Although last week the number of U.S. initial claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly did not fall but increased, but the Fed again released easing signals, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the global uneven development of the new crown vaccination threatens the economic recovery, reiterated the Fed to maintain support for the economy, inflation is expected to be temporarily upward, the Fed has the tools to deal with high inflation. U.S. bond yields retreated, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose collectively during the day, with technology stocks leading the way higher and crude-influenced energy stocks leading the way against the market.
Popular Chinese stocks, Tencent’s largest shareholder Prosus Thursday decided to sell its shares at the “upper limit of the range” pricing, rebounded on Wednesday after Prosus announced it would sell off a plunge of more than 7% in Tencent’s U.S. shares. And United Technologies, which has surged for two days since its IPO, fell sharply.
The dollar fell further and industrial metals such as bitcoin, gold and copper, which retreated on Wednesday, all rebounded. The U.S. said it was preparing to lift sanctions on Iran to resume the Iran nuclear deal, and the market weighed the prospect of increased supply from Iran as the economy recovered. International crude oil futures fell more than 1% during the day, and by the close of trading U.S. oil still failed to reverse the decline, with buoyant oil closing slightly higher.
In European markets, pan-European stock indices set new highs after the Federal Reserve hinted that it would not rush to raise interest rates. The minutes of the meeting showed that ECB policymakers believe they are prepared to reduce bond purchases if conditions permit, and European Treasury yields continued to move lower.
S&P hit a new record high, led by the technology sector, energy sector bucked the market to lead the decline
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened collectively higher, but performance was mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average turning down mid-day and bottoming out. The Dow opened more than 20 points higher, but the early part of the session that turned down, the early part of the day when the new low down slightly more than 100 points, the lunchtime Powell speech during the turn up, the end of the day when the new daily high up more than 60 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index opened higher, opening up more than 0.2% and nearly 0.8%, respectively, the end of the S&P approaching 4,100 points, a new intraday record high, up more than 0.4% during the day, the Nasdaq ended the day at a new intraday high since February 19.
In the end, the three major indices closed up collectively for the first time in the last three trading days. The Dow closed up 57.31 points, or 0.17%, at 33,503.57 points, up two days in a row and further close to the closing high set on Monday. The S&P closed up 0.42% at 4097.17 points, closing at a new record high for the second consecutive day and the third day of the week. The Nasdaq closed up 1.03% at 13,829.31, a new closing high since Feb. 19, following Monday.
Value stocks dominated the small-cap index Russell 2000 had turned down in early trading, and maintained gains at lunchtime, closing up 0.88%, in the three major stock indexes only inferior to the Nasdaq. Technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index closed up 1.04%, compared to the Nasdaq.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, six closed higher on Thursday, four closed lower and financials closed flat. Up in the sector, up more than 1.4% of the information technology a ride, far more than the second place, closing up nearly 0.5% of non-essential consumer goods, the bottom of the rise is less than 0.1% of essential consumer goods. Declining sectors, down nearly 1.4% in energy led the decline, highlighting the impact of the fall in crude oil, the second largest decline was down nearly 0.6% in real estate, telecommunications services fell less than 0.1%, utilities fell more than 0.1%.
Most of the leading technology stocks closed higher, FAANMG six major technology stocks, Apple rose more than 1.9%, Microsoft, Nifty rose more than 1%, Amazon rose more than 0.6%, Google parent company Alphabet rose more than 0.5%, while Facebook fell slightly by 0.02%. Tesla rose more than 1.9%.
Among other technology stocks, Twitter and S&P component PayPal rose more than 3%. Chip stocks in general, the semiconductor industry ETF SOXX and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index are up about 1%, TSMC and ENTG rose more than 2% to lead the chip stocks. The three Chinese new energy auto stocks and Tesla as well as higher, ideal car and Xiaopeng car rose more than 4%, Azera car rose more than 3%.
Top Chinese stocks outperformed the broader market, with Chinese ETFs CQQQ and KWEB both up more than 1%. Individual stocks, two Internet brokerage Tiger Securities and Fudao Securities are up more than 10%, outstanding gains; Wednesday closed down more than 7% Tencent ADR lunchtime refresh daily highs rose more than 3%, closing up nearly 2.9%; Baidu, Beili Beili rose more than 2%, Alibaba, Predo, Jingdong rose more than 1%. And Tuesday and Wednesday were up more than 870% and 110% of the new shares of United Generation Technology closed down more than 48%, Tencent Music fell more than 2%, with who learned down about 5%.
