Hot news

• Chicago Fed President says interest rates above neutral levels can curb high inflation

Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed, said inflation should be lower if the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate above the neutral rate and kept it there. "if we raise interest rates by 50 or 75 basis points on that basis, then this kind of monetary policy that suppresses the economy should help keep inflation down," Evans said in an interview on Wednesday. "We don't have to keep raising the federal funds rate to a level that suppresses the economy," he said. We can observe for a period of time after we reach that value. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday reiterated expectations that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) could raise interest rates by 50 basis points each at its June and July meetings.

• The economic recession became the basic forecast, and Wells Fargo & Co lowered the target of the S & P 500 index twice in three weeks.

For the second time in three weeks, the Wells Fargo Investment Institute cut its forecast for the S & P 500, saying a mild recession is now its basic forecast. Wells Fargo & Co's consulting department cut its year-end target for the S & P by 300 points on Wednesday, having cut it by 200 points at the end of April. The index is now expected to be in the range of 4200-4400 before Christmas, meaning it is down as much as 7.7 per cent for the year, but up up 12 per cent from its current level. "since the beginning of this year, we have noticed an increasing risk of recession," Wells Fargo Investment Institute strategists wrote in a report to clients. "We weigh the latest monthly and weekly data, and the issuing economy has exceeded the level of probability that makes a mild and brief recession our basic scenario. "

• Famous economist El-Erian said that even if the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, the United States could not avoid stagflation.

Mohamed El-Erian, chairman of Gramercy Fund Management and former chief executive of Pimco, said the US economy could not avoid stagflation and the market had not yet reflected the risk of a significant slowdown in growth. While the US may be able to avoid recession, "stagflation is inevitable", El-Erian said. "We have seen a decline in economic growth and will see inflation remain high. He blamed the situation in part on the Fed's view in 2021 that inflation would subside at some point. But since then, the Fed has abandoned its judgment of "temporary" inflation and is now tightening monetary policy. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the rate hike would continue until there was "clear and convincing" evidence that inflation was falling.

• Latest poll: 40% of Americans believe that high inflation is mainly attributed to the policies of President Joe Biden

According to a new opinion poll, Americans mainly blame President Joe Biden's policies for high inflation, the Capitol Hill reported on May 18 local time. In the poll conducted from May 13 to 16, 40 per cent of respondents believed that the president's policies were responsible for high inflation, while only 15 per cent believed that high inflation was mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 's epidemic on lifestyle. In addition, Biden won 44% of the approval rating in this poll, up from 39% last time.

• Melvin Capital plans to close the fund gradually after a huge loss.

The United States told investors about the investment fund Melvin Capital, which plans to gradually reduce the size of the fund and return cash to investors. The once-popular hedge fund lost billions of dollars shorting stocks such as game stations. Gabe Plotkin, founder of Melvin Capital, wrote: "the past 17 months have been an incredibly difficult time for the company and our investors. I've done my best, but lately it's not enough to bring the reward you should expect. I now realize that I need to stay away from managing external capital.

• Expert World Health Organization (WHO): 429 cases of unknown hepatitis in children have been reported by 22 countries. A detailed report will be released in the near future.

As of May 15, there had been 429 unidentified hepatitis-related cases in children in 22 countries around the world, up from 348 the previous week, according to Easterbrook, a senior scientist at World Health Organization (WHO) 's Global Hepatitis Project. In addition, researchers are investigating another 40 cases, with 75% of confirmed children under the age of 5. Easterbrook said World Health Organization (WHO) will release a detailed control study of the case in the near future to further confirm the link between adenovirus, novel coronavirus and unexplained hepatitis in children.

• Us Health official: 1/3 of the US population should consider returning to wearing masks

Federal health officials warned on May 18 that the number of confirmed and hospitalized cases of COVID-19 in the United States is on the rise recently, and that the more serious areas should consider resuming indoor mask orders. U. S. health officials say the Northeast and Midwest are high-risk areas, where 1/3 of the nation's population lives. This group of people should consider wearing masks, while people in other areas should be prepared.

