The S&P and Dow Jones fell from record highs, NVIDIA continued to hit historic highs, Chinese concept stocks outperformed the market, and LI AUTO surged nearly 20% after the earnings report.

After the CPI and PPI last week, this week's inflation indicators have once again become the market focus. The GDP for the fourth quarter, to be released on Wednesday, will also disclose the revised Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index for the fourth quarter. The U.S. PCE for January, to be announced on Thursday, will determine whether the PCE prices will show a similar trend to the CPI and PPI for January, facing the threat of rising inflation, and how the data will affect the Fed's timing for interest rate cuts.

Before the heavyweight inflation data was released, U.S. stocks and bonds saw a slight decline on Monday. U.S. Treasury prices fell, yields rebounded, and during the day, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the results of the record-sized two-year and five-year bond sales, both showing weak demand. The U.S. bond yields hit daily highs, with the benchmark ten-year Treasury and the rate-sensitive two-year Treasury yields approaching the highs set over the past two months.

The S&P and Dow, which have hit historical highs in recent days, turned downward during the day, while the Nasdaq continued to move away from its highest level in over two years. Most blue-chip tech stocks fell, weighing on the market, led by Google, which will temporarily shut down its AI human image feature after an error, while Nvidia maintained its upward trend since announcing strong earnings last week, setting new records, and Tesla rebounded strongly. Chinese concept stocks outperformed the market, with new energy car companies shining. After announcing fourth-quarter revenue doubling expectations and achieving annual profitability for the first time, Li Auto opened more than 10% higher.

As the U.S. dollar fell, the euro and pound rose together, while the yen and renminbi remained stable. Cryptocurrencies surged. Business intelligence software company MicroStrategy (MSTR) revealed on Monday that it increased its holdings of Bitcoin, buying 3,000 Bitcoins at an average price of $51,813 each, spending about $155 million. Bitcoin surged over $3,000 during the day, breaking above $54,000 for the first time in over two years, briefly testing $55,000.

The three major U.S. stock indices fell together, tech giants "Big Seven" fell again, chip stocks outperformed the market, and Chinese concept stocks rose for the fourth consecutive day

The three major U.S. stock indices opened high but fell during the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 opened high but trended lower. At the beginning of the day, the Dow rose more than 110 points but fell by nearly 0.3%, turning downward towards the end of the morning session. The S&P initially rose by nearly 0.2% but turned lower after an hour of trading, falling nearly 0.4% at midday. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose nearly 0.4% in the morning session, then turned down by over 0.1% at midday, and fluctuated again before closing.

In the end, all three major indexes closed lower. The Dow and S&P, which had risen for three consecutive days, fell from the closing historical highs set over the past two days. The Nasdaq fell by 0.13% to 15,976.25 points, moving further away from the closing high set on November 22, 2021. The S&P dropped by 0.38% to 5,069.53 points, while the Dow fell by 62.3 points, a decrease of 0.16%, closing at 39,069.23 points.

The small-cap Russell 2000, dominated by value stocks, rose by 0.61%, outperforming the broader market and extending its three-day rally, moving away from the closing low set on February 13. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index fell by 0.02%, and the Nasdaq Technology Market Cap Weighted Index (NDXTMC), which measures the performance of tech stocks in the Nasdaq 100, dropped by 0.32%, both moving further away from the closing historical highs set last Thursday.

All three major U.S. stock indexes fell, while small-cap indexes continued to rise, outperforming the broader market.

Including Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google's parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla, the seven major tech stocks all experienced declines after last Friday. Tesla, however, rose by about 3.9%, erasing the nearly 2.8% decline from the previous week.

Among the FAANMG six major tech stocks, Alphabet, which fell slightly last Friday, dropped by 4.5%, marking a two-day decline and hitting a low not seen since January 5. Meta fell by nearly 0.5%, continuing to drop from the closing historical high reached on Thursday. Apple fell by almost 0.8%, hitting a low not seen since November 6, 2023, for the second consecutive day. Microsoft dropped by nearly 0.7%, following a two-day decline after rebounding to a high not seen since February 12. Amazon, which had risen for three consecutive days and hit new highs since November 2021, fell by nearly 0.2%, while Netflix rose by 0.7%.

