Close: U.S. stocks close with high-tech stocks leading gains The market awaits the non-farm payrolls data

In the early morning of the 3rd, Beijing time, U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rebounded after two consecutive declines. U.S. jobless claims data came in lower than expected last week, and labor costs rose the most in a year in the first quarter. Investors continue to assess the Fed's monetary policy outlook and await more earnings and important labor market data.

The Dow rose 322.57 points, or 0.85 percent, to 38,225.86, the Nasdaq added 235.48 points, or 1.51 percent, to 15,840.96 and the S&P 500 added 45.80 points, or 0.91 percent, to 5,064.19.

The first-quarter earnings report of U.S. stocks was released intensively. Chipmaker Qualcomm surged 9.7% after better-than-expected adjusted earnings and strong revenue guidance.

Shares of food delivery service DoorDash plunged 10.3% after the company posted a larger-than-PS loss than Wall Street expected.

Used car retailer Carvana surged 33.6% after reporting its best-ever earnings figures.

Investors are still assessing the Fed's monetary policy outlook. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced that interest rates would remain unchanged. In a closely watched press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell largely ruled out raising interest rates as the central bank's next move, even though there has been little sign of easing inflation lately.

U.S. stocks rallied quickly on Wednesday after Powell's dovish comments, with all three major indexes rising more than 1%, but then gradually weakening, closing the Dow about 0.2% higher and the S&P and Nasdaq closing down about 0.3% by the close.

Eric Winograd, head of developed market economics research at AllianceBernstein, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell's emphasis that the central bank's next move is unlikely to be a rate hike "should calm financial market sentiment." But despite this, the question that traders are most concerned about is when the Fed will actually start cutting interest rates, and the answer to this question remains uncertain.

"'Stay higher for longer' is the Fed's mantra," Winograd said. We've passed the 'higher' part and now moved on to the 'longer' part, unless something dramatic changes. ”

Traders still expect the Fed to cut interest rates at least until September, according to CME Group's latest futures market pricing. The FedWatch tool shows that money markets are pricing in a 58% chance of at least a 25 basis point rate cut in September, compared to a 69% chance of a rate cut in November.

Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar, said: "The Fed's official statement effectively acknowledges the 'lack of further progress' in bringing inflation down in recent months. But Powell expressed his firm belief that the current monetary policy is sufficiently dampening enough for inflation to eventually return to the Fed's 2% target...... Therefore, the next policy move is unlikely to be a rate hike. ”

On Thursday's economic data front, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of initial jobless claims for the week ended April 27 was 208,000, with an expectation of 212,000 and a previous value of 207,000.

The four-week average of initial jobless claims for the week ended April 27 was 210,000, compared with 213,250 in the previous week. The number of continuing claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 20 was 1.774 million, with an expectation of 1.797 million and a previous value of 1.781 million.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade balance in March was -$69.4 billion, the largest deficit since April 2023, with an expectation of -$69.1 billion and a previous value of -$68.9 billion. The import value in March was 327 billion US dollars, compared with the previous value of 331.9 billion US dollars. The export value in March was 257.6 billion US dollars, compared with the previous value of 263 billion US dollars.

The preliminary non-farm productivity in the United States in the first quarter increased by 0.3% month-on-month, with an expectation of 0.8% and a previous value of 3.30%. The preliminary non-farm unit labor cost in the first quarter increased by 4.7% year-on-year, with an expectation of 3.3% and a previous value of 0.40%.

Regarding the sharp rise in non-farm unit labor costs in the United States in the first quarter, analysts said that the rise in unit labor costs is a grim signal for markets that are already worried about rising wages. Previous revisions mitigated its impact, but only slightly. But analysts warn that the numbers are difficult to measure and are often revised.

This week, the market will focus on Friday's April non-farm payrolls report, which will provide the latest clues for the market to further judge the state of the US labor market and the Fed's monetary policy outlook.

Stocks in focus

Nvidia supplier SK Hynix said on Thursday that its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips are almost sold out by 2025 as the AI boom drives demand for them. The South Korean memory chip maker said its HBM chips are fully sold out in 2024. The company said it will start mass production of the latest generation of HBM chips, the 12-layer HBM3E, from the third quarter of this year.

According to an industry survey data, in April this year, the auto manufacturing industry laid off the most workers in major industries in the United States, and Tesla accounted for the vast majority of layoffs in the industry. Musk has recently fired two Tesla executives and plans to lay off hundreds more due to his frustration with declining sales and the pace of layoffs.

Skyworks Solutions, Apple's wireless network IC supplier, has hinted that iPhone sales are not optimistic.

The company produces chips for Apple, and 64 percent of Skyworks' total revenue comes from Apple orders, which account for 85 percent of iPhone sales. In the second quarter of 2024, Skyworks' revenue was $1.046 billion, down 8.7% year-on-year, and the company said that the market sales performance was lower than expected, and the next quarter is not expected to be optimistic.

In the first quarter of 2024, AMD's revenue increased by 2.24% year-on-year to $5.47 billion, slightly higher than market expectations, but suffered a sequential decline below the $6.17 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, and achieved a net profit of $123 million during the period, compared with a loss of $140 million in the same period last year.

AMD said in its earnings report that the increase in revenue in the first quarter was mainly due to the increase in revenue in the data center business unit, which was attributed to higher sales of AMD Instinct GPUs and 4th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs, as well as higher revenue in the customer segment, mainly driven by sales of Ryzen 8000 series processors, but the decline in revenue in the gaming segment dragged down the overall performance.

It is understood that Microsoft recently announced a huge investment in OpenAI to strengthen its competitiveness in this field and catch up with industry giant Google. At present, Microsoft's total investment in OpenAI has exceeded $13 billion, a figure that highlights Microsoft's ambitions in the field of AI.

A recently leaked internal letter from Microsoft also reflects the company's eagerness and concern to catch up with Google in the field of artificial intelligence in recent years.

According to media reports, Google will lay off at least 200 people from its "core" organization, including key teams and engineering talent. As part of the restructuring of the division, the company will recruit for positions in Mexico and India.

According to Google's website, its core division is responsible for building the technology foundation behind the company's flagship products and protecting users' online safety. The core team includes key technology units from information technology, Python development teams, technical infrastructure, security foundation, application platforms, core developers, and various engineering roles.

Amazon's operating margin improved significantly to 10.7% in the quarter from 7.8% in the previous quarter, surpassing its all-time high of 8.2% in the first quarter of 2021. This achievement was driven by significant cost-cutting measures implemented by CEO Andy Jassy, as well as strong growth in high-margin businesses such as advertising and cloud computing.

UBS raised Amazon's price target to $217 and maintained a "buy" rating.

Moderna reported first-quarter revenue of $167 million versus analysts' expectations of $99.6 million, first-quarter loss per share of $3.07 versus analysts' expectations of $3.58 per share, and first-quarter R&D expenses of $1.06 billion versus analysts' expectations of $1.14 billion.

Shell's revenue in the first fiscal quarter was $72.48 billion, down 16.7% year-on-year. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $1.2. Stronger-than-expected first-quarter profits, driven by improved refining margins and buoyant oil trading. Adjusted net income for the first quarter was $7.73 billion, down from $9.65 billion a year ago and beating analysts' average estimate of $6.25 billion.

Elsewhere, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 5 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $78.95 a barrel.