Market overview
Affected by news such as favorable vaccines and bill voting, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at a new record high, S&P 500 set a 50th closing record this year, and Nasdaq stood at 15,000 for the first time. Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives narrowly passed the voting framework of the $3.5 trillion welfare plan and the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Biden and G7 delivered speeches on Afghanistan, and large technology companies will attend a conference on cyber security tomorrow. Today, aviation, energy and industrial stocks generally rose, while vaccine stocks fell.
At the close, the DJIA Index rose 0.09% to 35,366.26 points; The S&P 500 index rose 0.15% to 4486.23 points; Nasdaq index rose 0.52% to 15,019.80 points.
China Stocks rose sharply collectively, and Pinduoduo Inc. released its quarterly report for the second quarter to vigorously support agricultural development. Ark Fund increased its holdings of JD.com yesterday, and education stocks bottomed out and rebounded. Pinduoduo Inc. rose by 22.25%, JD.com by 14.44%, New Oriental Education & Technology by 26.47%, Gaotu by 19.23% and TAL Education Group by 16.67%.
$3.5 trillion budget bill passed
On Tuesday, the House narrowly passed the $3.5 trillion budget bill and passed the agenda for voting on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill in late September. In the end, the $3.5 trillion budget bill was voted by 220-212 votes, which means that the Democratic Party will be able to pass the welfare plan in the Senate through the principle of simple majority voting, that is, the Democratic Party will be allowed to pass the costly budget bill without the support of the Republican Party, including health care, education, climate and other provisions. Of course, the Democrats in the Senate need all 50 votes.
Earlier, there was a dispute within the Democratic Party over the agenda of passing the $3.5 trillion budget bill and the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Moderates expressed their hope to pass the budget bill first, while radicals supported by Pelosi insisted that both bills need to be passed at the same time. Ten members of the moderate Democratic Party voted for the budget bill. The current compromise is that the bipartisan infrastructure bill will start voting on September 27th, while the drafting process of the welfare plan may not be completed by the end of September. At the same time, Democrats in the Senate are divided on the budget bill. Senators Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, and Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, have publicly expressed concern about the high spending of the budget bill, and the votes of these two Democratic senators will be crucial because Senate Democrats need all 50 votes to pass the budget bill.
Senate Democrats announced a $3.5 trillion budget on August 9 for health care, education and climate. The main contents include:
-Paid family leave and sick leave, child care allowance, extension of child tax credit, preschool for children aged 3 to 4, free community college for 2 years, and green card for millions of immigrants
-Expand the previous subsidies in the Affordable Care Act of the COVID-19 rescue plan, including expanding medical insurance benefits to cover dentistry, ophthalmology, pediatrics and other projects, and allowing medical insurance negotiations to reduce the cost price of prescription drugs
-Tax credits for clean energy investment and setting clean energy standards, aiming at reducing carbon emissions in the power sector by 80% and reducing the negotiation volume of the whole economy by 50% by 2030; Impose import duties on polluters
The legislative text of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill was announced by a congressional panel of the US Senate on August 2. The main contents include:
-$110 billion for roads, bridges and related major projects; $39 billion for the modernization and renovation of the public transport system, including convenience for the disabled and the elderly
-$66 billion for railway maintenance, modernisation and construction, mainly focused on the Amtrak refurbishment
-$11 billion for highway and pedestrian safety programs; $7.5 billion for the implementation of electric vehicle charging network; $7.5 billion for zero-emission or low-emission buses/ferries; $42 billion for port and airport refurbishment
-$50 billion to fight climate change and cyber attacks; $55 billion for clean drinking water; $65 billion for broadband infrastructure construction; $210 billion for eliminating soil and groundwater pollution; $73 billion for upgrading and refurbishing the power grid
It is reported that the funding sources of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill will include:
-$200 billion in previously unused Novel Coronavirus bailout funds
-$50 billion Trump administration regulations on medical insurance rebates
-$50 billion Some states return unused supplementary unemployment insurance funds
-It is estimated that $30 billion will come from the application information report on cryptocurrency, $60 billion will come from the economic growth brought about by the stimulus plan, and $87 billion will come from the sales of wireless networks
The bill, which will also be voted on today, includes new powers over state voting procedures to protect minority voters' voting rights. The bill is the John Lewis bill, which was previously supported by only one Republican senator.
