To The Moon

* S&P 500 ends lower after Powell says interest rates may need to stay high; China's first-quarter 2024 GDP beats forecasts.

🇺🇸 S&P 500: -0.21% 📉

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: -0.12% 📉

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600 Index: -1.53% 📉

🇯🇵 Nikkei 225 Index: -1.94% 📉

🇭🇰 Hang Seng Index: -2.12% 📉

🇨🇳 CSI 300 Index: -1.07% 📉

* Wall Street fell on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite down -0.2% and -0.1%, respectively, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell lowered expectations for a rate cut, citing firm inflation undermining the case for a preemptive rate cut reason.

* The euro zone ZEW economic sentiment index reached 43.9 in April, well above March's 33.5, and was driven by significant improvements in German and euro zone economic sentiment indicators.

* Asian stocks tumbled, with the Hang Seng and CSI 300 down -2.1% and -1.1% respectively, as investors' hopes for a U.S. interest rate cut faded and economic indicators for March showed that although GDP data remained stronger than expected, The recovery is gradually losing momentum.

* China's GDP grew 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, higher than the 4.8% year-on-year growth expected by economists, and is still on track to meet this year's growth target, although the sluggish real estate market and sluggish domestic demand continue to pose challenges .

* China's retail sales growth slowed to 3.1% in March, down from 5.5% year-on-year growth in January and February combined, while  industrial output rose 4.5% year-on-year in March, down from 7.0% year-on-year growth in February , both data were lower than economists' expectations.

* New home prices in China's 70 major large and medium-sized cities fell -0.3% month-on-month in March, after falling -0.4% month-on-month in February, indicating that government measures to support struggling developers and boost consumer confidence are not enough to curb economic recession.

* China's urban unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.2% in March, down from 5.3% last month, in line with market expectations and indicating that the employment situation is generally stable.

💡 Future events: 💡

* Japan's export annual rate, EU core CPI annual rate final value and CPI annual rate final value will be announced on Wednesday.

* U.S. jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index will be released on Thursday.

💡 Things you need to know today: 💡

1. United Airlines $United Continental(UAL)$  announced strong performance in the first quarter of 2024, with operating cash flow reaching US$2.8 billion and passenger revenue increasing 10.1% year-on-year. Although the grounding of the $Boeing(BA)$  Boeing 737 MAX 9 caused a US$200 million impact, the Pacific and European segment earnings promote.

United Airlines

2. $Constellation Energy Corp(CEG)$  Constellation Energy Corp. CEO Joe Dominguez asserted that the artificial intelligence-driven surge in power consumption will greatly benefit nuclear energy, and the company plans to keep existing nuclear power plants operating, upgrade facilities to improve efficiency, restart closed nuclear power plants and develop new reactor technology to meet this need.

Joe Dominguez

3. China's major stock exchanges will stop disclosing real-time trading volume data for Shenzhen and Shanghai A-shares, which is crucial for foreign investors on the grounds that market volatility is under control but also raises investor concerns about transparency.

4. Hang Seng Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC, submitted a liquidation petition to mainland real estate developer Times China Holdings due to financial debts totaling US$173.2 million. Times China had previously suspended payments on foreign currency debt due to financial pressure.

Hang Seng Bank

✅ KEY TAKEAWAYS:

As house prices continue to fall, hopes of a rebound in China's economy during the traditional peak season have been dispelled. Unless the spiral in China's real estate market is brought under control, lasting optimism about China's economy will remain elusive.

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