Breakfast | US stocks explode with a sell-off in chip stocks and AI stocks, Super Micro Computer, a star stock, suddenly experiences a "black swan" drop of 34%

Good morning! A beautiful day starts with making money.

Nasdaq hits new high during trading before turning down, AMD falls over 10%, Super Micro Computer drops over 32%

AMD's earnings guidance was poor, and the departure of an Ernst & Young auditor after reviewing Super Micro Computer triggered a sell-off in chip and AI stocks, putting pressure on NVIDIA, which fell over 3% at one point. All three major U.S. stock indices declined. The S&P 500 index fell 0.33%, the Dow Jones dropped 0.22%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.56%, while the Nasdaq 100 index decreased by 0.79%.

Most of the "Tech Seven Sisters" fell. Apple dropped 1.53%, NVIDIA fell 1.36%, Tesla decreased 0.76%, Meta fell 0.25%, Google A rose 2.82%, Amazon increased by 1%, and Microsoft rose 0.13%.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) fell 22%. Reddit surged nearly 42%, with the earnings report released on Tuesday showing that the company achieved profitability in the third quarter of this year, marking its first profit in nearly 20 years.

Super Micro Computer closed down 32.68%, marking its largest drop since 2018, while Dell Technologies rose 6.39%. SoundHound AI fell 9.32%.

Chinese concept stocks generally retreated. Li Auto rose 1.83%, ZEEKR fell 0.57%, XPeng dropped 2.16%, Nio fell 4.46%, Fangdd fell 4.31%, Pinduoduo dropped 3.5%, JD fell 2.7%, and Alibaba fell 1.13%.

U.S. cryptocurrency concept stocks collectively fell after hours, with MicroStrategy down over 11%, Coinbase down over 6%, Riot Blockchain down nearly 4%, and Robinhood down over 12%.

Meta's revenue slightly exceeds expectations, user growth falls short, capital expenditures expected to increase significantly next year

Although Meta's third-quarter revenue and fourth-quarter revenue guidance exceeded analyst expectations, the metaverse business continues to incur significant losses, and the number of active users fell short of expectations, leading to a 3% drop in Meta's stock price after hours on Wednesday. Meta's third-quarter revenue was $40.59 billion, a 19% year-on-year increase, compared to analyst expectations of $40.25 billion. Operating income was $17.4 billion, a 26% year-on-year increase. Net profit grew by 35% to $15.7 billion. Earnings per share were $6.03, higher than the analyst estimate of $5.25.

Microsoft's third-quarter Azure revenue grows over 30%, but Q4 growth is expected to slow, AI spending increases

In the third quarter, Microsoft's total cloud revenue grew by over 22% year-on-year, with AI contributing 12 percentage points to Azure's growth, higher than the second quarter; excluding currency effects, Azure cloud revenue grew by 34% in the third quarter, slightly slowing from the second quarter but still above expectations. However, Azure revenue is expected to further slow to 31%-32% in the fourth quarter; capital expenditures accelerated by nearly 79% year-on-year in the third quarter and are expected to increase further quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter. The stock price fell over 4% after hours at one point.

Microsoft stated that it will report losses related to its stake in OpenAI in the second fiscal quarter, expecting second fiscal quarter intelligent cloud sales to be between $25.55 billion and $25.85 billion, productivity sales to be between $28.7 billion and $29 billion, personal computing sales to be between $13.85 billion and $14.25 billion, and Azure sales to grow by 31%-32%

MicroStrategy plans to raise $42 billion over the next three years to purchase Bitcoin

Since mid-September, MicroStrategy has not increased its Bitcoin holdings but announced an ambitious plan to conduct $21 billion in equity financing and $21 billion in bond issuance over the next three years. Currently, the company holds 252,220 Bitcoins, with a total value of $9.9 billion and an average price of $39,266.

AstraZeneca China President Wang Lei cooperating with investigation

AstraZeneca stated that AstraZeneca China is operating normally under the leadership of the current general manager. If required, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation. Since the second half of 2021, several executives and employees of AstraZeneca China have been investigated, detained, or sentenced for crimes such as insurance fraud, smuggling, and infringement of personal information. Under Wang Lei's leadership, AstraZeneca once became the top multinational pharmaceutical company in terms of revenue in China. AstraZeneca China is also known for its "wolf-like" competitiveness among multinational pharmaceutical companies in China.

