The ceasefire talks between Palestine and Israel have led to a drop of over 1% in international oil prices.
*The three major stock indexes continued to rebound, with the Nasdaq approaching 16000 points;
*The yield of medium – and long-term US Treasury bonds has fallen, and the 10-year US Treasury bond is approaching the 4.60% mark;
*Apple rose over 2%, and Bernstein announced a rating hike.
On Monday, the entire US stock market rose, while Tesla and Apple rose, driving market sentiment. Investors remained cautious until the Federal Reserve announced its interest rate decision later this week. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 146.43 points, or 0.38%, to 38386.09 points, the Nasdaq rose 0.35%, to 15983.08 points, and the S&P 500 index rose 0.35%, to 15983.08 points.
Tesla rose 15.3%, and Tesla China confirmed that restrictions on Tesla’s use have been gradually lifted across the country. This breakthrough is also seen as clearing obstacles for the implementation of FSD in China.
Apple rose 2.5% after reports that the iPhone manufacturer had renegotiated with OpenAI about using the startup’s generative artificial intelligence technology. Bernstein upgraded the stock to “outperform the market”.
Other star technology stocks saw mixed gains and losses, with Amazon up 0.8%, Nvidia up less than 0.1%, Microsoft down 1.0%, Meta down 2.4%, and Google down 3.3%.
Market Overview
The Dallas Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index has slightly decreased from -14.4 in March to -14.5, still in a contraction range, consistent with the global manufacturing surveys of New York, Richmond, Kansas City, and S&P earlier this month. The employment and payment price index in the sub indicators has decreased, while the data on production, new orders, and shipment volume has slightly increased.
Medium – and long-term US Treasury bonds have fallen for the second consecutive day. The two-year US bond fell 3 basis points to 4.97%, and the 10-year treasury bond bond fell 6 basis points to 4.61%. The US Treasury Department announced in a statement on Monday that it will increase its net borrowing estimate for April to June by $41 billion from the estimated $2020 billion released at the end of January.
Investors are closely monitoring this week’s Federal Reserve resolution and non farm payroll report, both of which may set the tone for the recent market direction.
“The Federal Reserve may emphasize that interest rate cuts are not urgent,” said Raffi Boyadjian, chief investment analyst at XM, in a report to clients. “On the other hand, April’s employment data is also crucial as another hot report may shift the Fed’s focus to further tightening.”
Bill Strazzullo, Chief Market Strategist at Bell Curve Trading, said, “The overall momentum of the US stock market is still on the rise, and this is an important week. In addition to the Federal Reserve, non-farm payroll, and a large number of corporate financial reports, the path with the least resistance is still upward.”
In terms of other individual stocks, regional bank UMB Financial has agreed to acquire competitor Heartland Financial in a $2 billion all stock transaction. UMB closed down 6.5%, while Heartland rose over 15%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks performed well, with Ideal Automobile rising over 7%, Baidu and Xiaopeng Automobile rising over 3%, and Bilibili, Alibaba, and iQiyi rising over 1%.
International oil prices are weakening, and the outside world is paying attention to the progress of the Palestinian Israeli ceasefire negotiations. The WTI crude oil near month contract fell 1.45% to $82.63 per barrel, while the Brent crude oil near month contract fell 1.23% to $88.40 per barrel.
The weakening of the US dollar has pushed up gold prices, and investors are waiting for the latest clues on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. The COMEX gold futures contract for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.45% to $2345.50 per ounce.