Good morning everyone! Last night and this morning, many big events happened again.
The three major stock indexes in the United States all closed higher, with Google's closing market value breaking through $2 trillion for the first time, and Nvidia rebounding significantly by $2.1 trillion this week!
The US March price index was slightly higher than expected, with US bond yields falling across the board and the US dollar slightly rising.
All three major US stock indices closed higher
The three major stock indexes in the United States all closed higher. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to close at 38239.66 points; The S&P 500 index rose 1.02% to close at 5099.96 points; The Nasdaq rose 2.03% to 15927.9 points. This week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.67%, the S&P 500 index rose 2.67%, and the Nasdaq rose 4.23%.
Chip stocks generally rose, with Nvidia up 6.18%, Broadcom up 3.83%, Applied Materials up 2.98%, Micron Technology up 2.92%, Chaowei Semiconductor up 2.37%, Asma up 2.04%, Qualcomm up 1.45%, TSMC up 1.23%, and Intel down 9.2%.
Technology stocks mostly rose, with Apple down 0.35%, Amazon up 3.43%, Netflix down 0.63%, Google up 10.22%, Facebook up 0.43%, and Microsoft up 1.82%.
Google's market value has surpassed $2 trillion for the first time
On April 26th Eastern Time, Google opened high and rose as high as 11.99%, ultimately closing at $171.95, with a market value of $2.13 trillion. The closing market value stood at $2 trillion for the first time.
Currently, Google is the fourth most valuable listed company in the world, second only to Nvidia ($2.2 trillion), Apple ($2.6 trillion), and Microsoft ($3.0 trillion).
On April 25th Eastern Time, Google's parent company Alphabet released its Q1 2024 financial performance report. Alphabet's revenue was $80.539 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15%, and its net profit reached $23.662 billion, a year-on-year surge of 57%.
Alphabet also announced the first-ever dividend payout in company history.
From a business perspective, Alphabet's core revenue remains its advertising business, with quarterly revenue of $61.6 billion, a 13% increase from $54.5 billion in the same period last year. In the advertising business, Alphabet's search and other advertising revenue was $46.2 billion, and YouTube's advertising revenue was $8.1 billion, both achieving double-digit growth. The cloud business performed strongly, with a revenue of $9.6 billion in the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai (hereinafter referred to as "Pichai") stated at a performance meeting after the financial report was released that Google's development has been smooth in the Gemini era. "We have a leading position in AI research and infrastructure, coupled with products spread across the world, which lays a solid foundation for the next wave of AI innovation."
Nvidia rebounded significantly this week by 2.1 trillion yuan
On April 26th Eastern Time, Nvidia surged 6.90% and ultimately closed at $877.35, up 6.18%.
This week, Nvidia's stock price rebounded significantly by over 15% from last week's sell-off. The market value increased by nearly $290 billion, equivalent to RMB 2.1 trillion, setting the best weekly performance since May last year.
The reason for the significant rebound in stock prices is that some of the largest clients of this chip giant are doubling their investment in artificial intelligence. Companies such as Meta Platforms Inc., Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., and Microsoft have recently pledged to invest billions of dollars in artificial intelligence.
The US March price index is slightly higher than expected
On a macro level, the core PCE price index in the United States increased by 2.8% year-on-year in March, with an expected increase of 2.7%, compared to the previous 2.8% increase; A month on month increase of 0.3%, expected to increase by 0.3%, with a previous increase of 0.3%. The PCE price index increased by 2.7% year-on-year, with an expected increase of 2.6% and a previous increase of 2.5%; A month on month increase of 0.3%, expected to increase by 0.3%, with a previous increase of 0.3%.
Personal spending in the United States increased by 0.8% month on month in March, with an expected increase of 0.6%, compared to a previous increase of 0.8%; Personal income increased by 0.5% month on month, with an expected increase of 0.5% and a previous increase of 0.3%; Actual personal consumption expenditure increased by 0.5% month on month, expected to increase by 0.3%, and the previous value increased by 0.4%.
The final value of the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index for April in the United States was 77.2, with an expected value of 77.9, compared to the previous value of 77.9.
The expected one-year inflation rate in the United States for April is 3.2%, compared to the previous value of 3.10%.
US Treasury yields fell across the board
On April 26th Eastern Time, US bond yields fell across the board. The 2-year US Treasury yield fell 0.4 basis points to 5.002%; The yield of the three-year US Treasury bond fell 1.5 basis points to 4.846%; The 5-year US Treasury yield fell 2.7 basis points to 4.695%; The 10-year US Treasury yield fell 3.8 basis points to 4.669%; The 30-year US Treasury yield fell 3.5 basis points to 4.779%.
The US dollar rose slightly
The Japanese yen has depreciated significantly, reaching a 34 year low
On April 26th Eastern Time, in late trading in New York, the US dollar index rose 0.49% to 106.0902, down 0.02% for the week.
Most non US currencies have fallen. The euro fell 0.34% against the US dollar to 1.0693, with a weekly increase of 0.35%; The pound fell 0.16% against the US dollar to 1.2495, with a weekly increase of 1.01%; The US dollar rose 1.72% against the Japanese yen to 158.3255, up 2.39% for the week; The offshore renminbi fell 133 basis points against the US dollar to 7.2688, with a cumulative decline of 179 basis points this week.
On April 26th in the New York foreign exchange market, the Japanese yen fell sharply against the US dollar, briefly breaking below 158 yen to 1 US dollar, once again hitting a new low in about 34 years.
Earlier on April 26th, the Bank of Japan decided to maintain short-term interest rates at 0 to 0.1% after concluding a two-day monetary policy meeting. Due to the lack of mention of expected quantitative tightening at the meeting, the selling of yen in the foreign exchange market has intensified again.