The three major stock indices in the United States hit a new all-time high yesterday, with Apple, the second largest company by market value, surpassing Microsoft at one point during the trading day and taking the top spot in market value. However, the closing gains narrowed, allowing Microsoft to temporarily maintain its position as the largest company by market value. In addition, the top four companies in the US stock market all set new all-time highs in stock prices yesterday.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States released the latest CPI (Consumer Price Index) report on the evening of the 12th at 20:30, showing that the CPI in May increased by 3.3% year-on-year, lower than the economists’ monthly estimate of 0.1% and the annual estimate of 3.4%. At the same time, the core CPI in May, which excludes food and energy costs, increased by 3.4% year-on-year, lower than the expected 3.5% and the previous 3.6%, reaching the lowest level in over three years, indicating a continued cooling of inflation in the United States.
However, the Federal Reserve announced this morning at 02:00 that the interest rate will remain unchanged in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%, marking the 7th consecutive freeze. Although this was in line with market expectations, the latest dot plot of interest rates shows that Fed officials predict only one rate cut (one notch) this year, far below the previous expectation of three cuts (three notches).
After the release of the CPI data, market expectations for a Fed rate cut improved significantly. The four major US stock indices showed an upward trend at the opening last night, despite some hawkish signals from the Fed during trading hours. The Nasdaq index, the S&P 500 index, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index all hit new all-time highs last night:
– Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.09% to close at 38,712.21 points
– Nasdaq index rose by 1.53% to close at 17,608.44 points, hitting a new all-time high
– S&P 500 index rose by 0.85% to close at 5,421.03 points, hitting a new all-time high
– Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose by 2.9% to close at 5,520.87 points, hitting a new all-time high
It is worth noting that the second largest company in the US stock market, Apple (AAPL-US), surged by 4% during trading yesterday, surpassing the largest company, Microsoft, at one point. However, the closing gain narrowed to 2.86%, leaving Apple’s market value at 3.267 trillion US dollars. On the other hand, Microsoft (MSFT-US) saw its stock price rise by 1.94% at the close of the US stock market, reaching a market value of 3.278 trillion US dollars, maintaining its position as the largest company by market value.
Furthermore, the top four companies in the US stock market – Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, and Google – all saw their stock prices break through historical highs during trading yesterday. These four companies all share a common feature, which is their involvement in the recent AI trend.
According to previous reports, Apple announced the launch of the AI technology platform “Apple Intelligence” at the Global Developers Conference held on Tuesday, designed specifically for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. The main functions of Apple Intelligence include recognizing and selecting important notifications, generating text (answering questions, summarizing, assisting in writing), supporting text-to-image generation (providing sketches, illustrations, animations in three styles), and cross-app operation. Additionally, with the powerful features of Apple Intelligence, the smart assistant Siri will become more natural, respond more contextually and personally, and have functions to streamline and expedite daily tasks.
Moreover, Apple has collaborated with the developer of ChatGPT, OpenAI, to integrate ChatGPT into the experiences of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, allowing users to leverage ChatGPT’s professional skills and understanding of images and documents.