Tariff uncertainty suppresses the rise of U.S. stocks, technology stocks provide support, Tesla surges nearly 10%, gold falls over 1%, and the overall weekly turnover declines

Tariff uncertainty once again suppresses the rise of U.S. stocks. China and the U.S. send conflicting signals, with China denying once again that negotiations or discussions are taking place. U.S. stock indices briefly surged and then retreated after Trump mentioned tariffs on Friday. Tech giants led by Tesla supported the market. Media reports suggest that China is considering exempting some tariffs, and hopes for easing trade relations supported a general rise in European and American stock indices, while gold subsequently retreated.

Expectations of a slowdown in the U.S. economy are rising, and the unclear tariff outlook hindered the surge in U.S. stocks on Friday:

• Before the U.S. market opened, at the regular press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, a reporter mentioned that media reports indicated China is considering exempting 125% tariffs on some U.S. imports and has asked companies to identify products that may qualify. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jia Kun stated that he was not aware of the specifics and suggested inquiring with the relevant Chinese authorities.

• In the early trading session, the University of Michigan's consumer confidence data was released, remaining near historical lows, with long-term inflation expectations reaching their highest level since 1991. Following the data release, expectations of an economic slowdown intensified, with the S&P and Nasdaq hitting new daily lows, and U.S. Treasury yields further declining.

• During the midday trading session, Trump commented on tariffs, suggesting he hopes a significant economy will make concessions, stating that he would not lift tariffs on that country unless substantial returns are provided. The S&P and Nasdaq gave back most of their gains, while the Dow Jones turned negative and fell by over a hundred points.

At the beginning of this week, the market was under pressure, with investors generally engaged in "selling dollar assets." However, Trump "changed his tune" on Tuesday, no longer threatening to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and adopting a more conciliatory stance towards China, leading to a return of risk appetite, with European and U.S. stock indices generally rising throughout the week. Safe-haven asset gold, after hitting a historical intraday high on Tuesday, fluctuated and retreated, failing to maintain the rebound momentum from Thursday on Friday.

On Friday, the "Seven Sisters" of tech giants continued to rise collectively, becoming a pillar for the market's upward movement, with at least a cumulative rise of over 6% for the week. Tesla surged nearly 10% in one day, boosted by relaxed regulations on autonomous driving and new developments in the Indian market. Google's strong first-quarter advertising business, exceeding profit expectations and announcing a new $50 billion buyback plan, saw its stock price rise over 4% at the beginning of trading.

The three major U.S. stock indices:

• The S&P 500 index closed up 40.44 points, an increase of 0.74%, at 5525.21 points, with a cumulative rise of 4.59% for the week.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 20.10 points, an increase of 0.05%, at 40113.50 points, with a cumulative rise of 2.48% for the week

• The Nasdaq Composite closed up 216.90 points, an increase of 1.26%, at 17,382.94 points, with a cumulative increase of 6.71% this week.

• The Nasdaq-100 Index closed up 218.16 points, an increase of 1.14%, at 19,432.56 points, with a cumulative increase of 6.43% this week.

• The Russell 2000 Index closed unchanged, at 1,957.62 points, with a cumulative increase of 4.09% this week.

• The VIX index closed down 6.04%, at 24.87, with a cumulative decrease of 16.12% this week.

U.S. stock sector ETFs had mixed results:

• The Consumer Discretionary ETF closed up 1.8%, while the Technology Sector ETF, Semiconductor ETF, Internet Stocks Index ETF, and Global Technology Stocks Index ETF rose by up to 1.48%.

• The Energy Sector ETF, Global Airlines ETF, Financial Sector ETF, Biotechnology Index ETF, Banking ETF, and Regional Banks ETF fell by up to 0.92%.

Tesla rose nearly 10%, leading the "Tech Seven Sisters":

• The Magnificent 7 Index of U.S. tech giants closed up 2.24%, at 144.91 points, with a cumulative increase of 8.25% this week.

• Tesla closed up 9.80%, NVIDIA rose 4.30%, Meta Platforms rose 2.65%, Google A, Amazon, and Microsoft rose between 1.68% and 1.17%, while Apple rose 0.44%.

• This week, Tesla has increased by a cumulative 18.06%, Amazon rose 9.49%, NVIDIA rose 9.38%, Meta rose 9.13%, Google A rose 7.14%, Microsoft rose 6.54%, and Apple rose 6.24%.

Chip stocks:

• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed up 1.03%, at 4,251.61 points, with a cumulative increase of 10.94% this week.

