According to the Smart Finance app, on Wednesday, the three major indexes rose, and the S&P 500 index rose for the fifth consecutive trading day. The overall CPI for the U.S. in July returned to the "2" level, and the core CPI fell for the fourth consecutive month. The market believes that the Fed will be able to cut interest rates soon.

At the close, the Dow rose 242.75 points, or 0.61%, to 40,008.39 points; the Nasdaq rose 4.99 points, or 0.03%, to 17,192.60 points; and the S&P 500 index rose 20.78 points, or 0.38%, to 5,455.21 points. Google (GOOG.US) and Intel (INTC.US) fell more than 2%, Nvidia (NVDA.US) rose 1.6%, and Tesla (TSLA.US) fell 3%. The Nasdaq China Dragon Index fell 1.6%, and Alibaba (BABA.US) fell 2%.

The German DAX30 index rose 88.77 points, or 0.50%, to 17,894.85 points; the UK FTSE100 index rose 43.23 points, or 0.52%, to 8,278.46 points; the France CAC40 index rose 57.49 points, or 0.79%, to 7,333.36 points; the Europe STOXX50 index rose 31.63 points, or 0.67%, to 4,726.55 points; the Spain IBEX35 index rose 29.20 points, or 0.27%, to 10,753.00 points; and the Italy FTSE MIB index rose 311.55 points, or 0.97%, to 32,318.00 points.

The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.58%, Indonesia Jakarta Composite Index rose 1.08%, and Vietnam VN30 index rose 0.13%.

COMEX December gold futures fell 0.94% at the close, to $2,484.2 per ounce; COMEX September silver futures fell 0.78% at the close, to $27.570 per ounce.

Bitcoin fell more than 2.7% to $58,933.7 per coin; Ether fell more than 1.4% to $2,663.85 per coin.

NYMEX September delivery of WTI crude oil futures prices fell $1.37, or 1.75%, to $76.98 per barrel; Brent October crude oil futures fell to $79.76 per barrel, down more than 1.15% or $0.93 on the day.

London metals prices fluctuated, with LME copper down 0.37%, LME zinc up 0.45%, LME aluminum up 0.09%, and LME nickel down 0.99%.

Macro news

U.S. July inflation slowed to 2.9%, below market expectations. The U.S. July non-seasonally adjusted CPI increased by 2.9%, lower than the previous month. The core CPI increased by 3.2%, and the monthly rate increased by 0.2%. With the unexpected weakness shown in the July employment report recently released, many investors and economists have become more concerned about the risk of economic recession. However, many economists still believe that the U.S. may be able to avoid a recession in the near future. They pointed out that the recent rise in the unemployment rate was caused by temporary layoffs, and some analysts believe that slowing inflation is an optimistic factor. On Wall Street, the recent debate is not whether the Fed will cut interest rates soon, but how much it will cut, with some betting that the Fed will cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said that given the recent progress made on price pressures and disappointing payrolls, he is increasingly concerned about the labor market rather than inflation. Evans said on Wednesday that the current interest rate level is "very restrictive," and he said that this position is only appropriate when the economy is overheating. He declined to comment on the likelihood and extent of the Fed's interest rate cut at its September meeting. When asked about the balance between inflation and labor market risks, Evans said, "I feel increasingly concerned about the employment mission." He pointed out that the recent rise in the unemployment rate may reflect more people entering the labor market, but it may also "indicate that we are not at a stable level, but are moving towards a worse situation in the short term."

The "New Fed Communications Agency": the road to rate cuts in September has been paved and the focus is on the size of the cuts. Nick Timiraos says that rate cuts are almost inevitable, and the focus of the September meeting will be whether the decision to cut rates is unanimous and whether to cut rates by 25 basis points or 50 basis points. The reason why the size of the rate cut may become the focus of discussion is that the U.S. labor market has recently shown signs of potential weakness, so even if inflation data is not as moderate as the Fed expected, the reasons for a rate cut in September have become more sufficient. He believes that moderate inflation data may make it more likely that the Fed will cut rates three times this year.

