The U.S. economy shows more signs of resilience, thanks to strong consumer spending and exports. The U.S. real GDP accelerated growth in the third quarter, with the annualized quarter-on-quarter final value revised up to 3.1%. U.S. November existing home sales were unexpectedly strong, surpassing 4 million units annually for the first time in six months, with the year-on-year increase marking a three-year high. Home prices accelerated to new highs. Last week, the initial claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected, solidifying expectations for the Federal Reserve to slow its rate cuts. On Thursday, some assets rebounded, such as large tech stocks, while most assets continued to decline, with small-cap stocks, bonds, and Bitcoin dropping, and U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar continuing to soar.

The Bank of Japan continues to delay interest rate hikes in December. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda stated that there is still high uncertainty regarding the economy and inflation, and attention is on next year's "spring labor negotiations" and the impact of Trump. The yen sharply fell, hitting a low of 158. The Indian rupee fell below 85 against the dollar, setting a new historical low, as the Reserve Bank of India intervened by selling dollars. The Indonesian central bank also intervened to support the Indonesian rupiah. The Brazilian real rose 2.4% against the dollar, following interventions by the country's central bank.

The Bank of England did not lower interest rates as expected, forecasting that inflation will continue to rise in the short term, but there are significant internal divisions, with three officials calling for a 25 basis point rate cut. Traders increased bets on rate cuts, expecting the Bank of England to cut rates three times next year for a total of 61 basis points, higher than the previous expectation of less than 50 basis points. The two-year UK bond yields fell, and the British Pound dropped. Additionally, the Riksbank cut interest rates by 25 basis points, with the Swedish krona depreciating by 0.83%. Norway kept its rates unchanged, with the Norwegian krone appreciating by 0.40%. The Bank of Mexico cut rates by 25 basis points.

Trump stated that he hopes the U.S. federal government will shut down if the debt ceiling is not canceled or raised. On Thursday, in post-market trading, U.S. House Republicans announced that they had reached an agreement on a stopgap spending bill to prevent government shutdown starting from the weekend. Trump supports the short-term government spending plan proposed by House Republicans and stated that next year he will aim to cut at least hundreds of billions from federal government spending through negotiations.

U.S. stocks initially rose before continuing to fall and closed near the day's low, with only the Dow Jones barely up by 0.04%, marking the first ten-day decline since the 1970s. Various sectors showed mixed results, with utilities, financials, and tech stocks performing well, while real estate, materials, and energy stocks lagged. Boeing rose 2.56%, leading the Dow components, while Micron Technology fell over 16% due to a poor quarterly outlook.

• Only the Dow Jones barely closed up among the three major U.S. indices. The S&P 500 index fell by 5.08 points, or 0.09%, closing at 5867.08 points. The Dow, closely related to the economic cycle, rose 15.37 points, or 0.04%, closing at 42342.24 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by 19.92 points, or 0.10%, closing at 19372.77 points. The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.47%. The Nasdaq Technology Market Capitalization Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of technology sector stocks in the Nasdaq 100, fell by 0.43%. The Russell 2000 small-cap index, which is more sensitive to economic cycles, fell by 0.45%. The VIX volatility index fell by 12.78%, closing at 24.09.

The Dow Jones ended its longest losing streak in 50 years.

• Most of the 11 sectors of the S&P fell. The Real Estate sector dropped by 1.69%, the Materials sector fell by 1.07%, the Energy sector decreased by 0.99%, the Consumer Staples sector fell by 0.74%, the Medical Care sector declined by 0.73%, the Telecom sector dropped by 0.11%, the Industrials sector decreased by 0.1%, the Consumer Discretionary sector rose by 0.08%, the Information Technology/Technology sector increased by 0.19%, the Financial sector rose by 0.4%, and the Utilities sector gained 0.48%.

• The 'Tech Seven Sisters' had mixed results. Tesla closed down by 0.9%, Meta fell by 0.27%, Microsoft dropped by 0.08%, Amazon increased by 1.26%, Google A fluctuated up by 0.06%, Apple rose by 0.7%, with reports indicating that Apple is in preliminary discussions with TENCENT and ByteDance about embedding their AI models in iPhones sold in China. NVIDIA closed up by 1.37%.

