U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday. As U.S. Treasury yields declined, the S&P 500 index reached another all-time high.  

January retail sales in the U.S. experienced their largest decline in a year, indicating a slowdown in economic activity.  

Investors continued to focus on earnings reports and the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook. 

Following the release of January retail sales and initial jobless claims data, the U.S. dollar index continued to decline, and U.S. Treasury yields fell. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped by 2.3 basis points to 4.244%, hitting a morning low of 4.187%. 

Daniel Silver, an economist at J.P. Morgan, pointed out that the larger-than-expected decline in January retail sales was mainly due to declines in revenue from car dealerships and gas stations.  

This decline followed a strong holiday season performance. Sales in December were also partly affected by seasonal factors, with unadjusted retail sales typically decreasing in January. 

U.S. Stocks

Fundamental Analysis: 

Large-cap tech stocks showed mixed performance.  

Meta surged over 2%, reaching a historical record high, while Tesla rose over 6% and Netflix surged over 2%. Google fell over 2%, with Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon following suit.  

In the chip and server sector, companies within the “NVIDIA core circle” and Super Micro Computer, which focuses on servers and storage systems, surged over 14%, with stock prices breaking the $1000 mark for the first time in history, recording gains for the ninth consecutive trading day.  

Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and ASML also rose, while NVIDIA, GlobalFoundries, and AMD fell over 1%.  

After hours, Applied Materials released its earnings report, with better-than-expected financial results and outlook, leading to a more than 10% increase in stock price after hours. 

Most popular Chinese concept stocks closed higher, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rising nearly 1%. Zhihu surged over 5%, while iQIYI and Pinduoduo rose over 2%, and JD.com, XPeng Motors, Li Auto, and NIO rose over 1%. 

Technical Analysis:   

(S&P 500 Index, 1-day chart) 

Market Trends: 

• Dow Jones rose 348.85 points, or 0.91%, to close at 38,773.12. 
• Nasdaq rose 47.03 points, or 0.30%, to close at 15,906.17. 
• S&P 500 Index rose 29.11 points, or 0.58%, to close at 5,029.73. 

Hong Kong Stock Market

Fundamental Analysis: 

The three major indices in the Hong Kong stock market opened higher and continued to rise.  

Among them, tech stocks led the gains, with Meituan rising over 4%, JD.com over 3%, Xiaomi over 2%, and Alibaba over 1%.  

New energy vehicle stocks surged collectively, with Leapmotor rising over 7%.  

Real estate stocks also rose across the board, with China Evergrande Group rising over 11%.  

CRO concept stocks rebounded strongly, with Pharmaron BioTech rising over 12%.  

Chinese brokerage stocks were active, with GF Securities rising over 6%. 

Real estate stocks collectively rose, with China Evergrande Group rising over 11%. 

In terms of news, during the Spring Festival, there were continuous reports of progress in China’s urban real estate financing coordination mechanism.  

According to the latest disclosures from six major state-owned banks including ICBC and ABC, the number of “whitelist” real estate financing projects they are involved in has exceeded 8,000. 

Technical Analysis:  

(Hang Seng Index, 1-day chart) 

Market Trends: 

• Hang Seng Index (HSI) rose 1.87% to close at 16,242.33. 
• Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH) rose 2.69% to close at 3309.96. 
• Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI.) rose 2.05% to close at 5,521.78. 

FTSE China A50 Index

Fundamental Analysis: 

On February 13^th, 2024, trading in A shares officially concluded for the lunar Year of the Rabbit.  

A shares will be closed from February 9^th to February 18^th, with the first trading day of the Year of the Dragon scheduled for February 19^th. 

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