Market Highlights 💡 - 17 May 2024

* Wall Street retreats on mixed corporate earnings forecasts; Hang Seng cheers on housing policy

🇺🇸 S&P 500: -0.19% 📉

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: -0.25% 📉

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600 Index: -0.09% 📉

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: 1.39% 📈

🇭🇰 Hang Seng Index: 1.60% 📈

🇨🇳 CSI 300 Index: 0.39% 📈

* U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite down -0.2% and -0.3%, respectively, as investors adjusted interest rate cut expectations in response to slowing inflation and strong corporate earnings data.

* U.S. jobless claims fell by 11,000 to 222,000 in the week ended May 11, beating estimates of 219,000, suggesting the labor market remains quite tight and is finding a delicate balance.

* Asia-Pacific stocks rose, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng rising 1.6% to a nine-month high and China's CSI 300 rising 0.4%, driven by supportive measures to support the housing market and expectations the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates after weak inflation data. . The Nikkei gained 1.4% as investors were pleased with slowing U.S. inflation.

* Japan's preliminary first-quarter GDP fell -2% quarter-on-quarter, missing expectations of -1.5%, as a weak yen continued to hit consumers, posing new challenges for the Bank of Japan to further raise interest rates and stimulate the economy.

💡 Future events: 💡

At the end of the week we will see the release of China's annual industrial production and unemployment rate, and the final EU CPI annual rate.

💡 Things you need to know today: 💡

1. Applied Materials $Applied Materials(AMAT)$   reported better-than-expected third-quarter results of $6.65 billion, but shares fell as demand for its semiconductor tools was strong but it failed to meet investors' high expectations. The company, which supplies chipmaking tools to Samsung and TSMC, reported that 43% of its total second-quarter revenue came from China.

Applied Materials

2. Walmart $Wal-Mart(WMT)$  shares hit a record high after raising its full-year forecast and reporting better-than-expected quarterly results, confident that easing inflation will drive strong sales of groceries and discretionary items such as clothing and electronics.

Walmart

3. Deere & Co. $John Deere(DE)$  reported $13.6 billion in equipment sales and despite better-than-expected earnings of $8.53 per share, the company cut its full-year net income guidance to $7 billion, sending its shares plummeting. The company's earnings have been falling along with lower agricultural prices, as corn and soybean prices have fallen by about 22% and 13%, respectively.

John Deere

4. Hefei said it would provide home buyers with subsidies equal to 2% of the value of the homes they purchased, while Hangzhou announced plans to buy existing homes and rent them out as affordable housing, all in an effort to ease the economic downturn and reduce inventory, To address developers' liquidity issues and restore homebuyer confidence.

5. Chinese online retailer JD $JD.com(JD)$  reported first-quarter revenue that beat market expectations as price cuts and discount coupons helped boost sales hit by wary consumers. Its net profit increased 3.4% year-on-year to 8.9 billion yuan, and revenue increased 7% year-on-year to 260 billion yuan.

JD

✅ KEY POINTS:

Following a slew of key data this week, markets now expect the Fed to cut interest rates twice this year, by a quarter of a percentage point each time, with a 70% chance of a first cut in September.

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