According to Futu Securities, the three major indexes fell last Friday due to a major cybersecurity incident at CrowdStrike (CRWD.US), which caused Microsoft (MSFT.US) to crash worldwide, affecting multiple industries and individuals including airlines, hotels, banks, schools, and companies. The Dow rose 0.72% this week, while the Nasdaq fell 3.65% and the S&P 500 index fell 1.96%. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 index recorded their largest single-week decline in three months.

At the close, the Dow fell 377.49 points, or 0.93%, to 40287.53 points; the Nasdaq fell 144.28 points, or 0.81%, to 17726.94 points; the S&P 500 index fell 39.59 points, or 0.71%, to 5505.00 points. CrowdStrike (CRWD.US) fell more than 11%, Tesla (TSLA.US) fell more than 4%, and Microsoft (MSFT.US) fell 0.74%.

The German DAX30 index closed down 200.32 points, or 1.09%, to 18162.75 points; the UK FTSE100 index closed down 50.29 points, or 0.61%, to 8154.60 points; the France CAC40 index closed down 52.03 points, or 0.69%, to 7534.52 points; the Euro Stoxx 50 index closed down 44.52 points, or 0.91%, to 4825.60 points; the Spain IBEX35 index closed down 63.34 points, or 0.57%, to 11084.16 points; and the Italy FTSE MIB index closed down 331.13 points, or 0.96%, to 34198.00 points.

The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.16%, the Indonesia Jakarta conglomerates index fell 0.77%, and the Vietnam VN30 index fell 0.31%.

COMEX August gold futures fell by 2.28% to $2400.4 per ounce in the final session, while COMEX September silver futures fell by 2.89% to $29.35 per ounce, falling below $30 per ounce for the first time.

Bitcoin rose more than 4% to $66756.7 per coin, while Ethereum rose more than 2.4% to $3510.41 per coin.

NYSE Crude oil futures for August delivery fell by about $2.69, or about 3.25%, to $80.13 per barrel. Brent crude oil futures on the European Intercontinental Exchange fell by $2.48, or 2.9%, to $82.63 a barrel.

London metals fell, with LME Copper falling $76 to $9310 per tonne, down 5.74% this week, the worst performance since 2022. LME Aluminum fell more than 1.42% and fell about 5.20% this week. LME Zinc fell about 1.14% and fell more than 5.67% this week. LME Lead fell more than 1.34% and fell 3.71% this week. LME Nickel fell more than 1.01% and fell about 3.56% this week. LME Tin fell more than 1.75% and continued its 4.08% decline on July 18, falling about 7.85% this week.

Macro news

New York Fed President: the long-term trend supports the neutral interest rate being at a lower level. New York Fed President Williams said that the long-term trend that caused the neutral interest rate to fall to a lower level before the pandemic is still there. “My own Holston-Laubach-Williams model estimates the neutral rate for the US, and for Canada and the Eurozone, the neutral rate is roughly the same as before the pandemic,” Williams said at an event on Friday. Williams said this indicates that the potential trend that supported low interest rates before the pandemic “is still quite intact.”

The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether executives of oil giants, including Hess, Occidental Petroleum, and Diamondback Energy, have had improper communication with OPEC officials. According to foreign media reports, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether executives of several large oil companies, including Hess, Occidental Petroleum, and Diamondback Energy, have had improper communication with OPEC officials. According to informed sources, the Federal Trade Commission's investigators are looking for evidence that executives attempted to have with OPEC officials in collusion over oil market dynamics. This type of communication, especially regarding pricing and output, may be illegal under US antitrust law.

If Joe Biden decides to give up his re-election bid and is replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, speculation about his challenger launching more financial stimulus measures to revive the economy could further retreat the 'Trump transaction', according to Gang Hu, Managing Partner of Winshore Capital Partners. Hu believes that even if Trump wins the presidential election on November 5th, Harris' candidacy could reduce the possibility of Republicans sweeping Congress. He said Harris "could free up time and resources for the Democratic Party to compete for Congress".

[Individual stock news]

More than 2,000 flights in the United States have been cancelled due to Microsoft (MSFT.US) technical malfunctions. As of noon Eastern Time on July 19, more than 2,000 domestic, inbound or outbound flights to and from the United States have been cancelled, and over 5,300 flights have been delayed, due to the Microsoft technical malfunction, according to Flight Aware, a flight-tracking website. Multiple airlines, including United Airlines, said that flights were gradually returning to normal, but as of noon on the 19th, there were still a considerable number of flight delays or cancellations. In addition, both United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) said that although their airlines were operating normally, delays in express delivery were still possible due to computer system malfunctions.

According to US media reports, some of Tesla's (TSLA.US) production lines have been interrupted due to CrowdStrike malfunctions. Company employees have not been told when they will be able to return to work. Musk recently said, "We just removed CrowdStrike from all systems." Previously, the global IT malfunction disrupted the operation of airlines, banks and other industries due to its rare scale.

Bank review:

Morgan Stanley raised its target price for Netflix (NFLX.US) from $685 to $695.