According to Zhitong Finance APP, on Thursday, the three major indices rose. Pharmaceutical stocks advanced, with Eli Lilly (LLY.US) climbing over 3% as investors began to exit AI-related trading sectors and shift toward other value-oriented assets. Traders also absorbed U.S. economic data indicating persistent inflation.
[U.S. Stocks] At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 557.51 points, or 1.08%, to 52,178.99; the S&P 500 gained 25.18 points, or 0.33%, to 7,744.12; the Nasdaq Composite increased 20.16 points, or 0.08%, to 26,713.03. Micron Technology (MU.US) rose 1.87%, SK Hynix (SKHY.US) fell 0.98%, NVIDIA (NVDA.US) declined 1.84%, and Dell (DELL.US) dropped 6.8%.
[European Stocks] The German DAX 30 rose 87.32 points, or 0.35%, to 25,385.93; the UK FTSE 100 gained 111.87 points, or 1.04%, to 10,836.73; the French CAC 40 increased 61.59 points, or 0.78%, to 7,934.70; the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 19.22 points, or 0.31%, to 6,171.15; the Spanish IBEX 35 declined 42.06 points, or 0.22%, to 19,188.64; the Italian FTSE MIB dropped 336.34 points, or 0.68%, to 49,417.50.
[Forex] The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against six major currencies, fell 0.49% on the day, closing at 102.055 in late New York trading. At the close of New York forex trading, 1 euro was exchanged for 1.1212 U.S. dollars, up from 1.1153 U.S. dollars in the previous session; 1 British pound was exchanged for 1.3272 U.S. dollars, up from 1.3181 U.S. dollars. 1 U.S. dollar was exchanged for 158.14 Japanese yen, down from 158.20 Japanese yen; 1 U.S. dollar was exchanged for 0.8271 Swiss francs, down from 0.8345 Swiss francs; 1 U.S. dollar was exchanged for 1.4190 Canadian dollars, down from 1.4247 Canadian dollars; 1 U.S. dollar was exchanged for 9.9597 Swedish kronor, down from 10.0321 Swedish kronor.
[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin rose over 1%, trading at $82,367 as of writing. Ethereum increased 1.8%, trading at $2,460.
[Precious Metals] Spot gold is trading at $4,170.26 per ounce; spot silver is trading at $57.425 per ounce.
[Crude Oil] The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $2.88 to $97.97 per barrel, an increase of 3.03%; the price of Brent crude oil for December delivery fell 14 cents to $105.92 per barrel, a decline of 0.13%.
[Macro News]
The U.S. military stated that the Strait of Hormuz remains open. The U.S. Central Command issued a statement refuting three claims made by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps over the past 24 hours regarding control of the Strait of Hormuz, attacks on commercial vessels, and U.S. military casualties. The U.S. affirmed that American and regional partners continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, and commercial vessels are continuing to transit. Regarding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ claim that a Singapore-flagged container ship struck a mine on Wednesday in the Strait, the U.S. stated that the vessel, GFS Pride, was actually struck by shells fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and sank while being towed to shore—not due to a mine. The U.S. emphasized that the main shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz has not been blocked by mines, and over 40 vessels have transited the area in the past 24 hours. Additionally, the U.S. denied the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ claim that hundreds of U.S. troops were killed in Jordan, noting that three U.S. service members died in July while supporting partner forces during an Iranian attack.
Federal Reserve’s Harker: Worsening inflation expectations could force the Fed to take more aggressive action. Cleveland Fed President Harker said on Thursday that if public inflation expectations deteriorate, the Fed may need to take more aggressive measures to respond. Harker stated, “My concern is that if an inflation mindset takes hold—where the public begins to expect price pressures to become increasingly persistent—monetary policy will become less effective. If an inflation mindset has already taken hold, the Fed may need to act more forcefully.”
The U.S. 30-year mortgage rate remained at 7.4%, marking eight consecutive weeks without a decline. Data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday showed that the average U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate held steady at 7.4%, near its highest level since November 2023 and above 6.27% a year ago. U.S. mortgage rates have not dropped for eight straight weeks—the longest such streak since 2021—with a cumulative increase of 75 basis points during this period. Rapidly rising borrowing costs are forcing sellers to lower prices and dampening homebuying demand. Data from real estate brokerage Redfin showed that pending home sales in the U.S. fell 4% month-over-month in September, the largest decline in over three years, dropping to the lowest level since 2014, excluding the early pandemic period in 2020. Lisa Sturtevant, Chief Economist at Bright MLS, expects high mortgage rates, rising inflation, and weak consumer confidence to significantly slow the U.S. housing market this fall, potentially pushing full-year existing-home sales below 4 million for the first time since the 1990s.
Strong U.S. retail sales data underscore rising inflation pressures eroding purchasing power. U.S. retail sales in September rose more than expected, but the increase was primarily driven by higher spending at gas stations, masking divergent performance across other retail sectors. Data released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday showed that September retail sales, not adjusted for price changes, increased 0.8% month-over-month, following a revised 1.3% gain in August. Excluding automobiles and gasoline, September retail sales rose 0.2%. Eight of 13 retail categories posted gains, with gasoline station sales leading the way at a 6.4% increase. Consumers cut back on spending for hobbies and building materials, while sales rose at furniture retailers, electronics stores, and restaurants. The data indicate that as the third quarter draws to a close and price pressures intensify, the momentum of U.S. consumer spending is weakening. Accelerating inflation is further eroding Americans’ wage purchasing power and squeezing household budgets. CEOs of Domino’s Pizza and Albertsons recently acknowledged on earnings calls that many consumers continue to face a challenging economic environment.
