US Stocks Rise, China's Golden Dragon Up 4%, Oil Prices Plunge

On Monday, US Eastern Time, the three major US stock indices closed higher collectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rising by 0.65%, the Nasdaq Composite Index up by 0.26%, and the S&P 500 Index increasing by 0.27%. Cryptocurrency-related stocks generally rose, with MARA Holdings surging by over 11%. Additionally, popular Chinese concept stocks broadly advanced, and the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index climbed by 4.05%.

In the commodity market, COMEX silver futures closed up by 0.21% at $33.85 per ounce, while COMEX gold futures remained unchanged at $2,754.7 per ounce.

WTI December crude oil futures fell by $4.40, closing at $67.38 per barrel, a decrease of 6.13%; Brent December crude oil futures dropped by $4.63, closing at $71.42 per barrel, a decrease of 6.09%. In terms of news, previously, Iranian energy facilities were not damaged during the attacks carried out by Israel over the weekend, easing market concerns about further escalation in the Middle East.

China's "Golden Dragon" rises by over 4%

On Monday, US Eastern Time, the three major US stock indices closed higher collectively, with the DJIA up by 0.65%, the Nasdaq Composite Index up by 0.26%, and the S&P 500 Index up by 0.27%.

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Cryptocurrency-related stocks generally rose, with MARA Holdings increasing by over 11%, Riot Platforms and Canaan Technology both up by over 9%, and MicroStrategy nearly 9% higher.

Large-cap technology stocks experienced mixed movements, with Apple (by market value) up by 0.86% as the company's devices enter a "new era" with the launch of the first phase of artificial intelligence, Apple Intelligence, and the release of the new iMac desktop equipped with the M4 chip; NVIDIA fell by 0.72%; Microsoft down by 0.36%; Google C up by 0.81%, Amazon up by 0.30%, Meta up by 0.86%, and Tesla down by 2.48%.

As of the closing bell, only two of the S&P 500's 11 sectors ended lower, with the energy sector down by 0.65% and the information technology sector slightly down by 0.07%. This week, five of the "Seven Titans" will release their quarterly earnings reports, and on Friday, there will be the non-farm employment report.

Regarding Chinese concept stocks, the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index rose by 4.05%, reaching its highest level since October 15th.In the popular Chinese concept stocks, Jinko Energy closed up 17.77%, Canadian Solar rose 15.66%, Douyu surged over 14.9%, Daqo New Energy jumped 14.1%, Miniso and NIO also rose over 10.4%, XPeng gained approximately 9%, EHang Intelligent rose about 7.8%, Ke.com increased over 6.2%, New Oriental rose over 5.6%, Atour Hotel rose over 5.3%, Ctrip rose over 5.2%, JD.com, Vipshop, and Noah Holdings all rose at least 4.1%, Baidu, Weibo, Tencent Music, and Autohome all rose at least 3%, Alibaba, Boss Zhipin, Yum China, and Huazhu had increases up to 2.58%, Global Data, Li Auto, and ZTO Express had increases up to 1.68%, Zai Lab, Qifutek, and New Oriental had increases up to 0.53%. In addition, Fangdd closed up 9.26%, Pinduoduo rose 2.71%, and Ji氪 increased by 0.8%.

Risks of the U.S. Earnings Season

It is worth noting that this week is the busiest week of the U.S. earnings season, with five of the U.S. "tech giants" (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon) set to announce their third-quarter results one after another this week.

Analysts warn that if the results are a bombshell, they may face a fierce sell-off in the market, even affecting the U.S. stock market. Philips is the latest case of a bombshell in performance.

In terms of news, Philips' third-quarter performance report showed that third-quarter sales were €4.377 billion, with comparable sales down 0.5% year-on-year, expected to be a 3% increase year-on-year, and comparable order volume down 2% year-on-year; earnings per share were €0.32, lower than the analyst's expected €0.35.

Looking at the regions, the comparable sales in the European market and the North American market recorded growths of 3% and 1%, respectively, but the comparable sales in other mature markets decreased by 10% year-on-year. The report stated that this was mainly due to the drag from the Chinese market.

At the same time, due to the deterioration of demand, Philips has lowered its full-year sales guidance, and currently expects that the full-year 2024 comparable sales will grow by 0.5% to 1.5%, significantly lower than the previous expectation of 3% to 5%.

Philips CEO Roy Jakobs said: "In the third quarter of 2024, the demand from Chinese hospitals and consumer markets has not yet recovered, while other regions continue to maintain robust growth. The full-year sales outlook has been adjusted to reflect the impact of the Chinese market."

In addition to tech giants, this week there are also 170 S&P 500 index components disclosing earnings data, which account for 47% of the market value.According to the latest research report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the fragility facing U.S. stocks has reached a record level, making investors wary of the upcoming earnings season.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch believes that investors are paying more attention to individual stock performance during this period of dense earnings releases. Investors need to be extra cautious in this "most sensitive U.S. stock market in history."

The report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch points out that 2024 has become one of the years with the most dramatic reactions in the U.S. stock market in the past two decades, especially after the release of earnings, this volatility is particularly evident.