• After announcing poor Q2 guidance and lowering its full-year capital expenditure target, Intel closed down 6.7%. AMD rose 2.30%, and TSMC ADR rose 0.56%—with a cumulative increase of 8.80% this week.

AI concept stocks:

• Applovin closed up 3.34%, while Tempus AI closed down 1.12%.

Chinese concept stocks:

• The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index initially closed down 0.5%, with a cumulative increase of 7.1% this week

• Among the popular Chinese concept stocks, Pony.ai initially fell 8%, Nio and XPeng dropped over 3%, Xiaomi ADR fell over 2%, Bilibili, Yum China, and Li Auto fell over 1%, while JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Alibaba rose by up to 0.8%. Tencent ADR, New Oriental, and Baidu rose over 1%.

Other key stocks:

• The "Trump Tariff Losers" index fell 0.15% to 83.23 points, with a cumulative increase of 6.47% this week. Component stock Fluence Energy rose 6.91%, while Best Buy, Aptiv, Gap, and Hasbro rose between 2.59% and 1.03%.

• American telecom operator T-Mobile fell 11%, marking its worst single-day performance since May 2013.

• Summit Therapeutics fell 36%, and BionTech ADR fell 15%.

The UK stock index has risen for ten consecutive days, marking the best streak since 2019, while the German stock index rose about 4.9% this week.

Pan-European stocks:

• The European STOXX 600 index rose 0.35% to 520.45 points, with a cumulative increase of 2.77% this week (four trading days).

• The Eurozone STOXX 50 index rose 0.77% to 5154.12 points, with a cumulative increase of 4.43% this week.

Stock indices in various countries have all risen this week:

• The German DAX 30 index rose 0.81% to 22242.45 points, with a cumulative increase of 4.89% this week (four trading days).

• The French CAC 40 index rose 0.45% to 7536.26 points, with a cumulative increase of 3.44% this week.

• The Italian FTSE MIB index rose 1.47% to 37348.38 points, with a cumulative increase of 3.82% this week, and the FTSE Italy All-Share Index rose 4.57%.

• The UK FTSE 100 index rose 0.09%, marking its tenth consecutive trading day of increases (a cumulative rise of 9.68% since trading ended on April 9), creating the longest streak since 2019, and closed at 8415.25 points, with a cumulative increase of 1.69% this week.

• In other European countries, the Netherlands AEX index rose 2.42% this week, while the Denmark OMX Copenhagen 20 index fell 1.19%, and the Copenhagen 25 index rose 1.37%.

Sectors and stocks:

• MSCI Nordic Countries Index fell 0.1% to 332.10 points, with the Nordic healthcare sector performing the worst. Engineering equipment supplier Indutrade AB fell 6.2%, the worst performer among the components.

• The FTSE All-World 300 Index rose 0.38% to 2067.25 points, with a cumulative increase of 2.84% this week

• The STOXX 600 Automobile Index rose 5.76% this week, the Basic Resources Index rose 5.19%, the Technology Index rose 5.10%, and the Banking Index rose 4.77%.

All U.S. Treasury yields fell this week, with long-term Treasury yields performing exceptionally well. The 5-year yield fell below 4.00%—before Trump announced the so-called reciprocal tariffs. The sovereign bond yields of the Eurozone's France, Italy, Spain, and Greece fell by up to about 7 basis points this week, while the 10-50 year UK bond yields fell by at least about 9 basis points this week.

U.S. Treasuries:

• At the New York close, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell by 6.03 basis points to 4.2546%, down a cumulative 7.22 basis points this week. It rose to 4.4341% during the Asia-Pacific midday on Tuesday, fell to 4.2472% at the start of U.S. stocks on Wednesday, then rebounded, and continued to decline on Thursday and Friday, approaching Wednesday's low.

• The 2-year U.S. Treasury yield fell by 4.09 basis points to 3.7561%, down a cumulative 4.21 basis points this week. It fell to 3.7140% on Monday before rebounding, rose to 3.8729% after U.S. stocks on Wednesday, and continued to decline on Thursday and Friday.

• The 2/10 year U.S. Treasury yield spread fell by 1.934 basis points to +49.438 basis points, down a cumulative 2.990 basis points this week. It reached +66.377 basis points at noon in New York on Monday and fluctuated at lower levels from Wednesday to Friday.

European Bonds:

• At the European close, the yield on the 10-year German Treasury rose by 2.1 basis points to 2.469%, down a cumulative 0.2 basis points this week (over four trading days), trading overall in the range of 2.520%-2.435%.

