According to Caixin on May 16 (Editor Zhao Hao), on Thursday (May 15), the three major US stock indexes fluctuated, with the Dow Jones and S&P rising, where the S&P increased for the fourth consecutive day, while the Nasdaq ended its six-day rise.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.65%, reporting 42,322.75 points; the S&P 500 Index rose 0.41%, reporting 5,916.93 points, the highest closing price since March 3; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.18%, reporting 19,112.32 points.

Among the Dow components, the number of gainers to losers was 23:7. Recently strong-performing Amazon, Apple, and NVIDIA experienced a pullback, while pharmaceutical and consumer stocks strengthened, with Amgen rising 3.59%, Coca-Cola rising 3.54%, and Cisco, which reported positive results, rising 4.85%.

Dow Jones Hot Map

Analysts say that since the high-level talks on China-US trade achieved significant consensus, the S&P 500 Index has continued its upward trend. Meanwhile, the 10-year US Treasury yield fell about 10 basis points intraday, providing a bullish signal for the stock market.

Recent economic data has led the market to speculate that the Federal Reserve will implement two interest rate cuts this year to prevent an economic recession in the USA. The CPI and core CPI released on Tuesday recorded the lowest year-on-year growth in four years, and the PPI before the market also fell short of market expectations.

Earlier in the day, Trump stated in Doha, the capital of Qatar, that Iran had agreed to some conditions, and he would urge Iran to reach an agreement without acquiring nuclear weapons. This news caused oil prices to plummet, which could help the USA reduce inflation.

Joe Cusick, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Specialist at Calamos Investments, commented, "As concerns about an economic recession begin to fade, the stock market is showing potential strong momentum, and market sentiment has turned cautiously optimistic, perhaps even moderately optimistic."

But Cusick also pointed out, "A series of macro and micro risks still constitute a 'wall of worry' that investors must grapple with. The next phase of the trend will depend on whether the current rally can expand and sustain into the summer or if it will turn into a consolidation or pullback."

Lamar Villere, Portfolio Manager at Villere & Co., stated, "I don’t want to sound too excited, but this summer we can indeed focus on the fundamental aspects of the companies. If you had told me a month ago that stock prices would rise, I would have said you were a liar."

Performance of Popular Stocks

Large-cap technology stocks generally pulled back, with Microsoft rising 0.23%, NVIDIA falling 0.38%, Apple falling 0.41%, Amazon falling 2.42%, Google C falling 0.85%, Meta falling 2.35%, Tesla falling 1.4%, and Broadcom rising 0.22%.

For China Concept Stocks, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 2.37%.

Most popular China Concept Stocks fell, with Alibaba down 7.57%, JD.com down 3.86%, Tencent Music down 3.71%, Baidu down 3.58%, NIO down 3.39%, New Oriental down 2.61%, XPeng down 1.39%, PDD Holdings down 0.88%, Li Auto down 0.59%, and TAL Education down 0.2%.

NetEase rose 14.61%, closing near its previous high; MINISO rose 4.27%, and Bawang Tea Princess rose 3.7%.

Company News

[Meta is said to delay the release of its flagship AI model "Behemoth"]

Insiders indicate that Meta Platforms will delay the release of its flagship AI model, raising concerns internally about its multi-billion dollar AI investment direction. Insiders report that engineers are striving to improve the performance of the large language model named "Behemoth," with employees questioning whether the level of improvement is sufficient for a public release. The model was originally scheduled to debut at Meta's first AI developer conference in April, delayed to June, and has now been postponed again to fall or later.

[Verizon will invest $5 billion in small business suppliers in the USA]

USA telecom operator Verizon launched the "Small Business Supplier Accelerator." In the next five years, the company will invest 5 billion dollars in USA small business suppliers.

[Qualcomm launches the fourth-generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform]

Qualcomm has launched the fourth-generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform, which achieves an all-around performance upgrade, with a 27% increase in CPU performance, a 30% improvement in GPU graphics rendering speed, and a remarkable 65% enhancement in AI performance compared to the previous generation platform.

[Coinbase states that customer data was stolen and has refused a $20 million ransom from hackers]

US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced on Thursday that customer data had been stolen by hackers who demanded $20 million to prevent public disclosure. Coinbase stated that the hackers made their demands on Monday. The company mentioned in a statement that the hackers aimed to compile a contactable customer list while impersonating Coinbase to deceive customers into handing over their cryptos, and the company rejected the $20 million ransom from the hackers. Coinbase also stated it would compensate customers who were fooled into sending money to the attackers, with the compensation amount potentially between $0.18 billion and $0.4 billion.

[Buffett sells a large amount of bank stocks in Q1, maintains Apple holdings unchanged]

Berkshire Hathaway, led by Buffett, disclosed its Q1 holdings report (Form 13F) for the period ending March 31 this year. It completely divested from Citigroup (14.63 million shares) and financial company Nu Holdings, reduced its stake in Bank of America (48.66 million shares), and kept its Apple holdings (0.3 billion shares) unchanged; on the buy side, it purchased 6.38 million shares of the beverage company Constellation Brands, with an increase of 113.5%, raised its position in Occidental Petroleum by 0.76 million shares, and increased its holdings in Pool Corp by 0.86 million shares. Notably, Berkshire started zero new stock positions in Q1.

[Soros' son's hedge fund re-enters Chinese assets with three major Chinese symbols in the top ten holdings]

The 13F report from Soros Capital Management LLC shows that the hedge fund founded by Robert Soros, son of George Soros, has readjusted its positions in Chinese assets for the first quarter. New holdings include Alibaba, YUM CHINA, and iShares Core MSCI China Index ETF (FXI), with FXI, YUM CHINA, and Alibaba ranked 5th, 7th, and 8th respectively.

[Hillhouse Capital's HHLR increases positions in Chinese assets in Q1, significantly increasing several China concept stocks]

HHLR Advisors, an independent fund management platform focused on secondary market investments under Hillhouse Capital, released its US stocks holdings data as of the end of the first quarter of 2025. The 13F filing indicated that HHLR's total Market Cap rose from $2.887 billion at the end of the previous quarter to $3.539 billion, an increase of nearly 23%. The data shows that in the first quarter, HHLR continued to expand its allocation in Chinese assets, adding and increasing positions in nearly 20 China Concept Stocks, including newly added holdings in Atour Lifestyle Holdings, H World Group, Baidu, China Yuchai International, Li Auto, Kanzhun, and Yika Technology, as well as increased positions in Futu Holdings Ltd, PDD Holdings, NetEase, KE Holdings, JD.com, Trip.com, and ZTO Express. As of the end of the first quarter of 2025, HHLR's top ten holdings were: PDD Holdings, Alibaba, Futu Holdings Ltd, BEIGENE, NetEase, KE Holdings, Legend Biotech, JD.com, Vipshop, and WNS HLDGS LTD, with China Concept Stocks occupying 9 positions. HHLR reduced its holdings in companies such as Alibaba and BEIGENE in Q1.