Overnight US stocks | US government debt broke through $40 trillion for the first time in history, and the three major indices closed higher, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and gold rose

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Wednesday, the three major indices closed higher. After the US Treasury announced an expansion of treasury bond repurchase operations, US bond yields fell. According to data released by the US Treasury Department on the 19th, the total debt of the US federal government has exceeded 40 trillion US dollars.

[US Stocks] At the close, the Dow Jones index rose 119.71 points, or 0.22%, to 53463.11 points; the S&P 500 rose 16.50 points, or 0.21%, to 7708.26 points; the Nasdaq Composite rose 41.38 points, or 0.16%, to 26331.09 points. Moderna (MRNA.US) surged 176.9%, while MSD (MRK.US) rose 12.6%. Mywell Technology (MRVL.US) rose more than 9.8%, SK Hynix (SKHY.US) rose 0.35%, SanDisk (SNDK.US) fell 3.5%, and Micron Technology (MU.US) fell 0.39%. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closed up 1.5%. Bitcoin concept stocks generally rose, with Strategy (MSTR.US) up 12.68%, Coinbase (COIN.US) 9.55%, and Circle (CRCL.US) 9.56%.

[European stocks] The German DAX30 index fell 59.64 points, or 0.23%, to 26092.05 points; the British FTSE 100 index rose 10.76 points, or 0.10%, to 10738.80 points; the French CAC40 index fell 7.45 points, or 0.09%, to 8501.91 points; the European Stoxx 50 index fell 25.72 points, or 0.40%, to 6442.45 points; the Spanish IBEX35 index fell 109.83 points, or 0.55%, to report 19825.07 points; Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 384.84 points, or 0.73%, to 52633.00 points.

[Asian stock market] The Nikkei 225 index fell 3.16%, and Korea's KOSPI index fell 5.8%.

[US Dollar Index] The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against the six major currencies, fell 0.83% on the same day and closed at 98.833 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the exchange market in New York, 1 euro was worth $1.1674, up from $1.1576 on the previous trading day; 1 pound was worth $1.3607, up from $1.3534 on the previous trading day. 1 US dollar was worth 158.32 yen, lower than 159.60 yen on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 0.7979 Swiss franc, lower than 0.8125 Swiss franc on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 1.3810 Canadian dollars, lower than 1.3906 Canadian dollars on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 9.4386 SEK, lower than 9.5395 on the previous trading day.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin hit the 70,000 US dollar mark, at 69,358 US dollars as of press release; Ethereum broke through the 2,000 US dollar mark, hitting a maximum of 2333.9 US dollars.

[Crude oil] Light crude oil futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 89 cents, or 1.05%, to close at $85.83 a barrel; London Brent crude oil futures for October delivery rose 60 cents, or 0.66%, to close at $91.62 a barrel.

[Precious Metals] Spot gold broke through $4,500 and closed at $4523.14; spot silver reported $66.969.

[Macro News]

Federal Reserve Meeting Minutes: Several officials believe interest rate hikes may be necessary if necessary. The minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting showed that several officials preferred to raise interest rates last month, while many officials said that if inflation fails to fall, monetary policy will need to be further tightened. However, at the July meeting, uncertainty still seriously affected the judgment of Federal Reserve officials. “Regarding the outlook for monetary policy, participants reiterated that their interpretation of future data will be a key component in policy discussions,” the minutes of the meeting show. The FOMC decided in July by a 9-3 vote to maintain the benchmark interest rate in the 3.5% to 3.75% range. Logan, Hamak, and Kashkari voted against, arguing that interest rates should be raised by 25 basis points. Two other regional Federal Reserve presidents who did not have the right to vote in July — Schmid and Mussalem — have since said that if they had the right to vote at the time, they would support raising interest rates at that meeting. Most of the policy discussions at the July meeting revolved around different judgments about future inflation trends. “Most participants expect inflation to gradually decline for the rest of the year as the effects of tariffs and previous increases in energy prices subside, but many participants indicated that there is still a possibility that inflation will remain at a high level.”

Trump says he has measures in place that can severely sanction Iran. On the afternoon of August 19, local time, in response to media questions about how Iran will be sanctioned at the White House, US President Trump said, “We have many areas where sanctions can be imposed. We have very severe sanctions in our hands. We will wait and see.” Earlier in the day, Trump also told the media that negotiations with Iran may resume “at some point,” but Iran must completely abandon nuclear weapons. Trump also once again claimed that the US “owns” and “fully controls” the Strait of Hormuz, adding that Iran “occasionally launches drones can indeed cause trouble.” Trump said on social media on August 18 that there are currently no talks or dialogues with Iran. Previously, he had always insisted that the US and Iran were conducting negotiations, but Iran denied it many times.

