Breakfast | Trump's tariffs reignite U.S. stocks: General Motors plummets 7%, leading the decline in automotive stocks, while Chinese concept stocks rise against the trend

Market Overview

Tariff threats overshadow GDP positives, with the three major U.S. stock indices declining for two consecutive days.

The "Tech Seven Sisters" had mixed performances: Tesla surged over 7% during the day, ultimately closing up 0.39%; Apple rose 1.05%, Microsoft gained 0.16%, and Amazon increased 0.11%. Meta fell 1.37%, Google A dropped 1.71%, and NVIDIA declined 2.05%.

Automotive stocks plummeted, with Volvo Cars Group down 7.57%, General Motors down 7.36%, ZEEKR ADR down 3.76%, and Porsche P911 down 2.62%.

Chip stocks broadly declined, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closing down 2.07%. The NVIDIA 2X Bull ETF fell 4.08%. Broadcom dropped 4.06%, and TSMC ADR fell 3.03%. AMD declined 3.21%, with Jefferies downgrading AMD's rating to Hold, setting a target price of $120, citing limited progress in AI and increased competitive pressure.

Chinese concept stocks rose against the trend, with the Direxion FTSE China Bull 3X ETF (YINN) closing up 3.81%, the Chinese Internet Index ETF (KWEB) up 2.29%, and the China Technology Index ETF (CQQQ) up 1.46%. Fangdd rose 4.35%, and Alibaba increased 2.56%. Nio fell 5.69%, as the company announced plans to place shares at a price of HKD 29.46 per share, issuing no more than 118.79 million Class A ordinary shares.

In individual stocks, Applovin dropped 20.12%, as short-seller Muddy Waters claimed to be shorting the company.

Jefferies fell 9.85%, marking its largest decline since January, due to the company's first-quarter net income falling short of expectations.

GameStop (GME) dropped 22.11%, as the company issued bonds to purchase Bitcoin.

French gaming company Ubisoft ADR (UBSFY) rose 13.62%, announcing the establishment of a new subsidiary, with Tencent investing €1.16 billion in it.

EU and Canada Hint at Retaliation Against Auto Tariffs, Trump Warns: If They Join Forces Against the U.S., Tariffs Will "Far Exceed" Current Plans

Following the recently announced auto tariffs that could trigger retaliation from the EU and Canada, U.S. President Trump issued a warning to these two major American allies about implementing higher tariffs.

According to CCTV News, on Thursday, March 27, Trump threatened that if the EU and Canada jointly harm the U.S. economy, the U.S. would impose high tariffs. Trump posted on social media that the tariffs would "far exceed current plans."

Winners of Trump's Auto Tariffs: Musk

Due to producing all cars sold in the U.S. domestically, Musk's Tesla will almost completely avoid the impending impact of the import auto tariffs. Major global competitors, including Hyundai, Volkswagen, and General Motors, will face a sharp rise in costs.

Musk also acknowledged that Trump's auto tariff policy would have a "significant" impact on Tesla, as it would affect the prices of Tesla car parts sourced from other countries.

"AI Computing Power Barometer" CoreWeave Significantly Lowers Valuation by 28% Ahead of IPO, Financing Scale Nearly Cut in Half

As a company incubated by Nvidia and deeply tied to Microsoft, AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave has significantly reduced its IPO valuation from $32 billion to $23 billion, with the offering price dropping from $47-$55 to $40, and the number of shares issued reduced from 49 million to 37.5 million, resulting in a total fundraising amount decreasing from $2.7 billion to $1.5 billion.

Following Microsoft's withdrawal of some cooperation commitments, a report from TD Cowen has put further pressure on CoreWeave's IPO prospects. Microsoft's withdrawal from large data center projects has raised concerns about an "oversupply of AI computing clusters," while Microsoft and Nvidia are CoreWeave's main clients, leading the market to closely monitor CoreWeave's subsequent IPO performance.

Media: OpenAI is close to finalizing a $40 billion financing led by SoftBank, with a valuation reaching $300 billion

This deal will nearly double OpenAI's valuation compared to the financing in October last year. This round of financing will be the largest in OpenAI's history.

After BYD and Xiaomi, Nio is also set to conduct a placement

Nio announced the launch of a "lightning" placement in Hong Kong, raising HKD 4.03 billion, intending to issue up to 118.79 million Class A ordinary shares at HKD 29.46 per share, representing a discount of about 9.5% to its latest closing price in Hong Kong. Previously, BYD announced a lightning placement to raise HKD 43.383 billion, the largest in the global automotive industry, while Xiaomi also announced a fundraising of up to $5.3 billion using a method of issuing old shares first and new shares later. The vice president of XPeng stated that there will be no additional issuance in the short term.

SMIC achieves double-digit revenue growth for the fourth time, with annual wafer sales reaching a record high

SMIC's Q4 revenue grew by 30.9% year-on-year to a record high, while net profit fell by 13.5% year-on-year, with capital expenditure expected to be flat in 2025; annual revenue continues to grow, but net profit declined by 23.3% year-on-year, with the core issue being increased volume but decreased prices. Wafer sales reached a record high, increasing by 36.7% year-on-year to 8,021 thousand pieces, with a capacity utilization rate of 85.6%. The average selling price of wafers was 6,639 yuan, down 4.7% year-on-year.

The 2025 Hurun Global Rich List is released, with Zhang Yiming becoming China's richest person

The list shows that thanks to the momentum and prospects of ByteDance's AI business leading to a valuation increase, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming's wealth has reached 435 billion yuan, replacing Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Shanshan as China's richest person. Tencent's Ma Huateng surpassed Pinduoduo's Huang Zheng, ranking among the top three in China with a wealth of 320 billion yuan.

U.S. Q4 real GDP growth exceeds expectations

The annualized growth rate of U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter was revised up to 2.4%, higher than the previously announced 2.3%. This was mainly driven by net exports, government spending, and business investment. The PCE personal consumption expenditure price index, excluding food and energy, was revised down to 2.6% for the fourth quarter.

The number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. last week was 224,000

For the week ending March 22, the number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. was 224,000, estimated at 225,000, and the previous value was 223,000. The number of people continuously receiving unemployment benefits in Washington D.C. rose to the highest level since 2021, possibly reflecting the initial impact of the Trump administration's DOGE reforms