US stock futures are falling, while European indices are mixed. Chinese concept stocks are generally rising, with NVIDIA down nearly 2% in pre-market trading.

On Wednesday, February 21st, as the Federal Reserve meeting minutes and the earnings report of the AI giant NVIDIA were about to be released, U.S. stock futures fell across the board. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield and the U.S. dollar remained stable. Due to poor corporate earnings reports, European indices showed mixed results.

The highly anticipated NVIDIA earnings report is set to be released, with analysts pointing out that strong profitability and revenue data significantly exceeding expectations are no longer the market's focus. Instead of short-term financial data, the market is more concerned about the "future": the demand outlook for the H100 GPU chip, more details on the next-generation GPU chip B100, and the product roadmap planned for next year.

Tonight, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes will also be released. Recent data shows that U.S. inflation has not cooled down as quickly as investors had hoped. Traders are forced to continue cutting back on bets that the Fed will cut interest rates soon, with the first rate cut expected to be postponed until June. Investors will gain further insights into the Fed's interest rate path from the FOMC meeting minutes.

U.S. Stock Futures Fall Ahead of Meeting Minutes Release

U.S. stock index futures continued to decline, with Dow futures, mainly composed of blue-chip stocks, falling by 0.15%; S&P 500 futures down by 0.18%; and NASDAQ-100, dominated by tech stocks, dropping by 0.39%. The previous day, NASDAQ-100 fell by nearly 1%, and the S&P 500 index dropped below 5000 points.

Large-cap tech stocks generally declined, with NVIDIA falling by nearly 2%, AMD dropping by over 1%, Tesla and Qualcomm falling by nearly 1%.

Before the U.S. stock market opened, Chinese concept stocks generally rose, with JD.com and XPeng Motors up by over 3%, Tencent Music and Bilibili up by nearly 3%, Nio and Weibo up by over 2%.

Hong Kong stocks continued to rebound today, with the Hang Seng Index closing up by 1.57%. After banks increased support for real estate developers' financing, the real estate developer sector led the gains. The quantitative trading regulation has come up with a "combination of punches", reducing concerns about short selling.

Poor Earnings Performance Leads to Mixed Results in European Stocks

European indices showed mixed results, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index up by 0.27%, the German DAX30 index up by 0.25%. The French CAC40 index rose by 0.27%. The UK FTSE 100 index fell by 0.78%, and the Euro Stoxx 600 index dropped by 0.26%. Banking stocks led the decline, with HSBC Holdings' earnings report showing an 80% plunge in fourth-quarter profits, mainly due to a $3 billion write-down of its stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, causing the stock price to plummet by over 7%.

Commodity trader Glencore's earnings report fell short of expectations, with profits sharply declining and the stock price dropping by 6.1%. The world's largest iron ore miner, Rio Tinto, saw a decrease in profits due to weak metal prices, leading to a decline in its stock price. French grocery retailer Carrefour rose after announcing a stock buyback, but its quarterly sales fell below expectations.

Aluminum prices rise, gold moves higher

In the commodity market, aluminum prices rose by nearly 3%. Additionally, gold also saw an increase.