• The 2-year German Treasury yield rose by 3.5 basis points to 1.719%, up a cumulative 3.3 basis points this week, trading overall in the range of 1.622%-1.776%;

• The yield on the 10-year UK Treasury fell a cumulative 8.7 basis points, closing at 4.478% at the European close on Friday (April 25), rebounding after a continuous decline from Tuesday to Wednesday, and then falling again on Thursday and Friday.

• The yield on the 10-year French Treasury fell a cumulative 5.1 basis points, closing at 3.190% at the European close on Friday (April 25), fluctuating at high levels on Tuesday and Wednesday, significantly dropping on Thursday, and slightly rebounding on Friday.

After three consecutive weeks of decline, the U.S. dollar achieved a slight increase this week, rebounding from early-week weakness. Bitcoin's price today broke $95,000 for the first time since February.

U.S. Dollar:

• At the New York close, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index rose a cumulative 0.35%, closing at 99.580 points on Friday. It fell to 97.921 points during the European morning on Monday, rebounded continuously on Tuesday and Wednesday, and rose to 99.939 points after U.S. stocks on Wednesday, followed by fluctuations at high levels

• The Bloomberg Dollar Index rose 0.11% to 1226.05 points, having dropped to 1212.03 points on Monday, rebounding continuously on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by high-level fluctuations, reaching 1229.29 points at the end of trading in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday.

Non-US Currencies:

• The euro fell 0.21% against the dollar to 1.13587, with a V-shaped reversal this week, down 0.32% cumulatively, nearly flat.

• The pound fell 0.23% against the dollar to 1.33073, with a wide fluctuation this week, up 0.1% compared to last week.

• The dollar was nearly flat against the Swiss franc at 0.8274, with a cumulative increase of 1.37% this week.

Yen:

• At the end of trading in New York, the dollar rose 0.74% against the yen to 143.68 yen, with a cumulative increase of 1.02% this week, trading in a range of 139.89-144.03 yen.

• The euro rose 0.54% against the yen to 163.29 yen, with a cumulative increase of 0.79% this week; the pound rose 0.53% against the yen to 191.277 yen, with a cumulative increase of 1.20% this week.

Offshore Renminbi:

• At the end of trading in New York, the offshore renminbi was quoted at 7.2885 against the dollar, up 15 points from Thursday's New York close, trading in a range of 7.2986-7.2816 yuan during the day.

Cryptocurrency:

• This week, CME Bitcoin futures BTC main contract rose 12.23%, closing at $9911.00 at the end of trading on Friday (April 25), continuing to fluctuate upward overall.

• CME Ether futures DCR main contract rose 14.21% to $1820.00, with low fluctuations on Monday, continuing to rise on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by narrow fluctuations at high levels.

According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for the week ending April 22, speculators increased their net long positions in NYMEX WTI crude oil by 36,132 contracts to 147,331 contracts, reaching a 12-week high. The net long positions in Brent and WTI crude oil increased to 240,412 contracts, reaching a three-week high.

Crude Oil:

• WTI June crude oil futures closed at $63.02 per barrel.

• Brent June crude oil futures closed at $66.87 per barrel.

Natural Gas:

• NYMEX May natural gas futures closed at $2.9370 per million British thermal units.

According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), bullish sentiment for gold has hit a 14-month low, while the absolute value of short positions in New York copper and long positions in palladium has reached a 22-month low. Spot gold fell about 1% on Friday, surged past $3500 to set a historical high on Tuesday, and then continued to fluctuate at low levels.

Gold:

• In New York's late trading, spot gold fell 0.99% to $3316.17 per ounce, with a cumulative decline of 0.30% for the week. After rising to a historical high of $3500.10 during Tuesday's Asia-Pacific midday, it retreated and fluctuated between $3349 and $3259 from Wednesday to Friday.

• COMEX gold futures fell 0.65% to $3326.70 per ounce, with a cumulative decline of 0.10% for the week. It also reached an intraday historical high of $3509.90 during Tuesday's Asia-Pacific midday.

Silver:

• In New York's late trading, spot silver fell 1.49% to $33.0805 per ounce, with a cumulative increase of 1.76% for the week.

• COMEX silver futures increased by 1.62% for the week, closing at $33.010 per ounce in New York's late trading on Friday.

Other Metals:

• COMEX copper futures increased by 2.97%, closing at $4.8475 per pound in New York's late trading on Friday.

• LME copper futures fell by $18, closing at $9374 per ton. LME aluminum futures fell by $21, closing at $2428 per ton. LME zinc futures fell by $41, closing at $2646 per ton.

• LME nickel futures fell by $276, closing at $15545 per ton. LME tin futures rose by $217, closing at $31980 per ton