Samsung Electronics issues profit warning, chip stocks under pressure, S&P falls, NVIDIA hits new all-time high, Bitcoin surges and then plunges after ETF drama

The main technology stocks, which have been supporting the continuous rebound of the US stock market, lost their momentum today, leading to a lower opening for major stock indices.

Samsung Electronics issued a profit warning, with preliminary guidance indicating a sixth consecutive quarterly decline in operating profit in the fourth quarter, and a 35% YoY decrease beyond expectations. Market expectations for the continued recovery of Samsung Electronics' memory chip business have been dampened. Chip stocks, which saw a significant increase on Monday, barely closed higher, and NVIDIA's stock price hit a new all-time high but later fell during trading. Boeing continued to weigh down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After more loose Boeing aircraft parts were found by multiple airlines, US officials responsible for aviation safety stated that the investigation into Boeing aircraft may expand to models other than the 737 Max 9.

As European bond issuance reached a record high, the rebound in European bond prices on Monday retreated. Meanwhile, the results of the US three-year Treasury note auction showed steady sales, which helped push down US Treasury yields. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield, which had risen above 4.0%, temporarily fell below this level during trading. Some commentators have pointed out that the increasing mismatch between the market's aggressive pricing of a Fed rate cut and the resilience of the US economy has reduced the necessity for monetary easing by the Fed, which could lead to a "reverse Goldilocks" scenario of simultaneous declines in stocks and bonds in global markets.

In the foreign exchange market, the US dollar index rebounded slightly but has not yet approached the three-week high set last Friday. Various non-US currencies have fallen, with the offshore renminbi falling below 7.18 during trading, reaching a four-week low after falling again following last Friday's breach. Bitcoin, which surged on Monday due to optimism surrounding the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF, experienced a huge shock due to a false news report. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the approval of a Bitcoin ETF on social media, but later clarified that it had not been approved, as it was a hacker attack and "false decree". Bitcoin initially surged to $47,900 and then quickly dropped by over $2,000.

In the commodities market, the rebound in international crude oil prices, which experienced a sharp decline on Monday, was driven by the Middle East crisis and disruptions in Libyan supply, with US oil rising by more than 3% at one point. The risk of escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has increased. According to CCTV, the Israeli military stated that Hezbollah's drones attacked the headquarters of the Northern Command of the Israeli army on Tuesday, and multiple areas in the north were hit by missiles from Lebanon on the same day. Israeli media reported that the military has started distributing weapons and equipment to some "on standby" personnel in the northern region. Analysts mentioned that the recent closure of Libya's largest oil field, Sharara, which has affected production by approximately 300,000 barrels per day, is another positive factor for the supply side of crude oil. In addition, some large shipping companies are still avoiding the Red Sea area. German company Hapag-Lloyd stated on Tuesday that its cargo ships will continue to detour around the Cape of Good Hope. Since 2024, natural gas in the United States has maintained an upward trend, rising more than 7% on Tuesday, surpassing crude oil. Commentators say that the recent continuous rise in gas prices is mainly due to meteorological forecasts showing that a cold wave will sweep across the central region of the United States in the next two weeks. Lower temperatures than normal levels at this time of year may strongly support the rise in gas prices, as there is increased demand for heating from households and businesses.

The three major US stock indices opened lower and fell in the morning session, with mixed performance thereafter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained in a downward trend throughout the day, falling nearly 310 points or over 0.8% when it hit a daily low in the morning session. The S&P 500 Index fell about 0.7% when it hit a daily low in the morning session, and briefly turned negative during the midday session. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell nearly 0.9% when it hit a daily low in the morning session, but rebounded towards the end of the morning session and fell multiple times during the midday session.

In the end, after two consecutive trading days of gains, the Dow and S&P retreated, while the Nasdaq barely held onto its gains. The Nasdaq closed up 0.09% at 14,857.71 points, far less than the previous day's increase of 2.2%, which marked the largest gain since November 14, 2023, for both the Nasdaq and S&P. The S&P, which rose 1.41% on Monday, fell 0.15% to 4,756.5 points. The Dow, which had its largest gain since December 21, rising nearly 217 points, fell 157.85 points or 0.42% to 37,525.16 points.