• The United Nations downgrades its forecast for global economic growth in 2022

The United Nations released "World Economic situation and prospects in 2022" on May 18, local time. The report predicts that the global economic recovery has been disrupted by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, triggering a huge humanitarian crisis, raising food and commodity prices and exacerbating inflationary pressures around the world. Global economic growth slowed to 3.1 per cent in 2022, down from the 4 per cent forecast released in January 2022, according to the report. The report expects global inflation to rise to 6.7 per cent in 2022, double the average of 2.9 per cent between 2010 and 2020, and food and energy prices will rise sharply. Among them, the outlook for EU economic growth has weakened significantly, with EU GDP expected to grow by only 2.7 per cent in 2022, rather than the 3.9 per cent forecast in early January.

• In the first quarter of DDM:2022, the total investment in the global game industry reached US $3.5 billion, down 10.3% from the same period last year.

According to the latest report of Digital Development Management (DDM), a global game industry consultancy, the total investment in the global game industry reached $3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022, down 10.3% from the same period last year. Blockchain games accounted for 48% of the total investment of $1.7 billion. The total value of M & A transactions in the global game industry reached US $8 billion in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 276.2% over the same period last year.

Review of US stocks

• Walmart Inc and Target Corp thundered one after another, the haze of recession enveloped the market, and US stocks fell the most in two years.

The Dow plunged 1164.52 points to close down 3.57%, while the S & P closed down 4.04%. The Nasdaq closed down 4.73%, the biggest decline since September 2020, and Target Corp, the second-largest retail consumer group in the United States, fell 25%. Star technology stocks fell sharply. Meta fell more than 5 per cent, Amazon.Com Inc and Netflix Inc fell more than 7 per cent, and Apple Inc fell 5.6 per cent to the lowest since early October last year. Microsoft Corp fell 4.6%, Alphabet Inc-CL C fell nearly 4%, and Tesla, Inc. fell nearly 7%, pushing down $700 integer digits, the lowest since August last year.

• Global electric car leader Tesla, Inc. was kicked out of the S & P ESG index, Musk denounced: scam!

On Wednesday, local time, Standard & Poor's Dow Jones Inc. announced its annual index adjustment on its website. Among the 308 stocks in the S & P ESG index, Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc-CL C, Amazon.Com Inc, NVIDIA Corp, UnitedHealth Group Inc Group, Procter & Gamble Co, Exxon Mobil Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co were re-selected. But Tesla, Inc., Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Meta and other companies were removed. Tesla, Inc. 's score on environmental, social and governance standards has remained "quite stable" over the past year, but it has slipped compared with its improving global peers, Margaret Dorn, senior director of S & P Dow Jones Indices in North America and head of the ESG Index, explained in a blog post on its website on the 17th. And Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., naturally launched a round of "onslaught" on Standard P & D Jones on Twitter.

• Inflation is as fierce as a tiger! Target Corp, the second largest retail department store group in the United States, saw its performance explode, plunging 25%, the worst since the stock market crash of 1987.

Mainly affected by soaring costs, inventory bottlenecks, salary pressure and so on, Target Corp's first-quarter profit was lower than expected, and the guidance on operating profit margin was also low. Target Corp dragged down the retail sector of US stocks on Wednesday, saying it would try not to raise commodity prices and pass on costs to consumers, willing to maintain long-term market share at the expense of short-term profits.

• Cisco Systems's revenue was lower than expected in the first quarter, but fell unexpectedly in the second quarter, falling 19% after the market closed.

Affected by global supply chain problems and withdrawal from Russia, Cisco Systems, a "barometer" of corporate high-tech hardware demand, had revenue of $12.8 billion in the first quarter, while analysts expected revenue of $13.34 billion; revenue in the second quarter was expected to fall 1 per cent by 5.5 per cent, while analysts expected growth of 5.7 per cent. The fourth-quarter earnings outlook also fell short of expectations. After the announcement of the results, Cisco Systems once tumbled more than 19% in after-hours trading, the biggest drop in its history; it has fallen 23.43% so far this year, less than the 13% decline of the Dow Jones index in the same period.

• Amazon.Com Inc was sued by the US state of New York for discriminating against pregnant employees and disabled workers.

