Market Highlights 💡 - 26 November 2024

Wall Street rises, yields fall; Chinese stock market shows signs of weakness.

🇺🇸 S&P 500: +0.30% 📈

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: +0.27% 📈

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600: +0.07% 📈

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225: +1.30% 📈

🇭🇰 Hang Seng: -0.41% 📉

🇨🇳 Shanghai Shenzhen 300: -0.45% 📉

🇸🇬 Straits Times Index: -0.35% 📉

U.S. Markets opened the shortened trading week positively, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rising 0.3%, as traders reacted to the latest development regarding President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

Asia-Pacific markets closed lower, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng and China's Shanghai Shenzhen 300 Index dropping -0.4% and -0.5%, respectively, as investors digested the People's Bank of China's latest monetary decision. Meanwhile, New World Development $NEW WORLD DEV(00017)$ , a real estate developer, fell before being removed from the Hang Seng Index.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) kept the one-year Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) rate unchanged at 2% to stabilize the RMB, which had been under pressure following Trump's election.

💡 Upcoming Events 💡

The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index will be released Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the U.S. will release the FOMC Meeting Minutes, Preliminary GDP Growth Rate, Initial Jobless Claims, and the Core PCE Price Index (monthly).

On Friday, the Eurozone Flash CPI and Core CPI YoY, as well as the Japan Consumer Confidence Index and Unemployment Rate, will be in focus for investors.

By the end of the week, on Saturday, Japan's Retail Sales YoY and China's Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI will be announced.

💡 Things to Know Today 💡

1. U.S. Treasuries surged, with the 10-year yield dropping to 4.28%, as the market welcomed the nomination of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. This suggests that Trump's aggressive tariff agenda may take a more moderate stance, and investors are relieved by the prospect of a more balanced fiscal outlook.

2. Nvidia $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$  unveiled Fugatto, a groundbreaking AI model capable of generating and modifying music, voice, and sound based on text and audio prompts. Fugatto, with 2.5 billion parameters, uses Nvidia's DGX system and competes with Meta $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$   and OpenAI in the AI innovation space.

Fugatto

3. Apple's $Apple(AAPL)$   Tim Cook met with global CEOs (including leaders from Rio Tinto and Lenovo) and Chinese Premier Li Qiang to address trade and supply chain challenges under the threat of Trump's tariffs, highlighting China's critical role in Apple's operations.

Tim Cook

4. Beijing launched a three-month campaign to reform tech companies' recommendation algorithms, targeting issues like addiction, gig exploitation, and content manipulation, as part of China's broader push to regulate the tech industry.

5. Chinese tech giants, including Tencent $TENCENT(00700)$  and Alibaba, posted lackluster performance in Q3 2024 due to weak consumer demand and insufficient policy support hindering growth.

Alibaba Tencent

✅ Key Takeaways:

In 2024, U.S. stocks are expected to continue rising, with sector movements balancing each other out, leading to rare overall stability in the indices. As the Trump administration prepares to take office, investors are positioning themselves for potential sector-wide shifts in 2025.

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