US stocks close: US stocks hit multi-week highs in April, with the Nasdaq hitting a seven-month high at the close.

Steven000 wrote a column · Apr 29, 2023 23:52

The three major US stock indexes opened lower as a group, $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ Turned higher at the opening, rose more than 200 points at midday, and the S&P 500 index turned higher in less than half an hour after the opening. $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ About half an hour after the opening, there was a turnaround, and the afternoon session collectively set new daily highs. The three major indexes closed up for two consecutive days, with the S&P and the Dow up for two straight days after two days of decline, while the Nasdaq saw three consecutive days of gains, with the momentum significantly slowing compared to Thursday.

US stocks close: US stocks hit multi-week highs in April, with the Nasdaq hitting a seven-month high at the close.

Rising nearly 2% on Thursday. $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ Gaining 0.83%, closing at 4169.48 points, hitting a new closing high since February 2nd. The Dow rose 272 points, up 2.4% on Thursday, with an increase of 0.8%, closing at 34098.16 points, reaching a new high since February 15th. The Nasdaq rose 2.4% on Thursday, up 0.69%, closing at 12226.58 points, hitting a new high since September 12th of last year.

Small-cap stock indexes dominated by value stocks $Ishares Russell 2000 Value Etf (IWN.US)$ Rising 1.01%, outperforming the market, continuing to move away from the low since March 23rd, but failing to erase the previous three days' decline. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index rose 0.65%, hitting a high since August 18th of last year for the third consecutive day.

Thanks to a significant rise on Thursday, most major U.S. stock indexes have accumulated gains this week. The Dow rose 0.86%, offsetting the decline from the four-week winning streak that ended last week. The S&P rose 0.87%, the Nasdaq rose 1.28%, gaining nearly 2.8% on Thursday. $NASDAQ 100 Index (.NDX.US)$ Up 1.89%, erasing the previous week's losses, marking the fifth consecutive week of gains in the last seven weeks. The Russell 2000, which has risen for two consecutive weeks, fell 1.26%, marking the second consecutive week of decline in the last six weeks.

Among the major sectors of the S&P 500, only one fell on Friday, $Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU.US)$ falling nearly 0.2%, $Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY.US)$ Rose by 0.26%. $Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE.US)$ Leading the rise by nearly 1.6%. There are a total of six sectors which saw cumulative gains this week, including the one where Meta is located. $The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLC.US)$ Leading the rise by about 3.8%, the sector where Microsoft is located. $The Technology Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLK.US)$ up more than 2% $Real Estate Select Sector Spdr Fund (The) (XLRE.US)$ And $Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP.US)$ Rose by over 1%. Among the five sectors that declined cumulatively, $Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU.US)$ Dropped by about 1%. $Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI.US)$ And $The Health Care Select Sector SPDR® Fund (XLV.US)$ Falling around 0.6%, $Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB.US)$ And $Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF.US)$ Falling by nearly 0.2%.

In April, only three sectors saw cumulative declines, with the industrial sector falling by over 1%, non-essential consumer goods falling by about 1%, and materials by nearly 0.2%. Communications services rose by nearly 3.6%, leading the gains, while essential consumer goods and energy also rose by over 3%, and financials and healthcare by around 3%.

Most leading technology stocks rose by the end of the trading day, relying on intraday gains to close higher. $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ Closing up by about 2.6%, extending gains for two consecutive days, but failing to offset all the losses from the first four days of the week. Among the six major FAANMG technology stocks, $Netflix (NFLX.US)$ Closing up by nearly 1.3%, marking a two-day streak of gains since April 18th high; $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ Closing up by 0.8%, extending gains for three consecutive days, continuing to reach new highs since early April last year; $Apple (AAPL.US)$ Up nearly 0.8%, up for two consecutive days, continuing to refresh the high since August last year; the parent company of Facebook, which surged 14% on Thursday after announcing its first-quarter report. $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ The market fell at the opening, but due to the late rebound, it rose by over 0.7% at the close, rising for three consecutive days, reaching a new high in about 15 months; however, at the earnings conference call after Thursday's market close, it was revealed that the revenue growth rate for the first quarter has hit a new low since the disclosure of performance, as Amazon's AWS business, after further slowing growth this month. $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ The market opened with a temporary 5% drop, closing down about 4%, giving back most of Thursday's gains. The rise on Thursday was a strong rebound. $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ Alphabet, the parent company, initially fell more than 1% during the session but gradually narrowed the decline to over 0.2% at the close, temporarily leaving its high since April 14.

