Overnight US stocks | Core inflation unexpectedly slowed in November, the three major indices closed up, Trump Media Technology Group (DJT.US) surged 41.93%
The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Thursday, the three major indices closed higher. The year-on-year increase in US core inflation in November hit the lowest level since the beginning of 2021. The inflation situation unexpectedly improved, but economists suspected that the data was distorted due to the government shutdown.
According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes highly volatile food and energy, rose 2.6% year on year in November, and the overall CPI rose 2.7% year on year in November. However, several economists pointed out that housing prices, which are one of the biggest components of the CPI, remained basically flat within two months, causing the entire estimate to be questioned.
Paul Ashworth, North America's chief economist at KITU Macro, wrote in the report: “This may indeed reflect a real decline in inflationary pressure, but such a sudden stagnation, especially in more sustainable service projects such as rents, is unusual. At least during the non-recession period, this phenomenon is abnormal. The end result is that we will probably all have to wait until December data is released next month to verify whether this is a statistical anomaly or a real decline in inflation.”
[US stocks] At the close, the Dow rose 65.88 points, or 0.14%, to 47951.85 points; the NASDAQ rose 313.04 points, or 1.38%, to 23006.36 points; the S&P 500 rose 53.33 points, or 0.79%, to 6774.76 points. Micron Technology (MU.US) rose 10.21%, Trump Media Technology Group (DJT.US) surged 41.93%, Tesla (TSLA.US) rose 3.45%, Nvidia (NVDA.US) rose 1.87%, and Circle (CRCL.US) rose 2.26%.
[European stocks] The German DAX30 index rose 247.41 points, or 1.03%, to 24203.12 points; the UK FTSE 100 index rose 63.23 points, or 0.65%, to 9837.55 points; the French CAC40 index rose 64.59 points, or 0.80%, to 8150.64 points; the European Stoxx 50 index rose 60.79 points, or 1.07%, to 5742.46 points; Spain's IBEX35 index rose 194.16 points, or 1.15%, to report 17132.36 points; Italy's FTSE MIB index rose 353.02 points, or 0.80%, to 44452.50 points.
[Asia Pacific Stock Market] The Nikkei 225 Index fell more than 1%, South Korea's KOSPI Index fell more than 1.5%, and the Indonesian Composite Index fell 0.68%.
[Foreign Exchange] The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against the six major currencies, rose 0.06% on the same day and closed at 98.425 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the exchange market in New York, 1 euro was worth 1.1725 US dollars, lower than 1.1745 US dollars on the previous trading day; 1 pound was worth 1.3386 US dollars, up from 1.3378 US dollars on the previous trading day. 1 US dollar was worth 155.52 yen, lower than 155.63 yen on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 0.7940 Swiss franc, lower than 0.7953 Swiss franc on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 1.3781 Canadian dollars, lower than 1.3789 Canadian dollars on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 9.2846 SEK, lower than 9.2984 on the previous trading day.
[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin fell 1%, hitting an intraday low of $84450.02; Ethereum fell 0.3%, hitting an intraday low of $2776.02.
[Precious Metals] Spot gold fell 0.14% to $4332.48. Goldman Sachs said that the surge in gold futures prices to record highs in 2025 is likely to continue until next year. In the 2026 outlook report released on Thursday, the agency stated, “Our benchmark scenario predicts that the price of gold will rise 14% to 4,900 US dollars per troy ounce by December 2026, and there is an upward risk.” Goldman Sachs expects central banks' demand for gold to continue in 2026, with an average monthly gold purchase volume of 70 metric tons. The main factors driving this demand are geopolitical turbulence and countries' willingness to hedge risks by increasing their gold holdings.
[Crude oil] Light crude oil futures for January 2026 delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 21 cents, or 0.38%, to close at $56.15 a barrel; London Brent crude oil futures for February delivery rose 14 cents to close at $59.82 a barrel, or 0.23%.
[Macro News]
The UK increased its holdings of US bonds in October, and the monthly fluctuation of Canadian holdings surpassed 50 billion dollars. According to data from the US Treasury, Britain, which has the second-largest share of US government debt, increased its holdings by 13.2 billion US dollars in October to reach 877.9 billion US dollars. Canada's holdings plummeted by $56.7 billion to $419.1 billion. As a neighboring country of the United States, Canada's data has been fluctuating this year, often showing increases and decreases of more than 50 billion US dollars every month. The size of US Treasury bonds held by Japan in October increased from 1.189 trillion US dollars in September to 1.2 trillion US dollars. The size of US Treasury bonds held by China fell to 688.7 billion US dollars in October from 705 billion US dollars in September. Due to concerns about foreign sell-offs, US bond holdings data received additional attention this year. But Treasury Secretary Bezent often refuted the so-called “sell-off America” rhetoric.
