of the data, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that economic data released on Thursday showed that the U.S. economy "remains strong and continues to grow steadily."
Biden also stressed that the unemployment rate has remained below four percent for more than two years. "But we have more work to do. The cost is too high for a working family, and I'm trying to reduce the cost. Biden said.
At the close, the Dow fell 0.98% to 38,085.8, the S&P 500 fell 0.46% to 5,048.42 and the Nasdaq fell 0.64% to 15,611.76.
U.S. Treasury yields climbed, with the 2-year yield briefly breaking through the 5% mark and the 10-year yield rising 6.7 basis points to 4.721%.
Alphabet盘后股价大涨
TECH STOCKS MOSTLY FELL, WITH WIND'S TAMAMA TECHNOLOGY INDEX DOWN 1.24%, TESLA UP 4.97%, APPLE UP 0.51%, AMAZON DOWN 1.65%, NETFLIX UP 1.74%, Google DOWN 1.94%, Facebook DOWN 10.56%, and Microsoft DOWN 2.45%.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced its first-quarter earnings report, with revenue and net profit exceeding market expectations. Revenue was $80.54 billion versus $79.04 billion expected, and net profit was $23.662 billion versus $19.6 billion expected.
Google Cloud, Google Ads, and YouTube all beat expectations in ad revenue. Google Cloud revenue was $9.57 billion, compared to an expectation of $9.37 billion. Google's advertising revenue was $61.66 billion, compared to an expected $60.18 billion. YouTube ad revenue in the first quarter was $8.09 billion, compared to an expectation of $7.33 billion.
In addition, Alphabet announced that its board of directors approved the initiation of a cash dividend of $0.2 per share, authorizing the repurchase of up to $70 billion in shares.
Affected by the above news, Google rose more than 14% after hours.
Microsoft reported earnings per share of $2.94 versus $2.83 expected, revenue of $61.858 billion versus $60.885 billion, and net profit of $21.939 billion versus $21.16 billion expected. Intelligent cloud revenue was $26.71 billion versus $26.25 billion expected.
Microsoft's U.S. stock rose more than 4% after hours.
Weak sales in IBM's consulting business posted their biggest intraday decline in three years
IBM's revenue and net income both fell short of expectations, with revenue of $14.46 billion versus $14.55 billion expected and net income of $1.61 billion versus $1.16 billion expected.
Investors have been eyeing the fact that IBM's second-largest business consulting division posted first-quarter revenue of $5.2 billion, unchanged from last year, as the market believes there could be a decline in the future.
At the same time, IBM announced that it will acquire software company HashiCorp for $35 per share in cash, valuing the company at $6.4 billion. This is IBM's largest acquisition since it acquired software company RedHat for $31.8 billion in 2019.
IBM fell as much as 10% in intraday trading on Thursday, its biggest intraday decline since 2021. It ended down 8.25%.
U.S. oil fell first and then rebounded
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for June delivery rose 76 cents, or 0.92%, to settle at $83.57 a barrel on Thursday.
The futures price fell as much as 36 cents, or 0.43%, to $82.45 a barrel after the release of GDP data.
Chinese assets performed well
Most of the popular Chinese concept stocks rose, with Good Future up 8.89%, Structure Biotech up 7%, Gaotu Group up 6.82%, VNET up 5.06%, EHang up 4.06%, New Oriental up 3.32%, BeiGene up 3.08%, BOSS Zhipin up 2.46%, and Wuxin Technology up 2.14%.
In terms of declines, Canaan Technology fell 6.19%, Huya Live fell 4.34%, Canadian Solar fell 3.07%, and Zhihu fell 2.88%.
China's new energy vehicle stocks were mixed, with NIO down 0.49%, Xpeng up 0.07%, and Li Auto down 1.68%.
Israeli media said that Netanyahu approved plans to conduct a ground operation in Rafah
According to CCTV news, on the evening of April 25, local time, the Israeli public broadcaster briefed that at the cabinet meeting held on the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the plan to carry out ground military operations in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, but the Israeli cabinet has not yet made a relevant decision. The IDF is still awaiting relevant directives.
Earlier, the IDF had informed the Government that its forces had completed preparations for a ground military operation against Rafah and that the exact date of the operation would be decided by the Cabinet.
The Israeli military said at a wartime cabinet meeting that day that it had completed preparations for a ground operation against Rafah, as reported earlier on April 25. The Chief of the General Staff of the IDF, Al-Harlevy, said that the operational plan in Rafah had been submitted to the "political level" and that the military would act after receiving orders.
A village and town in southern Lebanon was attacked by Israeli white phosphorus bombs, triggering a wildfire
According to CCTV news, on April 25, local time, the Lebanese state news agency reported that the town of Aaron in southern Lebanon was attacked by white phosphorus bombs fired by Israeli forces on the same day, and the attack caused a mountain fire.
At present, the Israeli army has not responded to this.
"Half of the commanders have been killed", Israeli air strikes again
According to CCTV news, the Israel Defense Forces released news on April 25 local time that on the evening of the 24th, the Israeli Air Force attacked Allah's infrastructure in the Marlon Elras area of southern Lebanon and the observation post in the Markaba area. In addition, the Israeli army said its artillery had repeatedly "neutralized the threat" on the Lebanese border on April 24.
On April 24, local time, Israeli Defense Minister Gallant said during an inspection of the IDF Northern Command in the northern border city of Safed in Israel that half of the armed commanders of Allah in southern Lebanon had been killed and the other half were still hiding. The next period is a decisive period of action.
Israeli forces bombed Gaza
CCTV News quoted the Palestinian "Al-Quds Al-Sharif" newspaper as reporting that on April 25, local time, IDF warplanes bombed people carrying aid west of Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians.
Earlier, Israel had been bombarding the Gaza Strip for two consecutive days.
On 24 April, a number of hospitals and security sources in the Gaza Strip said that Israel had launched airstrikes on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah and the Nussailit refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Agence France-Presse reported that Israel had also bombed many places in northern Gaza the night before. The Israeli military said the warplanes had "hit more than 50 targets" in the past 24 hours.
Reuters said on April 24 that Israel suddenly withdrew most of its troops from Khan Younis and other places at the beginning of this month, and the situation in the Gaza Strip has been relatively calm in recent weeks. Some people said it was one of the heaviest bombardments since the war began.
(Compiled by Zhao Xinyi)
Editor: Xiao Mo
Review: Xu Wen