The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Thursday, the three major indices had mixed ups and downs, and the Dow and S&P 500 indices reached record closing highs. The US stock market will be closed on Friday (March 29, 2024) due to Good Friday.

[US stocks] At the close, the Dow rose 47.29 points, or 0.12%, to 39807.37 points; the NASDAQ fell 20.06 points, or 0.12%, to 16379.46 points; the S&P 500 rose 5.86 points, or 0.11%, to 5254.35 points. This week, the Dow rose 0.84%, the NASDAQ fell 0.3%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.39%. In March, the S&P 500 rose 3.1%. The Nasdaq Index rose 1.79% and the Dow Jones Index rose 2.08%.

In the first quarter, the S&P 500 rose 10.16%, the best first-quarter gain since 2019; the Dow rose 5.6%, the strongest first-quarter performance since 2021; and the Nasdaq index rose 9.11% in the first quarter. Thanks to the AI wave, Nvidia (NVDA.US) surged 82% in Q1, increasing its market value by more than $1 trillion; Apple (AAPL.US) fell more than 10%, and Tesla (TSLA.US) fell 29%. Microsoft (MSFT.US) has surged 12% to become the number one market capitalization in the world.

[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 fell more than 1.4%, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.65%, Vietnam's VN30 Index rose more than 1%, and the Singapore Straits Times Index fell 0.85%.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin rose more than 1% to $70742.3; Ethereum rose more than 1.7% to $3560.73.

[Gold] The price of New York gold futures climbed on Thursday and recorded the biggest monthly increase in more than a year. Gold prices were supported by strong safe-haven demand, expectations of US interest rate cuts, and central bank purchases. Gold futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed 1.2% higher, closing at $2238.40 an ounce.

[Crude oil] Brent crude oil futures for May closed at $87.48 per barrel, the highest level since October 27. The June contract, which is more actively traded, closed at $87 per barrel, up $1.58. The May contract expires on Thursday. The settlement price of US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI) futures for May delivery was $83.17 per barrel, up $1.82, or 2.2%. This week, Brent crude oil futures rose 2.4%, and WTI crude futures rose about 3.2%, all for the third month in a row.

[Metals] London Metals rose, with Lun Aluminum up more than 1.7%, Lunn Nickel up 0.38%, Lun Copper up 0.28%, and Lunzn Zinc up 0.16%.

[Macro News]

Consumer confidence in Michigan in the US unexpectedly hit a three-year high in March. The final value of consumer confidence in Michigan in the US unexpectedly hit a three-year high in March. Short-term inflation expectations continued to fall, hitting a new low of more than three years. The final value of the US Consumer Confidence Index in March was 79.4, the highest since July 2021. It was significantly better than the forecast of 76.5. The initial value was 76.5, and the value before February was 76.9. Among them, the final value of the current status index was 82.5, the expected value was 79.6, the initial value was 79.4, and the pre-February value was 79.4; the final value of the expected index was 77.4, the expected value was 74.7, the initial value was 74.6, and the pre-February value was 75.2. In terms of inflation expectations that have received much attention in the market, the final value of the 1-year inflation forecast is 2.9%, the lowest since December 2020. The forecast is 3.1%, the initial value is 3%; the final value of the 5-year inflation forecast is 2.8%, the forecast is 2.9%, and the initial value is 2.9%.

The sharp rise in US stocks brought the total wealth value of the richest 1% in the US to a record high. According to the latest data from the Federal Reserve, by the end of the fourth quarter of last year, the wealth of the richest 1% of people in the US reached a record 44.6 trillion US dollars because the rise in the stock market at the end of the year strengthened their portfolios. According to the Federal Reserve's definition, those with wealth over $11 million are the richest 1%, and their total net worth increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year. All of the proceeds come from the shares they hold. Since 2020, the wealth of the richest 1% has increased by nearly $15 trillion, or 49%. The wealth of the American middle class is also rising, and the wealth of 50% to 90% of the American middle class has increased by 50%. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said, “The wealth effect of soaring stock prices is a powerful driver of consumer confidence, spending, and broader economic growth.” “Of course, this highlights the vulnerability of the economy in the event of a stock market shock. This isn't the most likely scenario, but given that the stock market appears to be overvalued, this does exist.”