Small-cap stocks, mainly value stocks, represented by the Russell 2000, fell 1.05%. They fell back after just breaking out of a six-day losing streak and hitting a closing low since December 13. The Nasdaq 100 Index, dominated by technology stocks, rose 0.17% for the third consecutive day, hitting a closing high since December 29. The Nasdaq Technology Market Cap Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of technology stocks in the Nasdaq 100 Index, rose 0.6% for the third consecutive trading day, but the increase was far less than the 2.9% increase on Monday.

In the S&P 500, only four sectors did not fall on Tuesday. The IT sector, which includes NVIDIA, rose nearly 0.3%, consumer staples rose over 0.2%, communication services rose over 0.1%, and healthcare rose slightly. The energy sector fell over 1.6%, leading the decline for two consecutive days, while materials also fell over 1%, and other sectors fell less than 0.8%.

Among the Dow components, the only energy stock, Chevron, fell 2.5%, leading the decline. Disney also fell over 2%. Boeing (BA), which fell 8% on Monday after the expansion of the aircraft investigation, fell over 2.5% in the morning session but narrowed its losses and closed down about 1%.

Leading technology stocks initially fell together but some turned positive later. Among them, Tesla performed the worst. Despite the Model Y becoming the best-selling model globally, Tesla's stock price opened lower and continued to decline in the morning session, falling more than 3% at one point. It closed down about 2.3%, giving back all the gains from the six-day losing streak that ended on Monday and falling to a closing low since November 13. In the FAANMG group, Apple, which rose more than 2% on Monday, initially fell more than 1% in early trading and closed down more than 0.2%. It rebounded from the low closing price since November 6th, ending a five-day losing streak. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, which had risen for three consecutive days to its highest level since September 2021, closed down more than 0.3%. After Citigroup downgraded its rating to neutral due to high market expectations and a series of risks, Netflix, which rebounded to its highest level since December 29th, initially fell more than 2% and closed down 0.6%. Microsoft, which is facing an EU investigation into its $13 billion investment in OpenAI, initially fell nearly 1% and closed up nearly 0.3%, continuing its two-day rally and reaching a new high since December 29th. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, turned higher in early trading and closed up 1.5%, rising for two consecutive days to its highest level since December 26th. Amazon also closed up 1.5%, rising for three consecutive days to its highest level since December 29th.

Overall, chip stocks almost failed to rise for three consecutive days. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and the Semiconductor Industry ETF SOXX, which rose more than 3% on Monday, initially fell more than 1% and closed up less than 0.1%, setting a new closing high since December 29th for two consecutive days. Among individual stocks, NVIDIA quickly turned lower after the opening, falling more than 1%. After a rebound in early trading, it rose to $543.25 at midday, up about 4% intraday, and closed up 1.7% at $531.4, setting new intraday and closing highs for two consecutive days. At the close, AMD rose more than 2%, while Micron Technology fell 1.9%, Arm fell more than 1%, and Intel fell 0.8%.

Overall, AI concept stocks retreated. At the close, C3.ai (AI) fell nearly 1%, SoundHound.ai (SOUN) fell nearly 11% in early trading, BigBear.ai (BBAI) fell nearly 7%, Palantir (PLTR) fell more than 1%, and Adobe (ADBE) rose nearly 1%.

Popular Chinese concept stocks continued to decline. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) closed down nearly 1.4%, falling for four consecutive days and hitting a new closing low since May 31st. The Chinese concept ETFs KWEB and CQQQ closed down nearly 1.5% and about 2% respectively. The three new forces in the car manufacturing industry continued to decline, with Ideal Motors falling more than 3% in early trading, NIO falling 4% before narrowing the decline to within 3%, and Xiaopeng Motors falling 1.8% at one point. Among other individual stocks, at the close, Dada, which plummeted nearly 46% on Monday, fell more than 6%, Douyu fell more than 4%, JD.com, Tencent Music, and Bilibili fell more than 2%, Alibaba and Baidu fell more than 1%, NetEase fell 0.7%, while Pinduoduo initially turned higher and closed up about 2%.

