U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices rebounding after two days of declines.
The markets reacted positively to lower-than-expected initial jobless claims and the largest annual increase in labor costs for the first quarter, closely monitoring the Federal Reserve’s future monetary policy and awaiting further earnings reports and critical labor market data.
The first quarter has been busy with earnings releases. Chipmaker Qualcomm surged 9.7% after its earnings and revenue forecasts beat expectations.
Conversely, food delivery service DoorDash saw its stock plummet by 10.3% after reporting a per-share loss wider than Wall Street had anticipated.
Eric Winograd, Director of Developed Market Economic Research at AllianceBernstein, commented that while Fed Chair Powell reassured that the next move by the central bank is unlikely to be a rate hike, which should soothe market sentiment, traders are primarily concerned about when the Fed will actually start cutting rates—a question that remains unanswered.
U.S. Stocks
Fundamental Analysis:
Tech giants had mixed results. Amazon and Meta each rose over 2%, Microsoft climbed over 1%, while Google and Meta posted slight increases; Tesla fell over 1%.
In the semiconductor sector, Qualcomm soared nearly 10% after reporting second-quarter revenue above expectations; Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Arm, GlobalFoundries, Micron Technology, and ASML all gained over 2%.
Apple’s earnings exceeded expectations for the second quarter, announcing a further $110 billion in stock buybacks.
Chinese concept stocks broadly rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up over 6%.
XPeng and Bilibili jumped over 15%, KE Holdings over 12%, JD.com more than 11%, Li Auto nearly 10%, Baidu over 7%, and Nio, Alibaba, and Tencent ADRs all rose more than 6%.
Technical Analysis:
(S&P 500 Index, 1-day chart)
Market Trends:
- Nasdaq rose 235.48 points, up 1.51% to 15,840.96.
- Dow gained 322.37 points, up 0.85% to 38,225.66.
- S&P 500 increased by 45.81 points, up 0.91% to 5,064.30.
Hong Kong Stock Market
Fundamental Analysis:
Hong Kong’s major indices initially surged but then receded.
Educational stocks, internal insurance stocks, and Alibaba concept stocks led the gains, while pharmaceutical and gold stocks saw declines.
Specific stocks such as Fast Dog Taxi soared over 50%, Evergrande Auto over 10%, and Bilibili over 6%, while WuXi AppTec dropped over 5% and SenseTime over 4%.
Apple concept stocks rose after the company announced second-quarter earnings after Thursday’s close.
Apple reported net earnings of $23.64 billion, a 2% year-over-year decline, with earnings per share of $1.53, beating market estimates of $1.50 per share.
Apple announced a dividend of 25 cents per share, up from the previous quarter, while its revenue fell 4% year-over-year to $90.75 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of $90.33 billion.
Technical Analysis:
(Hang Seng Index, 1-day chart)
Market Trends:
- Hang Seng Index (HSI) up 1.14% to 18,413.79.
- Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH) increased by 2.07% to 3,945.56.
- Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI.) rose 1.29% to 6,520.05.
FTSE China A50 Index
Due to the Labor Day holiday, the A-share market will remain closed until May 5th and is set to resume normal operations on May 6th.
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