Overnight US stocks | The three major indices recorded gains for the third week in a row, the Golden Dragon Index surged about 24% this week

Zhitong Finance learned that on Friday, the three major indices had mixed ups and downs, but all three major stock indexes recorded gains for the third week in a row. In the intraday period, the Dow rose to a high of 42628.32 points, a record intraday high. The Dow rose 0.59% cumulatively this week, the S&P 500 index rose 0.62%, and the NASDAQ rose 0.95%. The three major stock indexes all recorded gains for the third consecutive week.

[US Stocks] At the close, the Dow closed up 137.89 points, or 0.33%, to 42313.00 points; the NASDAQ fell 70.70 points, or 0.39%, to 18119.59 points; the S&P 500 index fell 7.20 points, or 0.13%, to 5738.17 points. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closed up 3.99% and climbed about 24% this week. In terms of popular Chinese securities, NIO Auto (NIO.US) rose more than 12%, Xiaopeng Motors (XPEV.US) rose more than 8%, Zhihu (ZH.US) rose more than 10%, and BILI.US (BILI.US) rose more than 8%. Some semiconductor concept stocks declined, with TSM.US falling more than 4% and Nvidia (NVDA.US) falling more than 2%.

[European stocks] The German DAX30 index rose 269.05 points, or 1.40%, to 19489.25 points; the British FTSE 100 index rose 36.37 points, or 0.44%, to 8321.28 points; the French CAC40 index rose 49.70 points, or 0.64%, to 7791.79 points; the Eurostock 50 index rose 35.96 points, or 0.71%, to 5068.55 points; Spain's IBEX35 index rose 24.33 points, or 0.20%, to report 11977.53 points; Italy's FTSE MIB index rose 317.66 points, or 0.92%, to 34727.00 points.

[Asia Pacific Stock Market] The Nikkei 225 Index rose more than 2.3%, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.61%, and Vietnam's VN30 Index rose 0.13%.

[Gold] Spot gold fell 0.53% to 2658.24 US dollars/ounce, breaking away from the record high of 2685.58 US dollars set on Thursday, with a cumulative increase of 1.38% this week. COMEX gold futures fell 0.50% to $2681.40 per ounce, rising 1.39% this week. Spot silver fell 1.41% to 31.5675 US dollars/ounce, with a cumulative increase of 1.25% this week.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin rose more than 1% to $65888.4 per unit; Ethereum rose 2.6% to $2704.96 per unit.

[Crude oil] The price of West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 51 cents, or 0.8%, to close at $68.18 a barrel; Brent crude oil futures for November closed up $0.38, or 0.53%, to $71.98 per barrel.

[Metals] London metals had mixed ups and downs. Lunzn zinc fell 0.61%, Lun copper fell 0.96%; Lunan aluminum rose 0.98%, and Lunnickel rose 1.77%

[Macro News]

American consumer confidence rose to a five-month high, increasing economic optimism. American consumer confidence continued to rise in late September, reaching a five-month high, benefiting from increased optimism about the economy after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. The final value of the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index rose to 70.1 in September, and the initial value was 69. August was 67.9. Data released on Friday showed that consumers expected the inflation rate to be 2.7% in the next year, the lowest level since the end of 2020, and lower than the 2.8% forecast last month. The inflation rate for the next five to ten years is expected to be 3.1%. Federal Reserve policymakers decided to cut interest rates by 50 basis points on September 18 to prevent the job market from deteriorating. Further reduction in borrowing costs will help support consumers' economic and personal financial outlook. Personal spending increased moderately in August, according to government data released earlier on Friday. The university's report showed that although expectations earlier this month showed some concerns about the labor market, consumer perceptions of unemployment improved in the following weeks. This partly reflects the Fed's decision to cut interest rates. About 55% of respondents believe borrowing costs will drop in the next year, the highest percentage on record.

Federal Reserve Mussalam: The Federal Reserve should “gradually” cut interest rates. According to foreign media, US St. Louis Federal Reserve Chairman Mussalem said that after cutting interest rates by 50 basis points earlier this month, more than normal, the Federal Reserve should resume the practice of cutting interest rates “gradually”. Mussalem said that the US economy may respond “very positively” to a more relaxed financial environment, thereby stimulating demand and extending the time required for the Federal Reserve to reduce the inflation rate to 2%. “For me, it's about relaxing the brakes at this stage. It's about gradually reducing policy restrictions,” Mussalem said. According to forecasts released at this month's conference, he is one of the officials expected to cut interest rates by more than 25 basis points for the rest of the year.

Hurricane “Helene” made landfall in the US, killing at least 20 people. On September 27, local time, Hurricane “Helene” swept through the United States. Up to now, at least 20 people have died. Among them are 11 from Georgia, 5 from Florida, 2 from South Carolina, and 2 from North Carolina. According to data from the US electricity tracking website, more than 4 million households and businesses are still without power in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. According to data released by the US National Hurricane Center, when “Helene” made landfall in the Greater Bend region of Florida, the wind speed at the center of the storm reached 225 kilometers per hour, making it the strongest hurricane to land in the Great Bend region on record.

[Individual Stock News]

Volkswagen (VWAGY.US) lowered its full-year delivery forecast. Volkswagen is expected to deliver 9 million vehicles for the year, and analysts expect 8.1 million; annual operating profit is expected to reach about 18 billion euros; annual sales revenue is estimated to be about 320 billion euros; the annual net cash flow of the automotive sector is expected to be 2 billion euros, and the company originally expected 2.5 billion to 4.5 billion euros; the return on sales and operation (ROS) for the whole year is 5.6%, analysts expected 6.5% to 7.0%.

AMD (AMD.US) ushered in a milestone, and Oracle (ORCL.US) teamed up with MI300X to build a supercomputing cluster. Oracle, a global technology giant known for its cloud computing services and database software, recently selected the AMD Instinct MI300X AI accelerator equipped with the ROCM open software ecosystem — regarded as the most powerful competitor for Nvidia's H100 and H200 AI GPUs to provide the most core artificial intelligence computing hardware support for Oracle's latest OCI computing supercluster instance. Together with Oracle, it is a “milestone moment” for AMD (AMD.US), which currently has less than 10% of the AI GPU market share in data centers. It means that AMD is gradually integrating into the global cloud computing giant circle, and is expected to continue to seize Nvidia's share of the AI GPU market.

Tesla (TSLA.US) German factory employees frequently ask Musk on sick leave to personally conduct investigations. Tesla's high absenteeism at Europe's only car factory caught the attention of CEO Musk. The CEO wrote on the X platform that he is investigating the issue after a user of the social media service shared a report in Germany's “Business Daily”. According to reports, the rate of employees taking sick leave at the Tesla factory in Grünheide in Brandenburg climbed to 17% in August, more than three times the German automotive industry average last year. Tesla has suspended production at the plant several times in recent months for reasons including protests against the company's expansion of the plant and supply chain disruptions. The carmaker has also been struggling to cope with slowing demand — its registrations in Europe fell 16% in the first eight months of this year. According to a recording of an internal meeting last week, factory managers have visited Tesla employees on sick leave at home. However, the report said that some people refused the executives to come to the door and even threatened to call the police. Dirk Schulze, regional director of IG Metall, Germany's largest industrial union, said: “Home visits to Tesla employees are yet another ridiculous action taken by the factory in response to long-term higher-than-average sick leave rates.” Schulze said in an email statement that the company's employees reported a “very heavy workload” and management pressured sick and healthy employees to overload them. According to reports, Tesla's factory employed about 12,000 employees to produce the best-selling passenger car Model Y in Europe last year.