Among these technology stocks, only Amazon and Tesla, which fell by 1.4% this week, have declined, Meta surged nearly 13%, Microsoft rose 7.5%, Apple rose 2.8%, Alphabet rose 1.8%, and Netflix rose 0.6%. In April, Meta surged over 13% to continue leading, Microsoft rose over 6%, Alphabet rose over 3%, Apple rose nearly 3%, Amazon rose over 2%, while Tesla fell over 20% and Netflix fell by 4.5%.

Impacted by Amazon, most cloud computing stocks fell on Friday. Among them, a company with first-quarter revenue below expectations, weak second-quarter and full-year guidance, $Cloudflare (NET.US)$ down by 21%, $Confluent (CFLT.US)$ down by 4.4%, $DigitalOcean (DOCN.US)$ Down 3.8%, $Snowflake (SNOW.US)$ Down nearly 0.5%, $MongoDB (MDB.US)$ Down 0.4%, while $Salesforce (CRM.US)$ Rose 1.2%, $Adobe (ADBE.US)$ Rose nearly 1.7%, $Five9 (FIVN.US)$ Rose nearly 4.7%.

After a continuous decline for five days, chip stocks rose for three consecutive days in overall performance, outperforming the large cap on Friday. $PHLX Semiconductor Index (.SOX.US)$ And $iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX.US)$ Both rose 1.8%, but fell nearly 0.9% and over 1% respectively this week, dropping over 7% in April. Among the components of the IT sector of the s&p 500, it incurred the largest quarterly loss in history, but the amount was lower than expected. $Intel (INTC.US)$ Rise by 4%. $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ up nearly 4%, $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ 、 $Qualcomm (QCOM.US)$ 、 $ON Semiconductor (ON.US)$ up more than 2% $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ Rose nearly 2%, $Applied Materials (AMAT.US)$ 、 $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$ rising over 1%.

AI concept stocks rose together. $C3.ai (AI.US)$ Closing up by 1.3%, wiping out Thursday's losses, away from the low point since the end of January. $SoundHound AI (SOUN.US)$ Up by 4.7%, not approaching the near three-week low created on Tuesday. $BigBear.ai Holdings (BBAI.US)$ Up by 2.8%, continuously rising for three days to a high since April 20.

Among the stocks that announced financial reports, the one with the highest quarterly profit in history $Exxon Mobil (XOM.US)$ Closing up by 1.3%; quarterly profit also exceeded expectations $Chevron (CVX.US)$ Closing up nearly 1% due to steady growth in internet business, first-quarter revenue outperforming expectations for broadband and cable television service providers. $Charter Communications (CHTR.US)$ Closing up 7.6%, a social media with first-quarter revenue below expectations. $Snap Inc (SNAP.US)$ Closing down 16.8%; Another social media disappoints with second-quarter revenue growth guidance. $Pinterest (PINS.US)$ Closing down 15.7%; First-quarter revenue and profit below expectations for photovoltaic stocks. $First Solar (FSLR.US)$ Closing down 9.1%.

