The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Wednesday, the three major indices closed higher, and the S&P 500 index set a closing record. Nvidia (NVDA.US) fell 2.5% to dampen the NASDAQ gains, and the stock fell for the second consecutive trading day. However, its stock price is still up more than 80% this year. This Friday is the Good Friday holiday, and the US stock market and other financial markets are mostly closed.

[US stocks] At the close, the Dow rose 477.75 points, or 1.22%, to 39760.08 points; the NASDAQ rose 83.82 points, or 0.51%, to 16399.52 points; and the S&P 500 rose 44.91 points, or 0.86%, to 5248.49 points. Trump's Trump Media (DJT.US) closed up more than 14%, while Apple (AAPL.O) rose more than 2%. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose slightly, with Bili.US (BILI.US) up more than 5% and NIO Auto (NIO.US) falling 2%.

[European stocks] Major European stock indexes rose. The German DAX30 index rose 0.5%, the British FTSE 100 index rose 0.01%, the French CAC40 index rose 0.25%, and the European Stoxx 50 index rose 0.35%.

[Asia Pacific Stock Market] The Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.9%, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.55%, Vietnam's VN30 Index rose 0.2%, and the Singapore Straits Times Index rose 0.57%.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin fell more than 1% to $69,1777.6; Ethereum fell 2% to $3515.74.

[Gold] COMEX June gold futures rose 0.61% to $2212.70 per ounce. COMEX silver futures closed up 0.52% to $24.752/oz in May.

[Crude oil] The price of West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI) futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed down $0.27, or 0.33%, to $81.35. So far this year, WTI crude has risen 13.7%, while Brent crude has risen 11.6%.

[Metals] London Metals rose, with Lun Aluminum up 0.2%, Lunn Zinc up 0.25%, Lunn Copper up 0.11%, and Lunn Nickel up 0.02%.

[Macro News]

Goldman Sachs: The pension fund is expected to sell about $32 billion in shares in the US stock market soon. Goldman Sachs Group said that as the quarter comes to an end, pension funds may sell about $32 billion in US stocks to rebalance positions. Goldman Sachs FICC and stock department analysts wrote that this will be the biggest adjustment since June 2023. Although Wall Street's predictions about pension flows vary greatly, in the face of weak transactions around Easter, the withdrawal of pension funds will put additional pressure on the market. After the S&P 500 surged about 26% since late October, traders are worried that long positions may have been excessive, and the stock market is vulnerable to profit returns in the short term. Institutional investors and pensions usually have strict asset allocation restrictions and assess market risk exposure at the end of the month and quarter. The S&P 500 index has risen 8.8 since the beginning of 2024, and the cumulative decline in global bonds is about 2%, which means the fund may need to sell more stocks than usual.

Xiaomo: The concentration of US stocks is too high, so be wary of sudden shocks. J.P. Morgan analyst Dubravko Lakos-Bujas warns that the best-performing stocks in the market are overcrowded, increasing the risk of an impending pullback. He said, “Many favorable factors have already been digested,” including corporate earnings reports and the Federal Reserve's expectations. Other than the prospects for Nvidia and AI innovation, he sees little to no surprising positive news.” The sources of this upward surprise are becoming more limited, and on the other hand, there are indeed more risks lurking behind it,” he said. Furthermore, looking back at recent history, there is usually a pullback after investors flock to buy popular momentum stocks like the “Big 7.” This has happened three times since the global financial crisis.

DHL anticipates that the port of Baltimore in the US may restart within six weeks. Jim Monkmeyer, president of supply chain transportation at DHL's US subsidiary, anticipates that the Port of Baltimore may reopen in May. “I don't think this closure will last that long. What I heard was May, no one said when May is, which is why I said 6 weeks.” “We do have a few customers affected. This is mostly in the automotive and engineering manufacturing sector,” Monkmeyer said. “We have customers in those affected industries, so we're working with them to try to move containers and handle delays.” He said local officials are now focusing on finding the missing victims. At some stage, the priority task will shift to salvage operations, cleaning up the wreckage as soon as possible and reopening the blocked waterways, so that the nearly 40 ships stranded in the port can leave, while about 40 other ships can also enter the port.

The US may experience an “explosive” hurricane season with a record number of Atlantic storms. The US weather company AccuWeather said that the US should prepare for an “explosive” hurricane season this year, and the number of Atlantic storms may break records. According to the business forecasting company, early warning signs indicate that this year's hurricane season is “extremely strong,” with as many as 25 storms to be named from June to November. In an average year, the Atlantic Ocean produces an average of 14 storms during this time. There could be as many as 12 hurricanes this coming season, and as many as 6 storms could hit the US. “The number of tropical storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes, and hurricanes directly impacting the US during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to far exceed the historical average,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather's chief hurricane forecaster. “All signs suggest that the Atlantic hurricane season is very active and may even be 'explosive'.”

[Individual Stock News]

Amazon (AMZN.US) invested an additional $2.75 billion in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. Amazon is making the largest external investment in its 30-year history to gain an edge in the AI race. The tech giant said it will spend another $2.75 billion to support artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, and its Foundation model and chatbot Claude can compete with OpenAI and ChatGPT. The two companies announced an initial investment of $1.25 billion in September, when they said Amazon would invest up to $4 billion. Wednesday's news marked Amazon's second round of financing. Anthropic previously launched its latest artificial intelligence model, Claude 3, which the company said is the fastest and most powerful artificial intelligence model to date.

Apple (AAPL.US) is up more than 2% and may be showcasing more AI technology at the Global Developers Conference. Apple rose more than 2% to $173.31. Apple Global Developers Conference WWDC 2024 will be held from June 10 to 14 at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. One of the highlights of the conference will be the release of the latest operating systems, including iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, tvOS 18, watchOS 11 and VisionOS 2. It is reported that iOS 18 will be the focus of this conference and is expected to bring a series of innovative features, the most notable of which is the potential integration of generative AI technology. According to industry sources, Apple may upgrade its iPhone 16 series chips to enhance the processing power of the neural network engine to better support generative AI functions.

Hulu has officially landed on the Disney+ streaming platform, and the new portfolio is expected to increase the number of subscriptions. Disney (DIS.US) completed the addition of the Hulu streaming service for regular viewers to Disney+ for home users on Wednesday. The company began testing this combination last year to make it easier for users to watch shows and increase Disney's streaming subscriptions in the face of declining cable TV usage. Thousands of movies and TV shows from Hulu will appear simultaneously with Disney shows in the Disney+ app and search results. Users who haven't purchased the Disney+ package will see a prompt to add Hulu for an additional $2 per month. As of December 2023, Disney+ had nearly 150 million subscribers worldwide, and Hulu had nearly 50 million subscribers.

A federal judge allowed regulators to continue with most of the Coinbase (COIN.US) lawsuit. A federal judge in Manhattan, Katherine Polk Failla, said on Wednesday that the judge allowed the US securities regulator to continue with much of the Coinbase lawsuit, but dismissed charges that Coinbase acted as an unregistered broker through its wallet app. The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase in June last year, alleging that the company facilitated the transaction of at least 13 cryptocurrencies that were supposed to be registered as securities and illegally operated the business of national stock exchanges, brokers, and clearing agencies without registering with regulators.

[Big Bank Ratings]

Wedbush: Raising Microsoft's (MSFT.US) price target to $500 The artificial intelligence business is a major growth accelerator

Damo: Maintaining Tesla's (TSLA.US) target price of $320 and “adding” ratings to cooperate with the Ningde Era or “change the rules of the game”