Inflationary pressures continue to intensify as U.S. September PPI data surges sharply. Driven by rising energy costs, the U.S. Producer Price Index for September rose broadly above expectations, signaling that higher energy prices are spreading across various sectors of the U.S. economy. Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday showed that the PPI increased 1.3% month-over-month and 6.3% year-over-year. Excluding food and energy, core PPI rose 0.7% month-over-month and 5% year-over-year. The report indicates that, alongside rising fuel prices, underlying inflationary pressures remain stubborn. With just weeks remaining until the November midterm elections, the cost of living has become a central campaign issue. The data may also prompt Federal Reserve officials to continue raising interest rates over the coming months, particularly following another report released Wednesday showing that a key U.S. consumer price indicator in September rose more than expected. The report also indicated that price pressures are expected to remain elevated in the coming months, with the index measuring expectations for input prices over the next six months reaching its highest level since 2022.
[Individual Stock News]
Meta releases open-weight AI model, while keeping its strongest technology proprietary. According to media reports, Meta Platforms (META.US) has launched a new open-weight AI model, Muse Spark Open, primarily designed for programming and AI agent tasks, but has not opened its most powerful model. Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, stated that Muse Spark Open is not the strongest model developed or released by the company. Meta’s earlier推出的 Muse Wonder remains proprietary. Meta also acknowledged that, in software development and certain other tasks, Chinese open-weight models still outperform Muse Spark Open. Meanwhile, Meta has partnered with Apple (AAPL.US) to enable developers to run Muse Spark Open locally on multiple high-end Mac computers. Apple has updated its MLX software toolkit to support the model on Mac devices.
Chip startup Bolt Graphics is seeking to raise $100 million. Three people familiar with the matter reported that Bolt Graphics, a chip design startup, is aiming to raise approximately $100 million at a valuation of around $700 million. The company plans to use the funds to develop graphics chips to compete with NVIDIA (NVDA.US) and AMD (AMD.US). While these industry giants continue to heavily invest in underlying hardware research, Bolt intends to design chips focused on non-AI applications, such as high-precision computing required for supercomputers and graphics processing for video games. The individuals said the fundraising is still ongoing, and the final amount to be raised and the company’s valuation may change.
Google Quantum Computing Achieves New Breakthrough: Willow Chip Error Rate Reduced by Approximately 40 Times. On October 15, Google (GOOG.US) announced that its Quantum AI team successfully demonstrated a new technology called "Magic State Cultivation" on the Willow quantum chip, reducing the error rate of specific quantum states by approximately 40 times and achieving a state preparation accuracy of 99.99%. The related research has been published in the journal Science. Google explained that quantum computers are susceptible to interference and errors; to perform complex computations, special quantum states must be prepared in advance, but this process consumes significant computational resources. Some studies estimate that traditional methods may occupy up to 95% of a quantum computer’s computational capacity. This new technology improves preparation efficiency by detecting and discarding erroneous quantum states, potentially reducing future resource consumption for quantum error correction. Google stated that this achievement represents an important step toward practical quantum computing, but further validation is needed to determine its applicability to larger-scale quantum systems.
The EU plans to accelerate approval of a European satellite giant merger to counter SpaceX. According to sources familiar with the matter, the EU is preparing to fast-track the antitrust review of Project Bromo, a joint satellite initiative led by Airbus, Italy’s Leonardo, and France’s Thales, aimed at creating a dominant European satellite industry player and reducing dependence on U.S. satellite service providers such as SpaceX (SPCX.US). The sources said the European Commission has been in ongoing discussions with the three companies over the past year to proactively identify and address potential competition concerns. Although the companies have not yet formally submitted their merger application, they are expected to do so within the coming weeks. If the parties offer remedies such as asset divestitures, the project could be approved after the initial one-month-plus antitrust review phase, avoiding a lengthy in-depth investigation. While EU Commission President von der Leyen supports the project, Competition Commissioner Rivera emphasized that even with political backing, the deal must still comply with EU competition rules.
Jensen Huang supports CoreWeave: Financial condition continues to improve, no need for NVIDIA’s guarantee. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that the financial condition of data center operator CoreWeave is improving. NVIDIA is a supplier of computing equipment to CoreWeave. At an event in Stockholm, Huang said, “CoreWeave is growing stronger every day.” He believes NVIDIA has no need to provide financial guarantees for CoreWeave. “I am optimistic; in fact, their cost of capital is declining.” Previously, credit markets had lost confidence in CoreWeave, perceiving its default risk as rising; Huang is now working to restore market confidence in the company. CoreWeave serves as a critical case study for evaluating the sustainability of business models among emerging AI infrastructure companies. These firms emerged to meet the nearly unlimited demand for AI computing power described by companies like NVIDIA. CoreWeave and similar companies have taken on substantial debt with support from suppliers including NVIDIA, raising concerns in the market about circular financing creating artificial demand.
[Major Broker Ratings]
UBS: Raised the target price for Microsoft (MSFT.US) from $525 to $675; raised the target price for BlackRock (BLK.US) from $1,277 to $1,300.