In Europe, the pan-European stock index rebounded to close at a record high for the second time this week, with the auto and oil and gas sectors leading the decline against the market. Only Italy closed lower among major European countries, while Germany’s stock index was near record highs. Among individual stocks, Tencent’s major shareholder Prosus, which announced the sale of Tencent shares on Wednesday, closed up nearly 2%.
10-year U.S. bond yield tested below 1.62%, hitting a two-week low
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was above 1.67% in early U.S. trading on Thursday, before quickly turning lower and continuing to move lower, with the U.S. stock market testing 1.62% at midday, approaching a two-week low.
By the time U.S. stocks closed, the 10-year U.S. bond yield was about 1.62%, down 5 basis points during the day; the 30-year U.S. bond yield was at 2.31%, down 5 basis points during the day; the 2-year U.S. bond yield was at 0.15%, down 1 basis point during the day. After the bell, the 10-year U.S. bond once fell to 1.62% below, a new two-week low, down more than 5 basis points during the day.
Yields on U.S. bonds of all maturities fell collectively on Thursday, with yields on long-term U.S. bonds falling more sharply. By the end of New York, 10-year and 30-year U.S. bond yields fell by more than 5 basis points during the day, the 7-year decline of nearly 5 basis points, the 2-year drop of less than 0.4 basis points.
European Treasury bond prices continued to rise and yields continued to fall. British 10-year benchmark Treasury yields fell 2 basis points to 0.75% during the day; German government bond yields fell 1 basis point to -0.34% during the same period.
Crude oil fell more than 1% intraday U.S. oil ended a two-game winning streak.
Unlike Wednesday’s V-shaped rally, international crude oil futures fell for most of the day on Thursday. U.S. WTI crude oil had fallen below $58.90 at the beginning of the U.S. session to set a new daily low, down nearly 1.6% during the day, after which the decline gradually narrowed. Brent crude oil fell below $62.40 at the beginning of the U.S. stock market to set a new daily low, down more than 1.2% during the day, U.S. stocks turned up briefly at midday after restarting the downtrend, closing only to barely erase all losses, after-hours gains expanded slightly.
WTI May crude oil futures closed down $0.17, or 0.28%, at $59.60 per barrel, ending a two-day streak of gains, giving back some of the gains from Wednesday’s rise of more than 0.7%. Brent June crude oil futures closed up $0.04, or 0.06%, at $63.20/barrel, up three days in a row.
Dollar index hits another two-week low Bitcoin once regained $58,000 Ether rose nearly 6%
Unlike Wednesday’s intraday turnaround, the ICE Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of a basket of six major currencies for the U.S. dollar, stayed lower on Thursday, with U.S. stocks having fallen below 92.00 at midday, hitting a third consecutive intraday low since March 23 and falling nearly 0.5% during the day.
By Thursday’s U.S. equity close, the dollar index was below 92.10, down nearly 0.4% on the day, erasing all of Wednesday’s gains; the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%, returning to levels seen two weeks ago before the Federal Reserve announced its monetary policy meeting resolution.
Mainstream cryptocurrencies rose collectively on Thursday. Bitcoin (BTC), which had fallen below $55,500 on Wednesday, had risen above $58,100 in Thursday’s U.S. midday session to refresh its daily high, up more than $2,400 from its intraday low in early Asian trading, a percentage gain of more than 4%, and closed the U.S. session above $57,800, up nearly 4% in the last 24 hours.
Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin, also rallied on Thursday, regaining the $2,000 mark in the U.S. stock market, up more than 6% from the intraday low in early Asian trading, and closing above $2,050 in the U.S. stock market, up nearly 6% in the last 24 hours.
London-based copper recovers $9,000 mark, gold rallies to new six-week high
London base metals futures rose on Thursday except for Lundbeck, which ended a two-day streak of gains and fell to a one-month high. Copper, aluminum, nickel and tin rebounded, with copper regaining the $9,000 mark after losing it on Wednesday, nickel and aluminum hitting one-month and two-week highs, respectively, for the second time this week, and tin nearing a two-week high. Zinc rose for three days in a row, hitting a new high of more than two weeks.
New York gold and platinum futures just ended a four-day rally, COMEX June gold futures closed up nearly 1.0% at $1,758.20 per ounce, a new closing high for the main contract since Feb. 25. Platinum futures rose nearly 0.3%. New York silver futures rose for a third straight day.
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