Vincent became the most active US Treasury Secretary in decades to intervene in the market. US Treasury Secretary Bessent passed a series of unconventional operations this year, becoming one of the finance ministers who have interfered the most in the financial market in decades, with the aim of curbing the rise in US borrowing costs. This week, the US Treasury announced that it would “at least double” the size of the 10-30 year treasury bonds originally scheduled to be repurchased. Earlier, the Ministry of Finance had released signals that it might reduce the issuance of long-term debt. On July 31, Bezent led the US government to buy yen for the first time in 30 years. Former Treasury official Mark Sobel commented that Bezent is “definitely an aggressive interventionist,” and his style is reminiscent of his hedge fund background. He believes that Bezent and senior government officials are clearly concerned about the rise in long-term US bond yields. Affected by inflation, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, and fiscal deficits, 10-year US Treasury yields continued to rise, which in turn boosted mortgage interest rates and dragged down economic growth. Some analysts pointed out that Bezent is trying to stabilize the market through yield curve intervention, but he also warned that without resolving high debt and fiscal deficits, it will be difficult for this strategy to work in the long term.

US debt surpasses $40 trillion, fiscal hawks: officials need to act as soon as possible. The US federal debt reached the critical milestone of $40 trillion on Tuesday, and the total debt doubled in less than a decade. American fiscal hawks immediately strongly criticized this. Maya McGinnis, chairman of the Responsible Federal Budget Committee, called on lawmakers to take action. “No one knows how many more milestones America can withstand.” In a statement, she said, “No matter what motivations our government officials need to finally take action — whether it comes from concerns from domestic voters, warning signals from financial markets, foreign competition, or the consequences of inaction — they should do it as soon as possible.” She also stressed that “other warning signs are also emerging,” such as the rising ratio between debt and the size of the economy. In the first quarter of 2026, the US national debt was about 122% of the gross domestic product ($31.87 trillion).

Source: The Trump administration plans to reduce tariffs on cars imported from Canada from 25% to 15%. According to people familiar with the matter, the Trump administration is preparing to cut tariffs on cars imported from Canada from 25% to 15% as part of a broader agreement. Under the agreement, Canada will lift retaliatory trade measures against the US. The White House imposed 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars and trucks last year. For vehicles manufactured in Canada and Mexico, the tariff only applies to non-US components of the vehicle. The move is aimed at encouraging companies to move more production to the US. People familiar with the matter said that the new 15% tariff rate will also follow this “non-US component” calculation rule. Currently, the details of the agreement have not been finalized. Furthermore, in the past, Trump temporarily revised the terms of the trade agreement when it was about to be reached, or even directly cancelled the agreement, so the final outcome is still variable.

[Individual Stock News]

SpaceX (SPCX.US) sought to acquire AI programming startup Cognition. According to people familiar with the matter, SpaceX has been in touch with Cognition AI, an artificial intelligence programming startup, to discuss a potential acquisition. If the deal is reached, it will be the second major acquisition SpaceX has made in recent months to get ahead in the AI race. People familiar with the matter said that the acquisition negotiations between the two sides have been suspended, but the two companies are still discussing cooperation matters, including the possibility of arranging Cognition to use SpaceX's computing power. Cognition's valuation in the May round of financing reached 26 billion US dollars. At present, preliminary negotiations have begun with investors on a new round of financing, with a valuation of at least 40 billion US dollars.

Nvidia plans to invest in the AI data labeling company Mercor, with a financing valuation of 20 billion US dollars. According to media, according to a person familiar with the matter, Nvidia (NVDA.US) has discussed investment matters with data labeling service provider Mercor. Mercor helped the chip designer develop an open source AI model. The investment will be part of Mercor's round of financing valued at $20 billion. Existing investors, General Catalyst, have been negotiating to lead this round of financing. Mercor's past revenue came from closed-source AI model developers such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. However, as Nvidia prioritizes the development of the Nemotron open source model, Mercor's revenue from Nvidia is growing. Nemotron aims to compete with the world's most advanced open source models. According to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia paid Mercor tens of millions of dollars last quarter. In addition to Mercor, Nvidia also uses data from other data vendors such as Turing and Scale, and also has its own internal data team.

[Major Bank Ratings]

S&P: Upgraded Micron Technology's (MU.US) rating to “BBB+” due to increased confidence in the company's immediate demand prospects. The outlook is “positive.”