Overnight US Stocks | The three major indices had mixed ups and downs, and SanDK.US (SNDK.US) rose 7.39%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Friday, the three major indices fell. This week, the S&P 500 index cumulatively rose 0.4%. The Nasdaq index also recorded a third consecutive week of gains, rising slightly by 0.1% this week. The Dow dropped 0.6% cumulatively this week.

This week was a record week for the S&P 500. The index broke through 7,800 points for the first time on Thursday and hit an intraday record high of 7816.70 points. The benchmark index also closed at a record high on the previous trading day.

[US stocks] At the close, the Dow fell 107.57 points, or 0.2%, to 53732.41 points; the S&P 500 index fell 13.23 points, or 0.17%, to 7785.76 points; the NASDAQ fell 73.86 points, or 0.28%, to 26729.16 points. Drone technology company Drone Machines (UMAC.US) surged 24.83%. Storage concept stocks maintained their gains, with SanDisk (SNDK.US) up 7.39% and Micron Technology (MU.US) up 2.3%. Semiconductor stocks had mixed ups and downs, with AMD (AMD.US) rising 6.5%, Broadcom (AVGO.US) falling 5.94%, and Applied Materials (AMAT.US) falling 5.12%. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 0.6%.

[European stocks] The European stock market closed with mixed ups and downs. The British FTSE 100 index fell 0.21%, the French CAC40 index fell 0.16%, the German DAX30 index rose 0.51%, and the FTSE Italian MIB index fell 0.13%.

[Asian Stock Market] The Nikkei 225 Index rose 0.59%, and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 2.42%.

[US Dollar Index] The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against the six major currencies, fell 0.3% on the same day and closed at 99.667 at the end of the foreign exchange market. As of the end of the exchange market in New York, 1 euro was worth $1.1566, up from $1.1529 on the previous trading day; 1 pound was worth $1.3533, up from $1.3485 on the previous trading day. 1 US dollar was worth 159.38 yen, lower than 159.51 yen on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 0.8131 Swiss franc, lower than 0.8139 Swiss franc on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 1.3877 Canadian dollars, lower than 1.3936 Canadian dollars on the previous trading day; 1 US dollar was worth 9.5246 Swedish kroner, lower than 9.5684 on the previous trading day.

[Cryptocurrency] Bitcoin fell more than 1% to $62876.97 as of press release; Ethereum fell 0.53% to $1879.4.

[Crude oil] Light crude oil futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.15, or 1.42%, to close at $82.40 a barrel; London Brent crude oil futures for October delivery rose $1.45, or 1.67%, to close at $88.52 a barrel.

[Precious Metals] Spot gold rose 0.58% to $4375.63; spot silver rose 0.42% to $64.723.

[Macro News]

Trump: The Strait of Hormuz will soon be declared a “US territory.” US President Trump said that (after defeating Iran) the Strait of Hormuz will soon be declared “US territory.” Trump called the blockade against Iran “unstoppable,” and described the blockade as “a wall of steel.” He said that the US is fully prepared to deal with Iran and will not allow Iran to continue related actions, nor will it allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons. Trump said that Americans will “pay a very small price” for the rise in gasoline prices. He also said he didn't care about attacking Iran's economy before the midterm elections, and said the US “made a lot of money” through tariffs.

White House official: We haven't heard of any plans to extend the cease-fire. According to reports, the one-month cease-fire agreement between the US and Iran will expire next Monday. If it cannot be extended, the war that has continued for nearly six months may escalate again. White House officials said negotiations were still “at a standstill” as of Friday afternoon, and no extension arrangements had been heard. “The distance is not important; the key is whether Iran is willing to return to the negotiation table; they haven't yet.” The difficulties in the negotiations stem in part from the fragmentation of power within Iran. The Revolutionary Guard, religious forces, and the government have different positions, and all factions must nod the agreement before it can take effect. The differences focused on sanctions, frozen assets, and the Strait of Hormuz passage. The US side said any form of charging or traffic control was “unacceptable.” The Trump administration said that if Iran rejects the agreement, the US side retains “all options,” the sanctions and blockade have already severely damaged Iran's economy, and Iran should return to the negotiation table. However, people familiar with the matter believe that the US side may have underestimated Iran's carrying capacity. If it wants to stabilize the situation before the midterm elections, the US side needs to act as soon as possible.