Overall, major tech stocks such as Apple and NVIDIA have roughly erased their losses since early 2024. In the volatile stock market, JetBlue Airways (JBLU) fell 10.2% after Bank of America downgraded its rating from neutral to underweight, expressing concerns about the bleak prospects for domestic airlines in the United States and the potential impact of issues with the Geared TurboFan engine on the company's growth in 2024. Unity Software (U), a video game software developer that announced a 25% workforce reduction, dropped approximately 8%. Albemarle Corporation (ALB), a lithium mining company, initially fell 4% and closed down 2.1% after Evercore ISI lowered its target price by 32% due to concerns that the company's fourth-quarter performance would disappoint investors and that Wall Street's expectations for its 2024 growth of approximately 15% were too optimistic.

On the other hand, Match Group (MTCH), the operator of dating platforms such as Tinder, initially rose nearly 12% and closed up 3% after reports that Elliott Investment Management held approximately $1 billion in shares. Juniper Networks (JNPR), a network communication equipment company, rose 21.8% after reports of its potential acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for approximately $13 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, on the other hand, fell 8.9%. CrowdStrike (CRWD), a cybersecurity company, rose 4.8% after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating to overweight and expressed optimism about its newly launched AI platform and other product cycles.

In the European stock market, the rebound of the pan-European stock index on Monday was reversed due to the pressure from the rise in Eurozone bond yields. The unexpected decline in the Eurozone unemployment rate to a historic low of 6.4% in November, announced on Tuesday, is not expected to change the path of interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank within this year, according to analysts. However, a series of mixed global data will likely lead to a reduction in market expectations for future interest rate cuts.

The Euro Stoxx 600 Index is approaching the closing low since December 13, which was set last Wednesday. Major European stock indices, including Germany, France, the UK, and Spain, as well as the Italian stock index, which had risen for three consecutive trading days, all fell.

In terms of sectors, basic resources, which include mining stocks, fell nearly 1.4%, leading the decline. Banks fell nearly 0.9%, while healthcare bucked the trend and rose nearly 0.7% for the second consecutive day. Among individual stocks, Grifols, a Spanish pharmaceutical company, plummeted 25.9% after being questioned by hedge fund Gotham City Research about its accounting practices, despite denying any wrongdoing.

US Dollar Index Rebounds, Bitcoin Surges to $47,900 Before Plummeting Over $2,000

The ICE US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of the US dollar against six major currencies including the euro, approached a daily low of 102.10 in early Asian trading, falling approximately 0.1% during the day. European stocks initially turned higher before falling again, while US stocks rose above 102.60 in early trading, with an intraday gain of over 0.4%, but still far from the intraday high of 103.10 reached last Friday, which was the highest since December 13. At the close of trading on Tuesday, the US dollar index was above 102.50, up 0.3% for the day, rebounding after a decline on Monday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the US dollar against ten other currencies, rose more than 0.3% after a two-day decline, reaching its highest level since December 20th.

Among non-US currencies, the Japanese yen, which had halted its four-day decline on Monday, failed to sustain its rebound and fell during trading. The USD/JPY pair rose during the early trading session of US stocks, reaching above 144.60, up nearly 0.3% for the day, approaching the three-week high set last Friday at 146.00. The EUR/USD pair hit a daily low below 1.0910 during US stock trading, falling more than 0.3% for the day, but has not yet approached the three-week low set last Friday below 1.0880. The GBP/USD pair hit a daily low below 1.2670 during US stock trading, falling nearly 0.5%, but has not approached the one-week high set last Friday above 1.2770.

The offshore Chinese yuan (CNH) against the US dollar rose briefly during the early Asian session, reaching a daily high of 7.1601, but then fell continuously. During US stock trading, it fell to 7.1881, hitting a low not seen since December 13th after breaking below 7.18 last Friday, falling 254 points for the day. At 5:59 am Beijing time on January 10th, the offshore yuan against the US dollar was reported at 7.1842 yuan, down 215 points from the New York closing price on Monday, resuming its downward trend after closing flat on Monday.

After news broke in the final trading session of US stocks that the US SEC had approved a spot ETF, Bitcoin (BTC) quickly rose above $47,800, with some platforms surpassing $47,900. It hit a new intraday high for the past 21 months for two consecutive days. However, the price fell sharply after the SEC clarified that the news was due to a hacker attack on its social media account and that the ETF had not been approved. It briefly fell below $45,100, a drop of more than $2,700 or over 5% from the daily high, before rebounding to $25,700. In the past 24 hours, it has fallen more than 2%.