Super Micro Computer faces "black swan" event as auditing firm Ernst & Young resigns during review

Documents from Super Micro Computer indicate that Ernst & Young resigned during the audit due to concerns about the company's integrity and ethical commitments. Ernst & Young communicated various concerns regarding corporate governance, transparency, and the integrity of communications with Ernst & Young to the audit committee at the end of July 2024, stating that there are significant risks regarding the timely submission of the company's annual report. Additionally, Ernst & Young questioned the statements made by certain management members and the audit committee. The company has begun searching for a new accounting firm.

Musk required to attend hearing over "$1 million lottery"

Musk has been asked to attend a hearing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to review his $1 million lottery initiative aimed at encouraging voter turnout. He previously announced the $1 million lottery through the "American Political Action Committee" to increase voter registration in competitive areas.

BYD crowned king of electric vehicles! Quarterly revenue surpasses Tesla for the first time

BYD's third-quarter revenue grew by 24% year-on-year to 201.125 billion yuan, surpassing Tesla for the first time in history, with market expectations of 204.8 billion yuan; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 11.607 billion yuan, an increase of 11.47% year-on-year. Basic earnings per share were 4 yuan/share, up 11.73% year-on-year.

China's auto industry profit margin fell to 3.4% in September

The ongoing "price war" is eroding profits in the auto industry. Data from the Passenger Car Association shows that in the first nine months of this year, the domestic auto industry's revenue was 735.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%; costs were 645.31 billion yuan, also up 3%; profits were 33.6 billion yuan, down 1.2% year-on-year. Compared to the average profit margin of 6.1% for downstream industrial enterprises, the auto industry's profit margin of 4.6% remains low.

Six Chinese departments: Accelerate the construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases focusing on desert, gobi, and barren areas

The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport, the National Energy Administration, and the National Data Bureau issued the "Guiding Opinions on Vigorously Implementing Renewable Energy Substitution Actions," proposing to comprehensively enhance the supply capacity of renewable energy Accelerate the construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases, speed up the construction of digital and intelligent power grids, and strengthen the construction of charging infrastructure, gas stations, and hydrogen stations. Significant progress has been made in the replacement of renewable energy in key areas during the "14th Five-Year Plan," with national renewable energy consumption expected to reach over 1.1 billion tons of standard coal by 2025. By the "15th Five-Year Plan," a production and lifestyle that prioritizes the use of renewable energy in various fields will be basically formed, with national renewable energy consumption expected to exceed 1.5 billion tons of standard coal by 2030, strongly supporting the achievement of the carbon peak target by 2030.

Taiwan Affairs Office: Will study and introduce special measures to promote the integration of Fujian and Taiwan and relax market access

HKEX plans to open an office in Riyadh in 2025 to strengthen its layout in the Middle East

Cao Cao Mobility Co., Ltd. submitted an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Listed Company Performance

Caterpillar's adjusted EPS for the third quarter was $5.17, expected to be $5.34; revenue was $16.1 billion, expected to be $16.37 billion.

Kraft Heinz's third-quarter revenue was $6.383 billion, down from $6.570 billion in the same period last year; net loss attributable to common shareholders was $290 million, compared to a profit of $262 million in the same period last year; adjusted EPS was $0.75, compared to $0.72 in the same period last year.

Luckin Coffee's third-quarter net revenue was 10.18 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41%, exceeding the market expectation of 9.58 billion yuan; net profit was 1.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%.

Standard Chartered Group's third-quarter operating income was $4.904 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11%; pre-tax profit was $1.722 billion, a year-on-year increase of 172%. The company plans to return at least $8 billion to shareholders from 2024 to 2026, an increase from the previous guidance of at least $5 billion.

Volkswagen's third-quarter revenue was 78.478 billion euros, down from 78.845 billion euros in the same period last year; net profit after tax was 1.576 billion euros, down from 4.347 billion euros in the same period last year; delivery volume was 2.176 million vehicles, down 7.1% from 2.343 million vehicles in the same period last year.

BASF's third-quarter revenue was 15.739 billion euros, slightly up from 15.735 billion euros in the same period last year; net profit was 287 million euros, compared to a loss of 249 million euros in the same period last year; adjusted EPS was 0.32 euros, unchanged from 0.32 euros in the same period last year