Federal Reserve Goulsby: More evidence is still needed to confirm a decline in inflation. Chicago Federal Reserve Governor Goulsby said that recent CPI data is encouraging, but inflation in May and June was still high. If the June trend continues for the next three or four months, we can only be sure that prices are steadily returning to the 2% target. He supported keeping interest rates unchanged in July, saying that inflation is still the biggest concern and that the economy and employment “basically remain stable.” He warned that if retail sales continue to decline, it will cause concern, as consumption is a key pillar of the US economy. Furthermore, he expressed concern about the recent decline in productivity growth, saying that if AI-driven growth is unsustainable, narratives surrounding AI and monetary policy will need to be re-examined. As to whether to reduce the number of policy meetings, Goulsby said he had no strong opinions and was willing to wait for the working group's recommendations.

US retail sales were dragged down the most by cold car online purchases in July. Retail sales in the US fell the most in more than a year in July, as consumers reduced car and online store purchases. The value of retail purchases, not adjusted for inflation, fell 0.6%, according to data released on Friday. Excluding automobiles and gasoline, sales declined by 0.2%. The report shows that after strong performance in the first half of 2026, consumers lost some momentum last month. After large-scale tax rebates in early 2026 brought a one-time boost and the personal savings rate fell to a four-year low in June, economists are generally still cautious about the consumer spending outlook.

Consumer confidence in the US fell for the first time in three months, and concerns about inflation heated up. American consumer confidence declined for the first time in three months as households worried about deteriorating business conditions and rising inflation. According to survey data released by the University of Michigan on Friday, the initial value of the consumer confidence index fell to 51 in August, lower than the final value of 55.2 in July. Economists expected a median value of 55. Consumers expect prices to rise 4.3% in the coming year, a slight increase from the previous month, and significantly higher than the level before the outbreak of the Iranian conflict in February. They also expect prices to rise at an annual rate of 3.3% over the next 5 to 10 years. After two months of continuous improvement, consumer confidence in both the short and long term economic prospects deteriorated. Consumer expectations of the labor market have changed little since the beginning of the year. According to the survey, consumers are increasingly worried about inflation, while concerns about unemployment have declined. The survey covered responses collected between July 28 and August 10. During this period, the national average gasoline price in the US has been hovering above $4 per gallon. Another report released on Friday showed that retail sales in the US recorded the biggest drop in more than a year in July because consumers reduced car and online store purchases.

[Individual Stock News]

Broadcom's (AVGO.US) AI customer financing platform raised concerns that the intraday stock price once fell nearly 7%. Broadcom once fell nearly 7% intraday on Friday, and the market is concerned about the financing model behind the expansion of its AI infrastructure. Bank of America analysts estimate that the financing platform built by Broadcom for AI chip customers may accumulate up to 370 billion US dollars in priority debt by mid-2029, and the additional issuance in 2027 alone may reach about 150 billion US dollars. This estimate is based on a 20 gigawatt data center. The debt is borne by the financing platform and is not directly borne by Broadcom, but Broadcom has already provided guarantees for some customer lease payments, and the first transaction guarantee amount is about US$29 billion. The financing model began in June of this year, led by Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group to provide $35 billion in funding for the Broadcom AIXPV platform. The initial funding will be used to support Anthropic's construction of more than 1 gigawatt of computing power. The platform plans to provide more than 20 gigawatts of computing power by 2028. As AI infrastructure expands, Broadcom's future guarantee scale will be the focus of market attention.