• Chip stocks broadly fell. The PHLX Semiconductor Index closed down by 1.56%. The Industry ETF SOXX fell by 1.68%. The NVIDIA double-leveraged ETF rose by 2.72%. Marvell Technology closed up by 3.64%, while Micron Technology fell by 16.18%, with the first quarter revenue meeting expectations, but the outlook for the next quarter is clearly poor. Wolfspeed fell by 3.71%, Broadcom dropped by 2.37%, Intel decreased by 1.24%, with reports stating that Intel has shortlisted candidates for the next round of bidding for its Altera chip business. Arm Holdings fell by 3.27%. ON Semiconductor dropped by 0.2%, KLA Corp decreased by 1.36%, Qualcomm fell by 1.73%, AMD dropped by 2.08%, and Taiwan Semiconductor fell by 0.47%.

• Most AI concept stocks fell. Palantir closed up by 3.78%, Oracle rose by 2.04%, CrowdStrike increased by 0.53%, BigBear.ai dropped by 9.9%, Serve Robotics fell by 5.52%, BullFrog AI decreased by 6.64%, Super Micro Computer dropped by 3.07%, C3.ai fell by 10.68%, and SoundHound AI, backed by NVIDIA, decreased by 9.55%.

• China concept stocks had mixed results. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose by 0.8% before closing down by 0.06%. Among ETFs, the FTSE China 3x Bull ETF (YINN) rose by 1.68%, the China Technology Index ETF (CQQQ) gained 1.66%, the Deutsche Bank Harvest CSI 300 Index ETF (ASHR) increased by 0.63%, and the China Internet Index ETF (KWEB) fell by 0.03%. The FTSE A50 futures closed down by 0.24% in the continuous overnight session, reporting 13,377.000 points.

• Among popular China concept stocks, TENCENT's ADR rose by 3.03%, Li Auto increased by 2.59%, New Oriental gained 2.09%, Bilibili rose by 1.86%, NIO increased by 1.85%, Xpeng Motors rose by 1.84%, Trip.com gained 1.48%, while Fangdd Network fell by 3.5%, Baidu dropped by 3.14%, JD.com fell by 1.45%, Zhihu decreased by 1.36%, and PDD Holdings dropped by 0.35%.

• Bitcoin briefly fell 5% below $0.096 million, with crypto concept stocks broadly declining. The crypto 'meme stock' Ideanomics rose by 89.09%, Riot Platforms fell by 6.36%, Bitdeer Technologies dropped by 6.49%, and Canaan decreased by 10.81%. Crypto exchange giant Coinbase fell by 10.2%, BTC Digital dropped by 10.82%, and MSTR, a major Bitcoin holder, decreased by 6.63%.

• Quantum computing concept stocks saw mixed results. Quantum Corporation (QMCO) fell by 39.97%, Quantum Computing (QUBT) decreased by 41.04%, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) dropped by 28.91%, while Honeywell (HON) saw a slight increase of 0.01%.

• Among other key stocks: (1) Eli Lilly and Co fell more than 1.6% and closed down 0.94% after the FDA announced that the raw material for Eli Lilly's Weight Loss Drugs, Semaglutide, is no longer in shortage, and compound pharmacies will stop producing generics. Affordable weight loss drug concept stock Hims & Hers fell nearly 8%. (2) FedEx saw a temporary increase of 13% in Post-Market Trading; its second-quarter performance exceeded expectations, but it lowered the full-year EPS guidance. (3) Boeing closed up 2.56%, leading the Dow components. The company won an order worth $36 billion from the Turkish low-cost airline Pegasus Hava Tasimaciligi AS, making it Boeing’s largest commercial aircraft order of 2024 to date, surpassing competitor Airbus, which the airline previously preferred.

Dragged down by the Fed's hawkish rate cut, European stock markets plummeted. The pan-European STOXX 600 Index closed down 1.51%, marking the largest single-day drop in five weeks. All sectors fell, with the Technology Index down 2.44% leading the decline, and Real Estate, Energy, Media, Financials, and Industrials each falling more than 2%.

• The pan-European STOXX 600 Index closed down 1.51%, at 506.66 points. The Eurozone STOXX 50 Index closed down 1.58%. The FTSE Europe Top 300 Index closed down 1.51%.

• The German DAX 30 Index closed down 1.35%. The France CAC 40 Index closed down 1.22%. The Italy FTSE MIB Index closed down 1.78%. The Netherlands AEX Index closed down 1.55%, and the UK FTSE100 Index closed down 1.14%. The Spain IBEX 35 Index closed down 1.53%.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose about 6 basis points, and the 2/10 year Treasury yield spread briefly exceeded 27 basis points. The medium to long-term German bond yield rose about 6 basis points the day after the Fed rate cut, while the two-year UK bond yield fell about 4 basis points on "Bank of England Decision Day"; the long end of the UK bonds rose over 4 basis points.