Biden speaks on Afghanistan
The G7 leaders held a video conference on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, with the U.N. and NATO secretaries-general in attendance, Xinhua reported. The meeting was chaired by British Prime Minister Powell. After the meeting, the G7 issued a statement expressing serious concern about the situation in Afghanistan, calling on all parties to maintain calm and restraint, ensure the safety of Afghans and foreigners in Afghanistan, and prevent a humanitarian crisis. The most urgent task is to ensure the safe evacuation of G7 citizens and Afghans who have cooperated with the G7 in the past 20 years.
According to the UNHCR, by the end of 2020, about 2.6 million Afghan refugees completed the evacuation and asylum procedures, of which 85% settled in Iran and Palestine, neighboring Afghanistan, followed by Germany, which received 148,000 Afghan refugees, accounting for about 5.5%. About 20,000 people are expected to apply for refugees in the United States in 2020, according to the Associated Press. According to Statista's statistics, the United States accepted 600 refugees in fiscal year 2020 and 1,200 in fiscal year 2019.
On the afternoon of 24th local time, Taliban spokesman Almugahed held the second press conference, saying that all US troops must withdraw on August 31st according to the withdrawal agreement, and would not accept any request to postpone withdrawal. Mujahid stressed that after the evacuation of expatriates, the Taliban will completely control the airport and will not allow any foreign troops to exist in Afghanistan. According to reports, CIA Director Burns secretly met with Baladar, a senior Taliban, in Kabul on Monday, which was the CIA director's second visit to Afghanistan since taking office in March.
Biden held a press conference today, saying that the United States will withdraw from Afghanistan on August 31, and warned that the current security risks are getting bigger and bigger. Biden said the situation on the ground was fragile, and the Taliban said it would organize Afghan citizens to board the evacuation flight. Biden said he had instructed the Pentagon and the State Department to set a timetable for emergency evacuation and warned of the risk of Islamic State attacks outside the airport. White House Press Secretary Psaki said the White House is in contact with Afghans who have obtained special immigrant visas to provide detailed registration information; The United States has helped evacuate 48,000 Afghan refugees since August 14th. Airbnb said Tuesday it will provide free temporary housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees around the world. Affected by multiple events such as the Afghan incident and the congressional bill vote, Biden's support rate has fallen below 50% since he took office. The following picture shows the comparison of support rates among Obama, Trump and Biden during their tenure:
China stocks rose collectively
Today Pinduoduo Inc. released its second-quarter financial report in premarket, which was better than market expectations. The revenue in the second quarter was 23.05 billion, compared with 12.193 billion in the same period last year; The net profit was 4.125 billion, the net loss in the same period last year was 77.2 million, and the monthly active users in the second quarter reached 738.5 million. Pinduoduo Inc. announced the formal establishment of a 10 billion agricultural research project, which will invest 10 billion yuan. Chairman and CEO Chen Lei will personally serve as the No.1 position of the project. According to reports, the project aims to meet the major needs of agriculture and rural areas, not for commercial value and profit, so as to promote the progress of agricultural science and technology. At the same time, Pinduoduo Inc. said that it will continue to implement the policy of petty cash for agricultural products to drive farmers' revenue; In the first half of the year, the agriculture-related businesses on the platform increased by 180% year.
Ark Fund's ETF bought 164,889 shares of JD.com yesterday, which was Cathie Wood's first purchase since he continuously reduced his holdings of China Stocks in July. Ark Fund has seven Chinese stocks, all of which are large-cap companies except Niu Technologies. Based on Monday's closing price, Ark Fund's position in China stocks was $350 million, which was 80% lower than that on July 1.
Hot spots of the market
CEO of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and other technology companies will attend Biden's meeting at the White House tomorrow to discuss cyber security issues and the specific implementation plan of cyber security in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. The chairman of SEC said that it is proposed to review the digital interaction mode of financial companies to examine whether the existing financial technology business rules are outdated.