New York State Human Rights Office (DHR) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.Com Inc, accusing Amazon.Com Inc of discriminating against pregnant employees and disabled workers, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday. Amazon.Com Inc is suspected of forcing pregnant and disabled employees to take unpaid leave, according to the indictment. In one incident, a pregnant worker was allowed to avoid lifting more than 25 pounds of parcels, but a manager refused to comply, meaning the worker had been carrying heavy objects. After the worker was injured, Amazon.Com Inc asked him to take "indefinite leave without pay".

Yesterday's turnover of US stocks TOP20

The Prospect of Hong Kong City

• Beishui made a net purchase of Meituan on the 26th in a row and increased its position by more than HK $400m on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, May 18, Southbound Capital bought a net HK $806 million today, the eighth consecutive net purchase. China Mobile Limited, CNOOC Limited and Meituan-W ranked among the top three in net purchases, with net purchases of HK $632 million, HK $462 million and HK $442 million respectively. In terms of net sales, Tencent, Kuaishou Technology-W and Li Ning Co. Ltd. received net sales of HK $600 million, HK $323 million and HK $88 million respectively. Note: southbound funds have bought Meituan for 26 consecutive trading days, totaling about HK $20.357 billion.

• Tencent performance call: the game version number approval will show more positive signs, and the epidemic will not become the reason for personnel optimization.

Tencent executives said that there is still room for growth in mobile games. At present, the approval of game version numbers is good, and approval takes time, and the conversion of game products to cash will not be seen immediately. Structural changes are needed to focus on more profitable business. Personnel optimization may be carried out, reducing costs and efficiency is a comprehensive consideration; more balanced measures will be taken for investment to manage risks effectively.

• Tencent: the revenue of Q1 is 135.471 billion yuan, which is the same as the same period last year.

Tencent announced the results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. The financial report shows that Q1's revenue is 135.471 billion yuan, compared with 135.303 billion yuan in the same period last year, which is the same as the same period last year; net profit is 23.413 billion yuan, down 51% from the same period last year; adjusted net profit is 25.545 billion yuan, down 23% from the same period last year; diluted earnings per share are 2.404 yuan, compared with 4.917 yuan in the same period last year.

• GDS Holdings Limited-SW:Q1 net income increased by 31.5% to 2.243 billion yuan over the same period last year.

GDS Holdings Limited-SW releases first-quarter results. The company's net income was 2.243 billion yuan (the same as the same unit below), up 31.5% over the same period last year; gross profit was 486 million yuan, up 22.6% over the same period last year; and the basic loss per share was 0.39 yuan.

• Yasheng Medicine-B: the original Class 1 new drug Orebatinib has the potential to treat COVID-19

Yasheng Pharmaceutical announced on the evening of May 18th that a new preclinical study conducted by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that Orebatinib (Nerek ®) has the potential to treat cytokine storms induced by novel coronavirus mutant Omicron. The research results were published in the famous international journal EMBO Molecular Medicine on May 18th.

• Fu Hong Hanlin: phase 3 clinical study of Hans-like ®combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced ╱ metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma reached the main end point.

Fuhong Hanlin announced that recently, a phase 3 clinical study comparing the company's self-developed Hans-like ®(Srelizumab injection) or placebo combined chemotherapy (cisplatin + 5-FU) in the treatment of locally advanced ╱ metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients in the planned mid-term analysis, the independent data monitoring committee evaluated the dual major study endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Focus today

Thursday May nineteenth

Key words: XIAOMI's financial report, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the United States.

Financial report，$XIAOMI Group-W (01810.HK) $、$same trip (00780.HK)$、$GDS Holdings Limited-SW (09698.HK) $、$Grab Holdings (GRAB.US) $And other companies will announce their results.

Oriental Securities expects XIAOMI's Q1 revenue in 22 years to fall 5% year-on-year to 73.2 billion yuan, mainly due to the epidemic at home and abroad, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and other major environmental impact, the company's smartphones, IOT and other products shipped overseas short-term pressure. Taking into account the provision of large vehicle-related R & D expenses, 22Q1 is expected to make an adjusted net profit of about 2.8 billion yuan.

Niuniu morning reading:

When a powerful company encounters a huge but solvable crisis, an excellent investment opportunity comes quietly.

-- Warren Buffett