• US Bonds: At the end of trading, the yield on the 10-year benchmark U.S. Treasury rose by 5.82 basis points to 4.5722%. It traded in a range of 4.5%-4.5923% during the day, continuing to approach the April 25 peak of 4.7351%, with a total increase of over 42 basis points since trading concluded on December 6. The yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury fell by 4.01 basis points to 4.3144%, remaining in a downward trend, having fallen to 4.2826% at 23:57 Beijing time.

Long-term bond yields continued to rise, but short-term bond yields fell.

• European Bonds: At the end of the European market, the Eurozone benchmark 10-year German Treasury yield rose by 6.1 basis points to 2.306%. The two-year German bond yield rose by 2.1 basis points. The UK 10-year Treasury yield rose by 3.4 basis points, while the two-year UK Treasury yield fell by 3.9 basis points to 4.424%. The French 10-year Treasury yield rose by 6.3 basis points, and the Italian 10-year Treasury yield rose by 6.7 basis points.

The USD maintained its gains on the day of the Fed's interest rate cut, continuing to reach a new high not seen in over two years. The yen fell towards 158, the British Pound dropped over 0.5%, the offshore RMB briefly fell below 7.32 yuan to the lowest level in 15 months, while the Australian and New Zealand dollars hit two-year lows during the day, and the Canadian dollar reached a four-and-a-half-year low at one point.

• USD: The USD Index DXY rose 0.35%, closing at 108.401 points, with an intraday trading range of 107.821-108.485 points. Bloomberg's USD Index increased 0.21%, closing at 1303.75 points, and rose to 1305.26 points at 02:05 Beijing time.

The USD continued to rise, reaching its highest point in two years.

• Non-USD currencies: The euro rose 0.10% against the USD, closing at 1.0364; the British Pound fell 0.55% against the USD, closing at 1.2505; and the USD fell 0.31% against the Swiss Franc, closing at 0.8985. Among commodity currencies, the AUD rose 0.32% against the USD, and the NZD rose 0.12% against the USD, while the USD fell 0.35% against the CAD. The Brazilian Real rose 2.44% against the USD, closing at 6.1398 Reais. The Korean Won fell 1.5% against the USD, reaching the lowest level since March 2009.

• HSBC expects the USD to remain strong, the euro to likely fall below parity, and the yen to decline towards 160.

• Yen: The yen fell 1.69% against the USD near the end of trading, closing at 157.41 yen, with an intraday trading range of 154.44-157.81 yen. After the Bank of Japan held its position, hedge funds bought USD/JPY call options. Nomura believes that a significant decline in the yen may trigger verbal intervention from Japanese authorities in the foreign exchange market.

• Offshore RMB (CNH): The offshore RMB (CNH) rose 158 points against the USD near the end of trading, closing at 7.3091 yuan, with an overall intraday trading range of 7.3269-7.3053 yuan.

Due to caution expressed by central bank governors in the USA, Europe, and Asia regarding monetary policy easing, concerns about weak economic activity potentially undermining oil demand next year led to a drop in oil prices on Thursday. US oil fell more than 0.9% below $70, while New York natural gas rose over 6%.

• WTI crude oil for January fell by $0.67, a decrease of nearly 0.95%, closing at $69.91 per barrel.

WTI crude oil has fallen below $70.

• Brent crude oil for February closed down $0.51, a decrease of 0.69%, at $72.88 per barrel.

• Natural gas: January futures in the USA closed up 6.22%, at $3.5840 per million British thermal units.

In the third quarter, US economic growth exceeded expectations, while the number of first-time unemployment claims also fell beyond expectations. The data from the USA reinforced market expectations that the Federal Reserve will adopt a cautious approach to easing policy in the coming year. Gold prices surged before retreating on Thursday; spot gold, after rising 1.6%, ultimately saw a slight increase, while silver futures once dropped 5% and gold futures fell by about 2% at one point:

• Gold: COMEX gold futures rose 0.08% at the close, at $2610.1 per ounce. Spot gold rose 0.2% to $2592.39 per ounce at the close.

• Silver: COMEX silver futures fell 4.12% at the close, at $29.475 per ounce, dropping about 5% at one point during the session. Spot silver once fell more than 2%.