The Bank of Mexico cut interest rates for the 12th time in a row. On Thursday local time, the Bank of Mexico cut interest rates for the 12th time in a row, while hinting that action may be suspended until further interest rate cuts are made. With a 4 to 1 vote, the Monetary Policy Committee lowered the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7%, the lowest level in three and a half years. The bank did not rule out the possibility of further interest rate cuts in the future, but said it would “evaluate the timing of subsequent adjustments.” The statement said that the committee will carefully evaluate the impact of tax increases and tariff increases that will take effect in January next year on inflation, but it is expected that the impact on prices “will be temporary and not necessarily linear.” Since inflation in the service sector is slowing more gradually than expected, the bank raised its inflation forecast for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first half of 2026, but it is still expected that inflation will reach the 3% target in the third quarter of next year, while pointing out that the risk of the inflation outlook is still rising.
ECB officials expect interest rates to remain stable in 2026 but have not ruled out the possibility of interest rate cuts. According to three sources, ECB policymakers expect interest rates to remain unchanged next year, but since the economic outlook is still highly uncertain, they are not ready to completely rule out the possibility of further interest rate cuts. The ECB kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday and raised some economic growth and inflation forecasts. Investors generally interpreted this move as closing the door to further interest rate cuts. However, the source said that decision makers at the meeting had no intention of announcing the end of the easing cycle because uncertainty is still high. Despite this, all three sources said the most likely outcome is for interest rates to remain unchanged throughout 2026, which is in line with market expectations. According to sources, most policymakers believe that the risks to economic growth prospects are roughly balanced, although a few believe that actual growth may fall below the level predicted by the ECB itself. There is even less disagreement on inflation, and most officials believe that the risk of inflation is also in equilibrium.
[Individual Stock News]
Oracle (ORCL.US) and OpenAI's request to obtain power supply for the data center was approved by the US state of Michigan. Michigan regulators in the US have approved a request from general utilities company DTE Energy Co. to provide power support for large-scale data center development projects planned by Oracle and OpenAI. DTE previously applied to regulators to expedite approval of its power supply plan to support the multi-billion dollar, 1.4 gigawatt (GW) facility in Saline Township. According to OpenAI and Oracle, the Stargate (Stargate) campus in Saline Township has enabled the partnership to increase the planned capacity of 8 gigawatts across the US and bring in more than 450 billion dollars of investment over the next three years.
The new Meta (META.US) secret research model, codenamed Mango, is scheduled to be launched in the first half of next year. According to reports, Meta is developing a new artificial intelligence model for images and videos, codenamed Mango. Simultaneously with the company's next-generation text big language model, it is also being developed. According to people familiar with the matter, Meta's chief artificial intelligence officer, Alexandr Wang discussed these artificial intelligence models during an internal employee Q&A session with the company's chief product officer Chris Cox on Thursday. The models are expected to be released in the first half of 2026.
Nike (NKE.US) quarterly revenue exceeded expectations, but the Chinese market and the Converse brand continued to weaken. Nike's sales figures for the latest quarter exceeded expectations, showing progress in its efforts to reverse business difficulties, but the Chinese market and the Converse brand remain weak. In the second fiscal quarter, the company's revenue increased 1% to US$12.4 billion, higher than analysts' average expectations. Earnings per share also surpassed expectations. However, direct-to-consumer sales fell short of expectations. Affected by this, Nike's stock price fell 5% in after-hours trading. The stock has declined by a cumulative total of 13% since this year, and is likely to record its fourth consecutive annual decline. Nike is currently increasing its focus on core sports and key cities, while rebuilding relationships with retail partners to regain growth and win back the favor of investors and consumers. Although the company is regaining momentum, management is still facing questions about the Converse brand (sales fell 30% in the current period) and the performance of the Chinese market.
Twenty-four companies, including Microsoft (MSFT.US) and Google (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US), joined the US Artificial Intelligence “Genesis Project.” Twenty-four of the top artificial intelligence companies have signed up to join the US government's “Genesis Mission” (Genesis Mission), an initiative of the Trump administration to promote the use of emerging artificial intelligence technology for scientific discovery and energy projects. According to the White House statement, companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon Cloud Services (AWS), and Alphabet have either signed memorandums of understanding with the government, or are undertaking existing cooperation projects with the Department of Energy and National Laboratories, or have expressed interest in participating in the program. Michael Krazios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, “The 'Genesis Project' will help American scientists automate experimental design, accelerate simulation calculations, and generate predictive models that can drive breakthroughs in fields such as energy, manufacturing, and drug development.” Trump announced the launch of the program through an executive order last month, which aims to better coordinate the research work of various government agencies and more effectively integrate artificial intelligence tools to achieve more scientific breakthroughs. Crazios said at the time that the mission would use computational resources from the Ministry of Energy's National Laboratory to use federal data sets to promote more experiments based on artificial intelligence, and predicted that the move would shorten the time cycle of scientific discoveries.