Bank of America: The strengthening of the Swiss franc intensifies the pressure on the Swiss National Bank to cut interest rates. Bank of America said that the rapid appreciation of the Swiss franc during the recent market volatility has increased the pressure on the Swiss National Bank to relax monetary policy in September. Bank of America analyst Kamal Sharma wrote in a report on Wednesday that "We attach great importance to the Swiss National Bank's attention to the real effective exchange rate (REER), which is an indicator of whether current policies are appropriate and is increasingly influencing Swiss companies," "This is undoubtedly a powerful decisive factor in the June 20 rate cut, which we believe will have a similar effect before the September meeting." As global arbitrage trades were rapidly unwound, the dollar/Swiss franc fell to 0.8522 on August 5, the lowest closing level since early January.

[Individual stock news]

Apple (AAPL.US) will open up its payment chips to third parties and charge fees. After years of pressure from regulatory agencies including the European Union, Apple announced on Wednesday local time that it will begin allowing third parties to use iPhone payment chips for transactions, opening up competition with banks and other services on the Apple Pay platform. Apple said it will allow developers to use NFC-supported payment chips starting with iOS 18.1, and users can also set third-party payment applications as the default system to replace Apple Pay. However, according to Wednesday's statement, under the new payment method, Apple will still require developers to pay "related fees" for using NFC chips and sign "business agreements".

Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US) sends cease-and-desist letters to pharmacies to stop providing generic versions of their weight-loss drugs. In recent days, Lilly has sent a wave of cease-and-desist letters to U.S. healthcare suppliers demanding they stop promoting generic versions of weight-loss drugs. These letters are signed by many attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis LLP. While the supply of Mounjaro and Zepbound has increased, there is still a shortage of weight-loss drugs in the U.S. It is worth mentioning that as long as there is a shortage of drug supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows pharmacists to provide generic drugs.

Buffett's latest holdings: Apple's share drops to 30%, and positions are built in cosmetics stocks. The 13F filing shows that Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., owned by Buffett, increased its holdings of Occidental Petroleum (OXY.US) and Chubb Ltd. and reduced its holdings of 0.389 billion shares of Apple (AAPL.US), with a shareholding ratio of 30.52%, as well as Chevron (CVX.US) and T-Mobile. Full clearing of Snowflake (SNOW.US) and Paramount Global (PARA.US). Positions are built in cosmetics company Ulta Beauty (ULTA.US) and Heico (HEI.US). As of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway's total holding value has dropped from $332 billion to $280 billion.

HHLR, a subsidiary of GGV Capital, significantly increased its holdings in Alibaba in the second quarter. HHLR Advisors, a subsidiary of GGV Capital, announced its U.S. stock holdings as of the end of the second quarter of 2024. The data shows that in the second quarter, HHLR held a total of 78 stocks in the U.S. stock market, with a total holding value of approximately $4.054 billion. Specifically, HHLR increased its holdings in Alibaba (BABA.US) by 5.24 million shares this year, making it the third largest holding target, as well as increasing its holdings in Vipshop (VIPS.US), NetEase (NTES.US), and Ctrip (TCOM.US) and other Chinese concept stocks. It reduced its holdings of Pinduoduo (PDD.US) by 2.9 million shares, but it is still its largest heavyweight stock, and it reduced its holdings of Beike (BEKE.US) by more than 6 million shares. Among the seven major U.S. technology giants, Apple, Nvidia, Google, and Meta received increases in holdings, while Amazon and Microsoft were reduced.

Bank review:

Wells Fargo & Co: Lowers Dell Technologies' target price from $175 to $150 and maintains an 'outperform' rating.

DA Davidson: Lowers CrowdStrike's target price from $380 to $290, still maintains a 'buy' rating.