European bond prices overall fell, and yields rebounded. At the end of the bond market, the yield on the UK 10-year benchmark government bond was reported at 2.78%, up about 1 basis point for the day, reaching a high of nearly 3.84% during trading, close to the three-week high set last Friday above 3.85%. The yield on the 2-year UK bond was reported at 4.19%, roughly unchanged from the same period on Monday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark German government bond was reported at 2.18%, up about 5 basis points for the day, reaching a high of 2.20% during trading. The yield on the 2-year German bond was reported at 2.59%. The US 10-year benchmark Treasury yield rose by about 5 basis points during the day, reaching a high of nearly 2.63%, approaching the three-week high set after the release of the US employment report last Friday.

During European stock trading, the yield on the US 10-year benchmark Treasury briefly rose above 4.05%, hitting a daily high. It rose by about 2 basis points during the day. Pre-market trading in US stocks continued to decline, with the stock market briefly falling below 4.0% and hitting a daily low. It fell by nearly 4 basis points during the day, continuing to move away from the three-week high reached after the non-farm employment report last Friday, and was around 4.01% at the end of the bond market session, down by about 2 basis points during the day, after rising for two consecutive days and falling for two consecutive days.

The 2-year US Treasury yield, which is more sensitive to interest rate prospects, briefly rose to a high of 4.40% before the US stock market opened, rising by nearly 2 basis points during the day. It briefly fell below 4.35% at the beginning of the stock market trading and fell by about 2 basis points during the day. It was around 4.36% at the end of the bond market session, down by about 1 basis point during the day, after rising for four consecutive days and falling for two consecutive days.

Yields on US Treasury bonds of various maturities generally declined in the first two days of this week, with the decline in medium-term Treasury yields leading the way.

Crude oil rebounds, US natural gas reaches nearly seven-month high and two-month high

International crude oil futures, which experienced a sharp decline on Monday, maintained an overall upward trend on Tuesday, only briefly turning negative during the early Asian session and before European stock trading. Before the US stock market opened, when it hit a daily high, US WTI crude oil approached $73, rising by 3.05% during the day, while Brent crude oil approached $78.20, rising by 2.7% during the day.

Although crude oil ended the day with gains, it did not fully recover from the losses on Monday and did not approach the closing high set during the rebound last Friday, which lasted for more than a week. WTI February crude oil futures, which fell by nearly 4.12% on Monday, the largest daily decline since November 16, rose by nearly 2.08% to $72.24 per barrel. Brent March crude oil futures, which fell by 3.35% on Monday, the largest decline since December 12, rose by 1.93% to $77.59 per barrel.

US gasoline and natural gas futures both rose. NYMEX February gasoline futures, which fell for three consecutive days, rose by 2.42% to $2.0768 per gallon, leaving behind the low set on December 13, which was refreshed on Monday. NYMEX February natural gas futures rose by nearly 7.05%, marking the largest daily increase since June 2023, to $3.1900 per million British thermal units, reaching the highest closing level since November 15, and rising for six consecutive trading days.

Copper and gold hit near four-week lows with eight consecutive declines

London base metal futures continued to decline on Tuesday. London copper fell for the eighth consecutive trading day, hitting a near four-week low. London tin fell more than 1%, marking its fourth consecutive decline to a near five-week low. London zinc, lead, and nickel all declined for two consecutive days, with London zinc hitting a new low for over three weeks, while London lead and nickel approached their respective lows since last Thursday and April 2021. On the other hand, London aluminum rebounded, ending its five-day decline and reaching a low of over three weeks.

New York gold futures failed to rebound, reaching a daily high of $2048.6 before the pre-market trading session on Tuesday, with an intraday increase of over 0.7%. However, it later fell back as the US stock market briefly turned negative during the early trading session and fell again during the midday trading session.

In the end, COMEX February gold futures closed down $0.5, a decrease of 0.02%, at $2033. This marked the second consecutive day of hitting a closing low since December 13th, following two days of relatively flat performance after a decline on Friday.

Spot gold approached $2042 before the US stock market opened, with an intraday increase of nearly 0.7%. However, it briefly fell below $2026 during the US stock market session and closed above $2028, with a slight increase during the day.