Market highlight - 28 Feb 2024 💡

Market movement

Investors eagerly await the release of inflation data to judge the path of potential interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rebounded ahead of the release of the city's annual budget.

🇺🇸 S&P 500: 0.17% 📈

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: 0.37% 📈

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600: 0.18% 📈

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: 0.01%📈

🇭🇰 Hang Seng: 0.94%📈

🇨🇳 CSI 300: 1.20%📈

Details

• Wall Street turned positive on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite inching up 0.2% and 0.4%, ahead of inflation and other economic data due this week that could shed light on the timing of a possible rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

• The CB Consumer Confidence Index in the United States fell back to 106.7 in February after rising for three consecutive months. Consumers’ views on the labor market have become less positive, with the proportion of people who believe that job opportunities are “plentiful” falling and the proportion of jobs being hard to find. rise.

• New orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell -6.1% sequentially in January 2024 (forecast: -4.5%), marking the largest monthly decline in durable goods orders since April 2020, driven primarily by transportation equipment.

• Japan's inflation rate fell to 2.2% in January 2024 from 2.6% last month, reaching the lowest level since March 2022, as food prices rose at the smallest pace in 16 months and signaled that the Bank of Japan was on track with policy You may have to be patient on the road to change.

• Asia-Pacific stock markets cheered, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng and China's CSI 300 soaring 0.9% and 1.2% respectively, as a string of Hong Kong builders generated positive sentiment ahead of the annual budget and Li Auto announced Excellent financial report. 

💡 Things to know today: 💡

 1. According to a survey by the Conference Board, there has been no significant breakthrough in confidence at the beginning of 2024, indicating that the gains in previous months have not been sustained, and U.S. inflation expectations in December have dropped to 5.2%, the lowest level since March 2020. the lowest level.

 2. Apple has canceled development work on its electric car project, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, a decision a decade after the project was launched. According to Bloomberg, "several employees" involved in the electric vehicle project will be transferred to the company's artificial intelligence (AI) unit. This might short term impact to Apple's stock price but I believe the contribution in AI will be more significant than EV, therefore bullish for $Apple(AAPL)$ . The drop of EV project from Apple will be beneficial to its rivals like $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  $Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc.(FFIE)$  $Rivian Automotive, Inc.(RIVN)$  $NIO Inc.(NIO)$  

 3. Barclays on Tuesday raised its 2024 end-of-year target for the S&P 500 stock index to 5,300 points from 4,800 points, pointing to the resilience of the U.S. economy, strong earnings from "big tech companies" and the expectation that inflation will continue to normalize. , the overall economy will remain relatively resilient.

 ✅ Key Points:

Japanese market dynamics appear to be improving with a possible turn in Japan's monetary policy. We continue to believe that Japanese equities are poised to provide positive momentum to portfolios in 2024.

@TigerStars  @CaptainTiger  @MillionaireTiger  @Daily_Discussion