Powell emphasized paying attention to job market bond market traders to find trading themes. As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell began public discussions to protect the job market, a group of bond traders began betting that the inflation rate would remain high. “Powell is basically supporting the break-even inflation rate,” said Tim Magnusson, chief investment officer of hedge fund Garda Capital Partners. He was referring to a trading strategy to profit from inflation-linked bonds outperforming conventional US Treasury bonds. Powell made it clear last week that he is no longer solely focused on keeping inflation down. He also hinted that sufficient progress has been made on inflation — the core inflation rate has fallen to 2.8% from 5.6% two years ago, so that policymakers can accelerate the shift to cutting interest rates in the face of a sudden surge in unemployment. For Magnusson and some other Wall Streeters, this shows that the Federal Reserve Committee can allow inflation to stay close to current levels rather than push it all the way down to the target level of 2%. “I'm guessing they're willing to tolerate a slightly higher rate of inflation than we thought,” Magnusson said.

The Biden administration held a supply chain meeting on the collapse of the Maryland Bridge and the closure of the Port of Baltimore: working to minimize disruptions. The US White House issued a statement on March 28 saying that the White House National Economic Council held a Biden administration supply chain interruption task force meeting on the 27th to discuss the potential impact of the collapse of the “Francis Scott Key” bridge in Baltimore, Maryland and the partial closure of the Port of Baltimore on regional and national supply chains. Participating agencies include the White House and various departments such as the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Labor. The statement said that the White House and various federal agencies are in extensive contact with industry, shipping carriers, ports and trade unions to seek to minimize interference.

FTX founder SBF was jailed for 25 years and fined $11 billion. On Thursday, Sam Bankman-Fried (Sam Bankman-Fried), founder of digital asset derivatives exchange FTX, was jailed for 25 years on charges of large-scale fraud and conspiracy, which have led to the bankruptcy of his cryptocurrency exchange and an associated hedge fund. The Manhattan federal court decision was far less than the 40 to 50 years in prison that federal prosecutors wanted to sentence SBF to, and far higher than the 5 to 6 and a half years in prison recommended by his attorney. SBF, 32, said of his colleagues at FTX: “They built some really beautiful things and I threw them all away.” “It bothers me every day.”

[Individual Stock News]

Microsoft (MSFT.US) develops tools to prevent AI chatbots from being tricked. Microsoft is working to prevent people from tricking AI chatbots into doing weird things. Microsoft Corp. said in a blog post on Thursday that Azure AI Studio is building new security features that allow developers to build custom artificial intelligence assistants using their own data. These tools include Prompt Shields (Prompt Shields), which are designed to detect and stop “cue attacks” or “jailbreaks” that attempt to cause artificial intelligence models to operate in unexpected ways. Microsoft has also solved the “indirect prompt input” problem, where hackers insert malicious instructions into data trained by the model and induce them to perform unauthorized operations such as stealing user information or hijacking the system. Sarah Bird, Microsoft's chief product officer responsible for artificial intelligence, said the attack was “a unique challenge and threat.” The new defenses are aimed at spotting suspicious inputs and blocking them in real time, she said. Microsoft has also introduced a new feature that alerts users when AI models make things up or produce incorrect reactions.

It is difficult for investors to be optimistic about Tesla (TSLA.US) after the market capitalization evaporates to 350 billion US dollars. Tesla's stock seems to have come back to life in recent days after experiencing a sharp decline this year, but investors lacked the transparency needed to bet on the stock's continued rebound. The electric car maker will release first-quarter car delivery data early next week, but expectations that have declined rapidly over the past month suggest that the report will be mediocre. More importantly, recent news suggests that market demand for Tesla cars will also be lackluster in the coming months. “Delivery expectations have been drastically lowered, which has really dampened investors' confidence in the company. Even if the first-quarter data slightly exceeds expectations, it is difficult to interpret it positively,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “Valuation is often linked to the company's weakest link. For Tesla, it's the car business.”

The Xiaomi (XIACY.US) SU7 “will” break 50,000 in 27 minutes after it went on sale. Xiaomi Auto claims on social media platforms that the Xiaomi SU7 surpassed 10,000 units in 4 minutes, Dading surpassed 20,000 units in 7 minutes, and Dading surpassed 50,000 units in 27 minutes. However, it is worth noting that Xiaomi Auto's understanding of “Dading” is different from the general understanding of the industry. The Xiaomi SU7 5,000 yuan Dading is currently refundable within 7 days. If the time is overdue, the order is automatically locked, and the deposit is not refundable after the order is locked. However, it is commonly agreed in the industry that a “small order” can be returned at any time, and a “big deal” is an order that cannot be returned. According to the Xiaomi Auto App, the original 5,000 units of the Xiaomi SU7 have also been sold out. The deposit for the original edition was 20,000 yuan per car, and it is non-refundable. This means that tonight, the deposit for the original version of the Xiaomi car alone has already received 100 million yuan.

[Big Bank Ratings]

Jefferies: Lowering the target price of Xiaopeng Motors (XPEV.US) to HK$73 to maintain a “buy” rating