After Nvidia's stock price surged following the earnings report last Thursday, the overall trend of the seven major tech stocks has been declining.

Chip stocks rebounded after a general decline last Friday, outperforming the broader market. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and the Semiconductor Industry ETF SOXX rose by over 1% and about 1%, respectively. Among individual stocks, Nvidia rose by nearly 0.4%, marking a three-day rally and setting new closing highs for three consecutive days. Arm rose by 9.6%, while Intel remained flat, and AMD fell by nearly 0.3%. Most popular Chinese concept stocks have risen, outperforming the broader market. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) rose by over 1% in early trading, narrowing its gains by more than half in the morning session, closing up by over 0.7%. It has been on a four-day winning streak, closing at a high since January 4. Three emerging carmakers all saw gains, with Li Auto leading the pack with an increase of about 18.8%. XPeng, which surged over 9% in early trading, closed up by 6.8%, while Nio, which rose over 6% at the opening, closed up by 4.6%.

Among the stocks that released their earnings reports, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), led by Warren Buffett, surged by over 3% in early trading after doubling its net profit in the fourth quarter and setting a record cash reserve. However, it turned lower in the morning session, closing down by 2.2%. Freshpet (FRPT), a pet food company, and Pilgrim's Pride (PPC), a meat processing company, both exceeded expectations in terms of profit and revenue, closing up by 19.7% and 8% respectively. Domino's Pizza (DPZ) saw a 5.9% increase after announcing a significant 25% dividend increase and plans to repurchase up to $1 billion in shares.

In Europe, the pan-European stock index, which had risen for two consecutive days, fell back. The STOXX 600 index in Europe retreated from the closing historical high set over the past two days. Most major European stock indices closed lower, with the French stock market falling from the record high set over the past seven trading days. The Italian and British stock indices, which had risen for four and two consecutive days respectively, also fell, while the German stock market closed slightly higher, setting a new historical high for the third consecutive trading day.

In terms of sectors, basic resources, including mining stocks, fell by 2%, hitting a four-month low, while the technology sector rose by over 0.4%, benefiting from a 6.5% increase in E Semiconductor Industries, a chip component supplier. Additionally, ASML, the highest market value chip stock listed in the Netherlands, rose by nearly 0.6%. Among other individual stocks, after the second-phase trial showed a breakthrough in the treatment of fatty liver with the experimental drug survodutide, Danish pharmaceutical company Zealand Pharma surged by 35.7%.

After the sale of two-year and five-year U.S. Treasury bonds, U.S. bond yields hit a daily high, approaching a high not seen in over two months. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury benchmark bond fell below 4.22% before the European stock market opened, then continued to rise. After the U.S. stock market opened, the yield quickly hit a daily high, reaching around 4.31%, approaching the high set on December 1, 2023, which was close to 4.35% last Friday. By the end of the bond market session, it was around 4.28%, up by about 3 basis points during the day.

The yield on the more interest rate-sensitive 2-year U.S. Treasury bond fell below 4.67% before the European stock market opened, hitting a daily low of 4.6622%. After the completion of the U.S. five-year Treasury bond sale, it briefly rose above 4.74%, approaching the high set since December 11 last year, reaching around 4.72% by the end of the bond market session, up by about 3 basis points during the day. The yields on other maturity U.S. Treasury bonds all rebounded after a two-day consecutive rise last Friday. The yields of U.S. Treasury bonds across various maturities generally rose on Monday, increasing by about 3 basis points.

The U.S. Dollar Index approached a two-week low during the session, while Bitcoin surged by over $3,000 to test $55,000.

The ICE U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against a basket of six major currencies including the euro, briefly rose above 104.00 during the Asian session, with a daily increase of less than 0.1%. European stocks turned lower in pre-market trading, and U.S. stocks briefly fell below 103.70 to refresh the daily low, continuing to approach the low of February 2 that broke below 103.50 on Thursday and fell by over 0.2% during the day.