Gold prices once retreated below $2600.

• London industrial metals fell broadly, with copper down over 1.6%, and nickel and tin down over 2%: Copper fell $146, a decrease of nearly 1.62%, closing at $8,883 per ton. Aluminum fell $22, closing at $2,507 per ton. Zinc fell $28, closing at $2,967 per ton. Lead decreased by $10, closing at $1,972 per ton. Nickel fell by $395, down about 2.55%, closing at $15,113 per ton. Tin fell by $717, down over 2.46%, closing at $28,399 per ton. Cobalt remained flat, closing at $24,300 per ton.

• New York cocoa fell over 6%, moving away from its historical high. Analysts pointed out that recently, New York cocoa futures prices continuously hit historical highs during trading. International coffee trader Volcafe predicts a shortage of 8.5 million bags in global coffee bean production in the 2025 to 2026 season. If realized, this would mark the fifth consecutive year of supply shortfalls for coffee beans. Additionally, despite an increase in Colombia's coffee exports this year, insiders analyze that this cannot compensate for the shortfall caused by reduced production in Brazil and Vietnam, and coffee prices in international markets may remain high next year.

The following updates were made before 23:00 Beijing time on December 19.

The Dow Jones briefly rebounded nearly 461 points and is expected to end its first ten-day decline since 1974.

• The three major US stock indices experienced gains before retreating. The S&P 500 Index rose nearly 1.1% before halving its gains. The Dow Jones, closely tied to economic cycles, initially rose nearly 461 points or 1.1% before giving back most of its gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose nearly 1.2% before making a slight retreat.

• Industry ETFs broadly increased initially. Regional bank ETFs and bank ETFs were up at least 2.4%, financial industry ETFs, global aviation ETFs, internet stock index ETFs, and energy industry ETFs rose at least 1.1%. The Penghua Guozheng Semiconductor Chip ETF fell over 0.3%, while the biotech index ETF fell over 0.8%.

• The "Tech Seven Sisters" all increased. Tesla briefly rose nearly 3.7%, Amazon briefly rose over 2.3%, Google A briefly rose nearly 2.5%, and Meta briefly rose nearly 2.4%. Apple briefly rose over 1.1%, with media reports stating that Apple is in preliminary discussions with Tencent and ByteDance to consider embedding both companies' AI models in iPhones sold in China. Microsoft briefly rose nearly 1.3%, and NVIDIA briefly rose over 2.4%.

• Chip stocks saw mixed results. The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose over 0.4% before falling over 0.4%. Marvell Technology briefly rose over 4.6%, Broadcom rose nearly 2% before halving its gains, while Micron Technology briefly fell over 17.6%.

• Most AI concept stocks rose. SoundHound AI, in which NVIDIA holds shares, once surged over 14%, Palantir rose over 7.1%, BigBear.ai rose over 18.5% before retracting most of its gains, Oracle rose over 2.7%, while C3.ai fell over 7.8% at one point.

• Most China Concept Stocks rose. The NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index once increased nearly 0.7%. Among popular China Concept Stocks, Li Auto rose over 4.5%, NIO rose over 3%, ZEEKR rose over 3.3%, and Bilibili rose over 2.6% at one point.

• Quantum computing concept stocks showed mixed results. Quantum Corporation (QMCO) once fell over 44%, Quantum Computing (QUBT) dropped nearly 35.3% at one point, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) fell over 24.4%, and Honeywell (HON) rose over 2.9% in early trading before retracting most of its gains.

• Among other key individual stocks: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) once fell 16%, marking the worst intraday performance since October 2020. Interim clinical research results indicated that the company's pain medication was not more effective than a placebo. The company will continue to test the drug.

The following are updates before 22:00.

On Thursday, December 19, overnight dual sell-offs in US stocks and bonds triggered a plunge in the Asia-Pacific stock markets, European stocks opened lower and continued to decline, US Pre-Market Trading showed slight increases, crude oil, gold, and Bitcoin plummeted, and the USD soared to a two-year high, putting pressure on global markets. The Japanese Yen fell below the 157 mark, and the Korean Won reached a 15-year low.

Overnight, the Federal Reserve hinted at slowing the pace of interest rate cuts. Powell stated that the Federal Reserve is in a 'new phase of the process', with borrowing costs nearing neutral rates. The dot plot indicates that the Federal Reserve expects to cut rates only twice by 25 basis points in 2025, which is two fewer than the September dot plot and one less than the general market expectation for the dot plot.

