Breakfast | AMD hits a new high, JD soars by 16%, the US Senate version of the "Biosecurity Act" passes the hearing.

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Overnight Market Update

Chip stocks and Chinese concept stocks outperformed the market, with AMD hitting a historical high and JD.com surging 16% after earnings report

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell reiterated that it may be appropriate to start cutting interest rates at some point this year, but the Fed needs to be more confident that inflation will fall to its target before doing so. Analysts commented that Powell's testimony did not bring anything new, as expected by the market, he is not in a rush to cut rates. The three major indexes halted a two-day decline and closed higher for the first time this week.

Most of the seven major tech stocks continued to decline. Tesla, which has been leading the decline for three consecutive days, fell by 2.3%, accumulating a 12.9% drop in the past three days and about 29% since the beginning of the year. With a market value of $562.43 billion, it has evaporated $228 billion this year, falling out of the top ten largest companies in the U.S. by market value for the first time in 13 months.

Only Meta maintained gains throughout the day, rising by 1.2%. Apple fell by 0.6%, marking a sixth consecutive day of decline. Chip stocks outperformed the market, with NVIDIA rising by nearly 3.2%, hitting a new closing high for the fifth consecutive day. AMD rose by nearly 2.7%, TSMC rose by 4.9%, both hitting new intraday and closing historical highs.

Popular Chinese concept stocks rebounded overall, outperforming the market. JD.com surged by 16.2%, Bilibili by over 6%, NIO Inc. by over 5%, XPeng by nearly 5%, Alibaba by over 2%, Baidu by over 1%, and Li Auto by about 0.3%.

New York Community Bank experienced extreme volatility after a replay, triggering multiple circuit breakers with an intraday swing as high as 77%, closing up by 8%. A company led by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin raised $1 billion for New York Community Bank and will sell and issue shares at $2 per share. Mnuchin will join the board and reduce the board to 9 members. Former Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting will serve as CEO.

Blue Chips and Hot Stocks

Moody's: Upgraded NVIDIA's senior unsecured bond rating to Aa3 (from A1) with a positive outlook.

Media: Tesla's German factory will be without power until next weekend. First-quarter deliveries may be impacted.

BMW launches the "2024 BEV Conquest Plan" targeting electric vehicle owners such as Tesla.

OpenAI refutes Musk: Making AI beneficial to humanity does not mean open-sourcing AGI.

JD.com reported fourth-quarter revenue of 306.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%; adjusted net profit of 8.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%. Full-year revenue was 1.0847 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%; adjusted net profit was 35.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%. The annual dividend is $0.38 per ordinary share. JD.com announced a new share buyback plan of up to $3 billion.

BYD: Plans to repurchase shares worth 400 million yuan at a price not exceeding 270 yuan per share.

XPeng recently started to require dealers to stock inventory, purchasing half of the target sales volume each month. The antitrust enforcement agency in South Korea is investigating Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform, AliExpress, to examine whether it has violated consumer rights protection obligations.

In response to the news of "Hema closing stores in various places," Hema stated that it is normal to replace the tail-end stores in the first half of this year, closing 6-7 stores nationwide. This year, they plan to open 70 new stores, while over 360 stores are operating normally.

China Evergrande has received guidance from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on resuming trading and is taking appropriate measures to resolve the suspension issue. Previously, due to a winding-up order issued by the Hong Kong court, China Evergrande's stock has been suspended from trading since January 29.

ASML, the giant in lithography machines, intends to expand overseas, but the Dutch government is stepping in to prevent it.

ByteDance is set to start a new round of stock buybacks. The repurchase price for current employees will be $170 per share, while the price for departing employees will be $145 per share.

Startups

Macro: Taking You Around the World

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell: Lowering interest rates at some point this year may be appropriate, but we are not prepared at the moment. Key points from the congressional testimony:

1. Interest rate outlook: Lowering interest rates may be appropriate at some point this year. Lowering policy rates will not be appropriate until we have greater confidence in sustainable inflation heading towards 2%. The policy rate for this cycle may have already peaked. There are risks in lowering rates too early, too quickly, too late, or too little. We do not need to wait for inflation to reach 2% before lowering rates. If the economy develops as we hope, rates will need to drop significantly in the coming years.

2. Inflation outlook: The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring inflation risks. Progress towards 2% inflation is not clear. Housing service inflation is expected to decline. Although inflation remains above 2%, it has eased significantly. There is no hope that the inflation rate will drop all the way to 2%.

3. Economic outlook: Economic prospects are uncertain, with labor demand still exceeding supply; nominal wage growth has been slowing. The economy has made significant progress in the dual mandate over the past year. There is no reason to believe that the economy is in or facing significant near-term recession risks. An economic recession is currently unlikely, and a soft landing is achievable.

4. Banking regulation: Significant adjustments are expected to be made to the Basel III proposals, and the reform will be broad and substantive.

5. Others: Freezing Russian assets has no significant impact on the US dollar. There is a strong focus on artificial intelligence, which undoubtedly has the ability to enhance or replace labor, but it is uncertain which it will lead to.

At 23:00 Singapore time, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will deliver semi-annual monetary policy testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.

Federal Reserve's Kashkari: If the anti-inflation process is not going well, the first consideration is to extend the time to keep interest rates unchanged; it is expected to cut interest rates twice this year, or possibly once; if the economy performs well, why cut interest rates?

The US ADP employment report recorded an increase of 140,000 jobs in February, the largest increase since December last year.

The US House of Representatives has enough votes to pass a bill to provide funding for some government departments by September 30 and avoid a government shutdown, with voting still ongoing.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has withdrawn from the 2024 election campaign. The US Senate version of the "Biosecurity Act" passed the hearing, while the House version is set to hold a hearing soon.

The Senate version of the "Biosecurity Act" (Bill No. S.3558) passed with an overwhelming majority. The bill prohibits the US federal government from entering into contracts with certain biotechnology providers linked to foreign competitors, including companies like BGI Genomics and WuXi AppTec. The "Biosecurity Act" (Bill No. H.R.7085) initiated by Congressman Mike Gallagher will also have a hearing in the House at 9:00 am local time on March 7.

The EU is preparing to establish comprehensive artificial intelligence regulations, with a vote scheduled for March 13. Workplaces using "emotion recognition" systems will face the highest fines.

China will hold a press conference during the 2nd session of the 14th National People's Congress today.

PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng: There is still room for further reserve requirement ratio cuts in the future.

CSRC Chairman Wu Qing: Stricter delisting mechanisms will be established; loopholes like technical divorces for reducing holdings will be further closed; companies that have not distributed dividends for many years or have a low dividend ratio will face different measures.