The three major stock indexes in the US hit record highs yesterday, with Apple, the second largest company by market value, briefly surpassing Microsoft during trading hours to claim the top spot in market value. However, by the closing bell, the gains narrowed, allowing Microsoft to temporarily hold onto the top position in market value. In addition, the top four companies in the US stock market all saw their stock prices hit record highs yesterday.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest CPI (Consumer Price Index) report last night at 20:30, showing a 3.3% year-on-year increase in May CPI, below the economists’ forecasted monthly rate of 0.1% and an annual rate of 3.4%. The core CPI, excluding food and energy costs, increased by 3.4% year-on-year in May, 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 US.
However, the Federal Reserve announced this morning at 02:00 that the interest rate would remain unchanged in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%, marking the 7th consecutive freeze. Although in line with market expectations, the latest dot plot from the Fed officials predicts only one interest rate cut for this year, much lower than the previously expected three cuts.
Following the release of the CPI data, market expectations for a Fed rate cut improved significantly. The four major US indices showed an upward trend at the opening last night, despite some hawkish signals from the Fed during trading. The Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index all hit record highs last night:
– Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.09% to close at 38,712.21 points
– Nasdaq rose 1.53% to close at 17,608.44 points, reaching a record closing high
– S&P 500 rose 0.85% to close at 5,421.03 points, reaching a record closing high
– Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 2.9% to close at 5,520.87 points, reaching a record closing high
Notably, Apple, the second largest company in the US stock market, saw a 4% surge in its stock price during trading hours yesterday, briefly surpassing Microsoft as the largest company. However, by the closing bell, Apple’s gain narrowed to 2.86%, resulting in a market value of $3.267 trillion. On the other hand, Microsoft’s stock price rose by 1.94% at the close, reaching a market value of $3.278 trillion, maintaining its position as the largest company by market value.
Furthermore, the stock prices of the top four companies in the US stock market – Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, and Google – all broke through historical highs during yesterday’s trading session. These four companies share a common feature of riding the recent AI trend.
According to previous reports, Apple announced the launch of the AI technology platform “Apple Intelligence” at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Tuesday. This is a personal AI system designed for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. Apple Intelligence’s main features 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 operating across apps. Leveraging the powerful features of Apple Intelligence, the smart assistant Siri will become more natural, respond more contextually and personally, while also simplifying and speeding up daily tasks.
Additionally, Apple has partnered with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the experiences of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, allowing users to utilize ChatGPT’s expertise in technology and understanding of images and documents.