At 20:00 Beijing time tonight, the Bank of England will announce its latest interest rate decision; the US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release third quarter GDP and core PCE price index at 21:30.

The three major US stock index futures are rising in pre-market trading.

Dow futures are up 0.29%, S&P 500 Index futures are up 0.37%, Nasdaq 100 Index futures are up 0.46%, and E-mini Russell 2000 Index futures are up 0.47%.

Tech stocks are broadly rising. Tesla is up over 3%, Meta is up over 1%, and NVIDIA is up over 2%.

Due to the company’s guidance for the next fiscal quarter being only 'in line with market expectations,' Micron Technology continues to decline, now down over 14%.

Under pressure from the Fed's hawkish stance, the European stock market opens lower across the board, and the Asia-Pacific stock market falls.

The Europe STOXX 50 Index opened down 1.4%, the German DAX30 Index fell 1%, the UK FTSE 100 Index dropped 1.1%, and the France CAC40 Index declined 1.2%.

Today, the Asia-Pacific stock market fell broadly, with the stock markets of Japan, South Korea, and India collectively declining.

As of the close, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.87%, the South Korea KOSPI Composite Index dropped 1.87%. The Indian NIFTY 50 Index and SENSEX Index both fell over 1%, and the Australian stock index once dropped 2%, marking the largest decline in three months, while Australian bond yields rose.

Analyst Tony Sycamore from IG in Sydney stated:

The double impact of rising U.S. Treasury yields and the soaring dollar is expected to lead to a 1.5-2% drop in Asian stock markets, while a weakening yen will provide some cushion against the decline of the Nikkei/Yen.

The dollar has hit a two-year high, while non-U.S. currencies have plummeted, with the yen falling below 157.

The dollar rose against other currencies on Wednesday, reaching its highest level in two years.

The USD Index, which measures the dollar against six currencies, briefly climbed to 108.260, hitting its highest level since November 2022, and was last at 108.16.

The offshore RMB to USD exchange rate was 7.321, stabilizing near a 13-month low.

The euro rose by 0.5% against the dollar during the day, reported at 1.0403.

The Bank of Japan announced a continued delay in interest rate hikes in December. Bank Governor Kazuo Ueda stated in the afternoon that the economy and inflation still have high uncertainty, causing the yen to accelerate its decline, consecutively falling below the 155, 156, and 157 levels, with a drop of 1.4% during the day.

Analysts indicate that the yen breaking below a key level may trigger verbal intervention from Japanese authorities and amplify pressure on the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates.

The Korean won fell 1.5% against the US dollar, reaching a low of 1,460.2 won per dollar, the lowest level since March 2009.

The Bank of England is also expected to keep interest rates unchanged. After the Federal Reserve makes its decision, the British Pound slightly weakened against the euro and the dollar, falling to a three-week low.

Wells Fargo & Co senior economist Mike Puglisi stated that the dollar has been rising since Trump won the election last month, as people expect tariffs to trigger a new wave of inflation, but the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday "adds fuel to the fire."

US stocks and bonds were both hit overnight.

Overnight, US Treasury yields rose across the board, with the policy-sensitive two-year and ten-year Treasury yields both increasing by more than 10 basis points and closing above 4.5% for the first time since May.

The S&P 500 Index faced its largest single-day drop since August, marking the largest drop on the day the Federal Reserve decision was announced since 2001. The Nasdaq 100 Index fell 3.6%, the second worst single-day drop of this year, and the biggest drop since July.

Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions senior vice president Gokhman stated that Powell is a "hawk in a dove's clothing."

Despite downplaying the recent phenomenon of easing inflation and bragging about strong economic growth momentum, the forecast of two interest rate cuts in 2025 is necessary because policy must remain restrictive.

Goldman Sachs' Whitney Watson expects the Federal Reserve to avoid cutting rates in January and to resume easing policies in March.

Bitcoin continues to decline, while Gold slightly rebounds.

After Powell stated overnight that the Federal Reserve has no intention of participating in any actions by the government holding the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin dropped as much as 5% and continues to decline by over 2%.

Overnight, gold prices were again hit hard, falling below the 100-day moving average, and are currently up by more than 1%, priced at $2,620.17 per ounce.

Crude Oil prices have declined due to the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance, with WTI crude oil prices falling back to around $70.