Quantum computing companies have gone crazy this year.
On December 17th local time, the three major indexes of the US stock market closed down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the ninth consecutive trading day, setting a record for the longest consecutive decline since 1978.
In terms of popular stocks, Tesla and Apple's stock prices have reached new highs. Quantum Computing closed up 51.53%, triggering a circuit breaker at one point, and the stock surged another 12% after trading; The stock surged 65.25% yesterday and has risen about 1740% this year.
On the news front, the market is waiting for the Federal Reserve's final monetary policy decision of the year. In addition, retail sales in the United States exceeded expectations in November.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has experienced its longest consecutive decline since 1978
On December 17th local time, the three major indexes of the US stock market closed down. As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 267.58 points, or 0.61%, to 43449.90 points; The Nasdaq fell 64.83 points, a decrease of 0.32%, to report 20109.06 points; The S&P 500 index fell 23.47 points, or 0.39%, to 6050.61 points.
As of Tuesday's close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the ninth consecutive trading day, setting a record for the longest continuous decline since 1978.
The main reason for the decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is the sector rotation of investors from traditional stocks to technology stocks. After Trump's victory in early November, technology stocks continued to rise, while the Dow Jones Index, which is dominated by traditional stocks, performed poorly.
Traders are waiting for the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. The Federal Reserve will hold a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday (December 17-18), which will also be the last policy meeting of the year.
According to CME Group's Federal Reserve Watch tool, there is a 95% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday.
The market generally expects a 25 basis point rate cut this week and a further 45 basis point rate cut in 2025, which is equivalent to a 25 basis point rate cut and an approximately 80% probability of a second rate cut. According to the money market, the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates three times next year is 80%. In contrast, the market expected a lower possibility of a fourth interest rate cut at the beginning of this month.
Investors will also closely monitor the meeting statement and the press conference held by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell after the meeting to further assess future policy trends.
Since the beginning of this year, the US stock market has performed strongly, with the three major indices hitting new highs repeatedly. As the end of 2024 approaches, investors are also paying attention to the prospect of the US stock market continuing to rise at the end of the year.
In terms of economic data on Tuesday, US retail sales in November increased by 0.7% compared to the previous month, with an estimated 0.6%. Retail sales excluding cars in November increased by 0.2% compared to the previous month, with an estimated increase of 0.4%. The estimated range for the 65 economists surveyed is -0.1% to 1%.
Retail sales increased to 724.6 billion US dollars in November. Retail sales in November, excluding car dealers, building materials, and gas stations, increased by 0.2% compared to the previous month. In November, the "control group" of US retail sales increased by 0.4% compared to the previous month.
The retail sales' control group 'excluded sales data for food service, car dealerships, building materials, and gas stations. Car dealer sales increased by $8.5 billion to $129.2 billion compared to the same period last year.
Quantum computing companies have risen over 1700% this year
In terms of sectors, the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index fell 10 times and rose 1. The industrial sector and energy sector led the decline with a decrease of 0.90% and 0.76% respectively, while the non essential consumer goods sector rose by 0.28%.
Most large tech stocks have fallen. Broadcom fell more than 3%, Intel, AMD, Nvidia fell more than 1%, Oracle Meta、 TSMC, Amazon, Google-A, Netflix, and Boeing fell slightly, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Apple rose slightly, AMD and ASML rose over 1%, and Tesla rose over 3%.
Among technology stocks, Nvidia performed poorly, closing down 1.7% on Monday, marking its third consecutive trading day of decline; So far this month, it has fallen by 4.5%, more than 10% from the recent high of $152.88 per share created on November 21. Nvidia continued to decline on Tuesday, closing down 1.2%. Nvidia launched a generative AI supercomputer called Jetson Orin Nano Super on Tuesday. Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun stated that this developer kit achieves higher performance and lower price through software upgrades, priced at only $249. It is compact in size and can be placed in the palm of the hand, increasing the performance of generative AI by 1.7 times.
Tesla closed up 3.64%, setting a new historical high with a transaction volume of $61.152 billion.
Apple closed up 0.97%, setting a new historical high with a transaction volume of 12.932 billion US dollars. According to media reports on Tuesday, the African country of Congo (Kinshasa), known for its abundant mineral resources, has filed criminal charges against Apple Inc. in France and Belgium, accusing tech giants of using metal minerals from criminal organizations in the country's supply chain. Congo (Kinshasa) is one of the main producing areas for tin, tantalum, and tungsten, which are collectively referred to as "3T minerals" and are also raw materials needed for the production of smartphones and computers. According to United Nations reports and research by some observation organizations, there are some small-scale mines in the area operated by armed groups involved in criminal activities such as massacring civilians. In response, Apple stated on Tuesday that it strongly questions allegations of using conflict minerals in its products and informed suppliers earlier this year to stop purchasing these minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Apple stated in a statement that due to the escalation of conflicts in the region, the company has informed its suppliers that their smelters and refineries must cease purchasing tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold from these two countries.
Broadcom closed down 3.91%, partially giving up the huge gains of the previous two trading days and closing at $16.448 billion. After the release of last week's financial report, the stock price of Broadcom, which develops ASIC customized AI chips for customers, rose sharply. Since the announcement of its performance, Broadcom's stock price has surged by 38% in two trading days last Friday and this Monday, pushing the company's market value to nearly $1.2 trillion.
Quantum computing company closed up 51.53% with a transaction of 2.876 billion US dollars. The stock has risen by about 1740% this year. After Google announced a breakthrough in its quantum chips, the market's enthusiasm for quantum computing technology is growing. Quantum computing company announced on Tuesday that it has signed a contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to use the company's entropy quantum computer Dirac-3 to address "advanced imaging and data processing needs. Specifically, this project aims to use Dirac-3 to solve the phase unwrapping problem, and the company will assist NASA in reconstructing images in the best possible way and extracting information from radar generated interferometric data. During this period, quantum computing companies will assist NASA in developing interferograms at the full scale, thereby improving data quality and accuracy. The so-called phase unwrapping refers to finding a large amount of data that has been folded and misaligned in NASA's satellite photos, and unfolding these misaligned parts to restore the real terrain or image.
Financial stocks generally fell. Bank of America, Barclays, Regional Finance, First Capital Financial, and Deutsche Bank fell more than 2%, while Goldman Sachs, MetLife, Wells Fargo, Hartford Financial, Carlson Financial, BlackRock, UBS Group, American International Group, Travelers Insurance, Morgan Stanley, and Mizuho Financial fell more than 1%. Bank of America, Allstar Insurance, Bank of New York Mellon, American Express, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase fell slightly, while Mastercard and Visa rose slightly.
Most energy stocks fell. US Energy and Apache Oil fell more than 4%, Schlumberger fell more than 2%, ConocoPhillips fell more than 1%, Chevron, Imperial Oil, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Western Petroleum fell slightly, Marathon Oil remained flat, Duke Energy and BP (US) rose slightly, and Brazilian Oil rose more than 1%.
Most popular Chinese concept stocks have risen. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index (HXC) closed up 1.97%. Extreme Krypton rose over 6%, Tiger Securities rose over 5%, Bilibili, Futu Holdings, Tencent Music rose over 4%, Xiaopeng Motors rose over 3%, Ctrip, Pinduoduo, Ideal Auto, NIO, iQiyi, Baidu rose over 2%, Huya, JD, Vipshop, Alibaba rose over 1%, NetEase rose slightly, New Oriental fell slightly, Miniso fell over 2%, and Kingsoft Cloud fell over 5%.
In other markets, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 63 cents, or 0.89%, to close at $70.08 per barrel.