By the time the U.S. stock market closed on Monday, the U.S. Dollar Index was above 103.80, down by over 0.1% during the day. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the U.S. dollar against other ten currencies, fell by less than 0.1%, following four consecutive declines and three consecutive declines from the previous week.

Among non-U.S. currencies, the Japanese yen hit a near two-week low, with the U.S. dollar against the yen briefly rising above 150.80 during U.S. stock trading, refreshing the high since February 13 set last Friday, with an increase of over 0.2% during the day. The euro against the U.S. dollar briefly tested 1.0860 before U.S. stock trading, approaching the high of 1.0890 set on February 2, with an increase of nearly 0.4% during the day. The British pound against the U.S. dollar briefly tested 1.2700 during European stock trading, approaching the high of 1.2710 set on February 2, with an increase of nearly 0.2% during the day.

The offshore Chinese yuan (CNH) against the U.S. dollar hit a daily high of 7.2026 during the Asian session, turned lower in pre-market European trading, and hit a daily low of 7.2130 during early U.S. stock trading, falling back by 104 points from the daily high, continuing to move away from the intraday high since breaking above 7.19 on Wednesday and hitting the high since January 31. At 5:59 AM Beijing time on February 28, the offshore Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar was reported at 7.2112 yuan, down by 55 points from the New York closing price last Friday, falling for three consecutive days after rising for six consecutive days.

After MicroStrategy announced an additional investment of $155 million in Bitcoin, Bitcoin (BTC) surged during Monday's trading session, accelerating its rise since pre-market U.S. trading. It broke through $52,000, $53,000, and $54,000 during early and midday U.S. trading, briefly surpassing $54,700, with some platforms pushing above $54,900, approaching $55,000, hitting the intraday high since December 2021. It surged by over $3,000 and over 7% from the intraday low below $51,000 during European trading, closing above $54,300 in U.S. stock trading, with a gain of over 5% in the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin broke through $54,000 and tested $55,000 during the trading session, reaching a new high since December 2021.

Crude Oil Rebounds Over 1%, U.S. Oil Bids Farewell to Two-Week Lows

International crude oil futures rebounded during the trading session. While European stocks hit a daily low in pre-market trading, U.S. WTI crude oil fell below $75.90, dropping over 0.8% intraday. Brent crude oil tested below $81.00, down nearly 0.8% intraday. U.S. stocks turned higher in early trading and maintained their gains. By midday, U.S. oil rose above $78.00, up 2% intraday, while Brent oil approached $83.10, up over 1.7% intraday.

Ultimately, crude oil rebounded after two consecutive declines last Friday but failed to erase the losses from the previous week. WTI April crude oil futures closed up $1.09, a gain of over 1.42%, at $77.58 per barrel. This followed a 2.7% decline last Friday, marking a new low since February 8th. Brent April crude oil futures rose $0.91, up over 1.11%, to $82.53 per barrel. Last Friday, Brent crude fell by 2.45%, hitting a new low since February 14th.

London Copper, Nickel, Tin Drop Over 1%, Gold Falls from Two-Week Highs

London base metal futures saw mixed movements on Monday. London copper, nickel, and tin dropped by over 1%. London copper continued to retreat from the three-week high set after a three-day rally last Thursday. Nickel, which had risen for three consecutive days, bid farewell to the high seen since November last year, ending a seven-day decline last Friday and hitting a new low in over two weeks.

Lead in London rose for the fifth consecutive trading day, hitting a new high in over two weeks. Zinc in London rose for two days, reaching nearly a three-week high. Aluminum in London, which had declined for two days, closed flat, stabilizing at lows seen since late January.

New York gold futures, which had halted a two-day decline last Friday, fell on Monday and remained in a downtrend throughout the day. In early trading, U.S. stocks hit a daily low of $2034.1, down over 0.7% intraday.

In the end, COMEX April gold futures fell by 0.51%, closing at $2038.9 per ounce, dropping from last Friday's $2049.40 and hitting a new low since the closing high of $2051.7 on February 7th.

Spot gold initially rose above $2037 in early European trading but later fell below $2025 in U.S. trading, moving away from the intraday high of over $2040 reached last Friday since the high on February 7th.