SK Hynix (SKHY.US) equipment investment increased by more than 70% in the first half of the year to increase AI storage capacity. According to reports, in order to cope with the growing demand for artificial intelligence storage, SK Hynix significantly increased investment in equipment and R&D in the first half of this year. Cash expenses for the purchase of tangible assets exceeded 18 trillion won, an increase of more than 70% over the same period last year. According to the semi-annual report disclosed by SK Hynix on the 14th, the company's cash expenditure for purchasing tangible assets in the first half of this year was 18.3288 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 72.7% from 10.6157 trillion won in the same period last year. R&D investment has also increased substantially. Total R&D expenditure for the first half of this year was 6.0428 trillion won, up 98.4% from 3.0456 trillion won in the same period last year. Of this amount, KRW 5.8163 trillion was spent on ongoing development costs. As demand for AI-specific high-bandwidth memory (HBM), server DRAM, and enterprise-grade solid-state drives (SSDs) continues to grow, SK Hynix is expanding production facilities at an accelerated pace.

Tiger Global Q2 opened positions with SpaceX and AMD to reduce holdings in Google, TSMC, Nvidia, etc. Tiger Global Fund adjusted its positions on a large scale in the second quarter. In terms of holdings reduction: Broadcom (AVGO.US) cut 51.1% to 1.8 million shares, Google A (GOOGL.US) cut 45.4% to 5.8 million Class A shares, TSM.US (TSM.US) cut 12.3% to 4.9 million ADS, Microsoft (MSFT.US) cut 9.3% to 2.3 million shares, Meta Platforms (META.US) cut 8.5% to 2.8 million Class A shares, Nvidia (NVDA.US) cut 6.8% to 11.2 million Class A shares, JD.com (JD.US) cut 6.8% to 11.2 million shares Decrease 41.5% to 201,500 ADS. In terms of increasing holdings, Intel (INTC.US) increased its holdings to 4.3 million shares. New positions were opened for 674,000 AMD (AMD.US) shares and 375,000 SpaceX (SPCX.US) shares. Clearance Netflix (NFLX.US).

SpaceX (SPCX.US) spent 60 billion dollars to acquire Cursor Musk's AI layout and then lost weight. Space Exploration Technologies has completed a $60 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence coding startup Cursor, a key step for Musk to catch up with rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI space. According to regulatory documents, the deal came into effect on August 14, two months after SpaceX officially announced that it had reached an acquisition agreement. The acquisition is one of the largest technology deals in history. It aims to help Musk's company step up efforts to build more advanced AI tools to simplify tasks, including coding — a lucrative market for AI. Musk's AI company, now known as SpaceXAI, had limited commercial applications and underwent a series of layoffs and restructuring. Cursor's AI assistant was launched in 2023 to help programmers write and debug code more efficiently. It became one of the fastest-growing startups of all time and played a central role in the “ambient programming” era of technology, when software developers surged in demand for tools that could be built on chatbot prompts.

Anthropic's second-quarter revenue surpassed US$11.5 billion, an increase of at least 14 times over the same period last year. According to reports, Anthropic's initial revenue for the second quarter exceeded 11.5 billion US dollars, an increase of at least 14 times compared to 787 million US dollars in the same period last year, and also higher than 4.73 billion US dollars in the first quarter of this year. The company has achieved positive adjusted operating profit for the quarter. Anthropic was once in a position to catch up in the AI competition, but thanks to more and more professionals using its software to simplify workflows such as programming, the company's business growth has accelerated markedly. In May of this year, Anthropic's annualized revenue surpassed $47 billion. As a comparison, OpenAI previously disclosed annualized revenue of more than 40 billion US dollars, but the calculation caliber of the two may not be exactly the same. Competition on the artificial intelligence circuit is heating up. IPO financing has reached 256.4 billion US dollars so far this year, a record high since 2021 (excluding financial instruments such as SPAC).

[Major Bank Ratings]

Bernstein: Raising the target price of Applied Materials (AMAT.US) from $675 to $700

HSBC: Lowering the target price of Cisco (CSCO.US) from $137 to $120 and downgrading the rating from buy to hold