Breakfast | Wall Street giants unanimously warn of the risk of a US stock market downturn, Reddit targeted by short-selling institutions "hunted down"

Good morning! A great day starts with making money.

Overnight Morning Market

Investors are adjusting their portfolios as the first quarter comes to a close, which is the source of recent volatility in the US stock market. This week, the three major US indexes collectively closed higher for the first time, with the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq rebounding after three days of declines for the Dow and S&P, and two days of declines for the Nasdaq.

Among the Dow components, Merck (MRK) rose nearly 5%, reaching a new high. Apple rose 2.1%, Amazon rose nearly 0.9%, Alphabet rose 0.2%, Netflix fell 2.5%, Microsoft fell by less than 0.1% for the fourth consecutive day. Tesla rose 1.2%, marking three consecutive days of gains. Nvidia fell 2.5%, Intel rose 4.2%. Micron Technology rose nearly 0.4%, hitting a new high.

Most AI concept stocks fell against the market. Astera Labs fell over 4%, Palantir fell 1.5%, Oracle fell nearly 1%, Super Micro Computer (SMCI) fell nearly 0.2%.

Reddit fell over 11%, with Hedgeye listing it as the latest short target. Trump Media, owned by Trump, rose over 14%, with Wall Street valuing the Trump Technology Group at $11 billion.

Some popular Chinese concept stocks continued to decline. XPeng fell over 8%, Nio fell over 2%, Li Auto fell 1.5%. Pinduoduo fell nearly 3%, NetEase fell nearly 0.5%, Alibaba rose nearly 0.2%.

Blue Chips and Hot Stocks

Reddit's CEO and President Steve Ladd Huffman cashed out $16.2 million in company stock, CFO Andrew Vollero cashed out $2.32 million, CTO Christopher Brian Slowe cashed out $5.98 million, totaling $24.5 million in cash-outs.

Wade Bush: Lowered Tesla's target price from $315 to $300 to reflect a decline in deliveries.

Media: Amazon's senior employees will not receive raises this year.

OpenAI: Collaborating with a small group of American builders to test usage-based GPT revenue. Our goal is to create a vibrant ecosystem that rewards builders' creativity and influence.

"Tencent layoffs of 10% to 30%" rumor is false

On March 27, a netizen posted on a workplace content community claiming that a large company had started layoffs, with a layoff rate of 10% to 30%. The mentioned PCG and CSIG business groups are both under Tencent. Media cited several informed sources at Tencent saying that the news is false.

Tencent leads the buyback trend in the Hong Kong stock market, with 123 Hong Kong-listed companies repurchasing a total of HKD 45.737 billion so far this year, a 224.77% year-on-year increase. Recently, the scale of buybacks by Hong Kong-listed companies has been increasing, mainly because companies believe their valuations are continuously undervalued by the market.

Hong Kong SFC launches inquiry into former chairman of Ding Yi Feng for suspected market manipulation activities

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission alleged that from March 1, 2018 to September 14 of the same year, Sui and others engaged in manipulative trading and large-scale cross-trading of Ding Yi Feng shares, creating false or misleading appearances related to trading activity and stock prices, leading to a significant increase in overall trading volume, giving the false impression of a large market float of Ding Yi Feng shares, and misleading other market participants in their decision-makingUber's Uber Eats Japan, under Uber, will launch prescription drug delivery services in the Japanese market.

Sunac China's full-year revenue in 2023 was RMB 154.23 billion, compared to RMB 96.75 billion in the same period last year. Net loss was RMB 7.969 billion, compared to a net loss of RMB 27.669 billion in the same period last year. The total borrowing amount is approximately RMB 277.83 billion, a decrease of about RMB 20.59 billion from the end of last year's approximately RMB 298.42 billion.

Evergrande Auto's revenue was RMB 1.34 billion, with a gross loss of RMB 0.51 billion; a total net loss of RMB 11.995 billion, a 56.64% decrease compared to the previous year, including a loss of RMB 1.061 billion from the divestment of real estate projects, non-operating losses of RMB 6.384 billion from asset disposal and impairment, and an operating loss of RMB 4.55 billion. It is expected to have sufficient funds to pay off debts in the next 12 months.

Tianqi Lithium's full-year revenue in 2023 was RMB 40.45 billion, the same as RMB 40.49 billion in the same period last year. The net profit for the full year was RMB 7.3 billion, compared to RMB 24.12 billion in the same period last year.

Chips and Artificial Intelligence

Intel announces "AI PC Acceleration Program."

Google launches an AI tool that can create travel guides, covering data from over 200 million global locations, aggregating various ideas from the entire internet, as well as user-submitted comments, photos, business details, and other data to Google. Currently, only beta users in the United States can try out this feature.

Cryptocurrency

A U.S. court ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can continue to sue Coinbase.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $69,000 per coin, down 1.20% intraday; Ethereum briefly fell below $3,500 per coin, with a 2.38% intraday decline.

Startups

Amazon adds $2.75 billion in investment to AI startup Anthropic, marking Amazon's largest venture capital investment to date, with a total of $4 billion invested over two rounds. Anthropic previously released the latest AI model, Claude 3.

IPO Opportunities

Macro: Taking You Around the World

As a recent indicator of the Federal Reserve's policy direction, Director Waller stated that there is currently no urgent need to cut interest rates.

Goldman Sachs: It is expected that pension funds will soon sell about $32 billion worth of stocks in the U.S. stock market.

J.P. Morgan: U.S. stock market concentration is too high, beware of sudden shocks.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management: There is very limited upside potential for the U.S. stock market

Goldman Sachs Asset Management stated that monetary policy typically operates with about a two-year lag, and if a U.S. economic recession does occur, it will likely be this year. As the market has already priced in many expected policy easings, the recent bull market may be coming to an end. We do tend to believe that U.S. stock market valuations are currently reasonable, but the upside potential for these valuations is limited. Better opportunities may lie in other markets.

S&P confirms the U.S. "AA+/A-1+" sovereign credit rating; outlook stable.

The yen briefly depreciated to its lowest level since 1990, prompting Japan's three major financial institutions to hold an emergency meeting but take no actual intervention, after which the yen reboundedXi Jinping meets with representatives from the American business community and strategic academic circles. Xi Jinping emphasized that the common interests between China and the United States have not decreased, but have increased.

Xi Jinping meets with Dutch Prime Minister Rutte. Xi Jinping stated that China is willing to expand the import of high-quality goods from the Netherlands.

PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng: China is formulating the "Financial Stability Law".

The Boao Forum for Asia will hold the opening ceremony of the annual meeting in 2024.

Beijing's policy document on "Divorced individuals are not allowed to purchase houses within 3 years in Beijing" has been abolished.

Nikkei News: Japan will soon relax the residency system for entrepreneurs