Key market news

The Federal Reserve reflects on the collapse of Silicon Valley banks, admitting faults in inadequate regulation and seeking broad enhancements in bank regulation.
Fed Vice Chairman Barr, responsible for financial industry regulation, summarized four main causes of Silicon Valley bank collapse, three of which are related to inadequate Fed oversight. He stated that Fed examiners identified risks but did not take sufficient measures to ensure timely resolution by Silicon Valley banks; the Fed is considering strengthening a series of regulations for banks with assets in the hundreds of billions of dollars, enhancing banks' risk control over interest rate liquidity risk, which may lead to increased capital requirements, restrictions on repurchases, dividends, and executive compensation.

U.S. inflation remains high, with the core PCE price index rising 4.6% year-on-year in March.

In March, the s&p 500 index's PCE price index in the USA increased by 4.2% year-on-year, higher than the expected value of 4.1% and lower than the previous value of 5.0%; month-on-month growth of 0.1% is in line with expectations. The employment cost indicators increased by 1.2% year-on-year in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, exceeding expectations. Personal consumption expenditure increased by 6% year-on-year, the slowest since February 2021. Looking at the month-on-month changes, personal spending in the USA remained unchanged at 0%, the same as last month, while personal income increased by 0.3% compared to the previous month, slightly higher than the expected 0.2%. The savings rate of Americans in March rose to 5.1%, the highest since January 2022.

Short-term inflation expectations for American consumers remain high, with long-term expectations rising for the first time in five months.

In April, the final value of the University of Michigan's 1-year inflation expectation in the USA remained at the initial value of 4.6%, far exceeding the previous value of 3.6% in March; the 5-year inflation expectation increased from 2.9% to 3.0%, the first increase in five months. The overall final value of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index was 63.5, unchanged from the initial value, both better than March.

Important News from the Company

OpenAI has received investments from Sequoia Capital and other venture capital firms, with a valuation of at least 27 billion US dollars.
OpenAI completed a 10.3 billion US dollar financing, reaching a valuation of 27 billion-29 billion US dollars. Documents show that venture capital firms participating in this round of financing include Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, California's Andreessen Horowitz, New York's Thrive, and K2 Global. It is understood that Founders Fund also participated; the total amount of the venture capital investment slightly exceeded 0.3 billion US dollars, and this round of investment is in the same round as Microsoft's earlier investment. Earlier this year, Microsoft's investment in OpenAI was reportedly about 10 billion US dollars. (TechCrunch)

Reports indicate that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the USA is preparing to take over First Republic Bank.

After the close of trading on Friday, media reports citing informed sources stated that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the USA is preparing to immediately take over First Republic Bank, marking the failure of a series of efforts to rescue the bank. Earlier on Friday, due to reports stating that the "ultimate result for First Republic Bank is likely to be taken over", the stock price fell by 43.30%, and the latest news caused the bank's stock to drop by as much as 50% after hours.

Is God still envious? Exxon Mobil's Q1 net income set a historical record for the same period.

Before the market opened on Friday, Eastern Time, energy giant Exxon Mobil released its financial report for the first quarter of 2023. The report shows that Exxon Mobil's Q1 net income reached $11.43 billion, or $2.79 per share, setting a historical record for the same period, a 108.57% increase from $5.48 billion in the same period last year. Analysts had previously expected Exxon Mobil's Q1 profit to reach $10.3 billion.

US Department of Transportation: The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately take action after the Boeing 737 MAX accident.

On April 28, local time, the US Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General released a report stating that some engineers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suggested grounding the Boeing 737 MAX 8 after the fatal crash in March 2019. They mentioned similarities between this accident and the 2018 crash of the same model airplane, but the FAA did not take immediate action. The US grounded the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on March 13, 2019, and lifted the flight ban in November 2020.

I hope my sharing can provide some practical help to everyone. It's not easy to pick and transcribe, and your support, likes, comments, and messages are the greatest encouragement and help to me. I've spent a lot of time and effort on each review and conclusion, and I'm grateful to all my friends.

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$

$Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$

$SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Trust (DIA.US)$

Disclaimer: Community is offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. and is for educational purposes only. Read more