Market Insights: Mar 4th, 2024

Stock Market and Finance:

1. On Monday, A-shares experienced fluctuations and a downward trend, with both Shanghai and Shenzhen index falling. The Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.44%, the Shenzhen Component Index by 0.59%, and the ChiNext Index by 0.09%. Sectors such as liquid cooling, precious metals, and pharmaceuticals led the gains, yet nearly 4500 stocks in the market declined.
2. Northbound funds saw a net sell-off of 2.845 billion yuan, and major funds net outflow reached 18.897 billion yuan. The Zhongzheng 2000 Index fell by 1.73%, the Wind Micro-Stocks Index by 3.31%, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Technology Index also fell by nearly 1%.
3. The American regional bank, New York Community Bank (NYCB), reported a tenfold increase in losses for the fourth quarter due to significant internal control deficiencies, eliciting a strong market reaction.

Macro Economic Data:

1. China's official manufacturing PMI was 49.1 in February, slightly down from January, while the non-manufacturing PMI was 51.4, indicating accelerated expansion. The Caixin Manufacturing PMI was 50.9, marking four consecutive months of expansion.
2. The US ISM Manufacturing Index unexpectedly fell to a seven-month low of 47.8 in February, contracting for the 16th consecutive month. The German economy also dragged down the Eurozone Manufacturing PMI, which has been shrinking for 20 consecutive months.
3. The Japanese government is considering announcing that the economy has escaped deflation, but the Governor of the Bank of Japan hinted that a rate hike in March is unlikely.

Company Dynamics:

1. Dell's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Clarke, revealed that Nvidia will launch the B200 product with the "Blackwell" architecture in 2025, with a potential power consumption reaching 1000W. He also announced that the flagship product, the PowerEdge XE9680 rack server, utilizes Nvidia GPU, making it the "fastest" solution in the company's history.
2. After being ordered by the court to liquidate, China Evergrande's subsidiary, Evergrande Real Estate, disclosed its financial situation, with outstanding debts due by the end of January amounting to approximately 522.4 billion yuan, with an increase of about 19.6 billion yuan in debts within a month.
3. Elon Musk sued OpenAI over threats from artificial intelligence, accusing it of violating the agreement made at the company's founding and demanding that the company restore open-source access.

Energy and Commodity Markets:

1. Crude oil rebounded to a near four-month high, with a weekly increase of over 3%. US oil briefly rose over 3%, breaking $80 for the first time in four months during the session. Gold hit a new historical high, closing with a 2% increase, marking the largest gain in two and a half months.
2. Bitcoin prices continued to rise, with a month-over-month increase of over 45%, reaching a new historical high. Despite being 50 days away from the "halving" of Bitcoin supply, buying demand has far exceeded daily supply.
3. The lithium battery sector quickly rebounded at the opening, with the Battery ETF (561910) rising by 0.23%, having initially fallen by 0.45%.
4. Saudi Arabia announced that its voluntary production cut of 1 million barrels per day, set to commence in July 2023, will be extended until the end of June this year to stabilize the oil market.