Preview of US Stock Market | The three major stock index futures are not moving in the same direction, it is "highly likely" that there will be a breakthrough in US-Iran negotiations, and Intel's financial report is fueling technology stocks.

1. Before the US stock market opens on Friday, April 24, the three major US stock index futures are mixed. The Dow Jones futures fell by 0.04%, the S&P 500 index futures rose by 0.46%, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures rose by 1.40%. 2. As of the time of reporting, the German DAX index rose by 0.16%, the UK FTSE 100 index fell by 0.25%, the French CAC 40 index fell by 0.41%, and the European Stoxx 50 index rose by 0.21%. 3. As of the time of reporting, WTI crude oil fell by 0.91% to $94.98 per barrel. Brent crude oil fell by 0.45% to $104.60 per barrel. Market News Sources: The Iranian Foreign Minister is expected to lead a delegation to Islamabad tonight, and it is "very likely" that breakthroughs will be made in US-Iran negotiations. Government sources confirm that US-Iran talks in Islamabad are "very likely to make progress," with a delegation led by Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi expected to arrive in the Pakistani capital tonight. Earlier today, the Iranian Foreign Minister had a phone conversation with the Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, who both confirmed the news. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry stated that both sides exchanged views on regional developments, ceasefire, and diplomatic efforts under the backdrop of US-Iran contacts. Several media outlets, including Pakistan's ARY News channel, reported on the 24th that the US negotiating team is likely to arrive in Islamabad tomorrow. Hedging wartime supply inflation, the Trump administration extends shipping exemptions. The Trump administration has extended a shipping exemption for 90 days. This exemption aims to simplify the transportation of oil, fuel, and fertilizer within the US, signaling the latest effort by the White House to address supply interruptions caused by the Iran war. This decision extends the existing exemption, originally set to expire on May 17, by about three months, allowing foreign vessels to transport goods between US ports until mid-August. Trump's exemption temporarily lifted restrictions on coal, crude oil, refined oil, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer, and other energy derivatives. The original exemption applied to about 659 specific products identified by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the extension did not reduce the scope of covered goods. US naval blockade restricts oil exports, Iran continues to load supertankers to maintain production capacity. Despite the US blockade on Iranian shipping, Iran continues to load millions of barrels of crude oil onto supertankers. However, as the US blockade continues, this operation will become increasingly difficult. Images from the EU's "Sentinel-1" satellite taken on Monday show a supertanker capable of carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil docked at the Khark Island terminal. Images from early last Saturday showed no ships docked at Khark Island. There is currently no evidence to suggest that a significant amount of oil is bypassing the US blockade, so the already loaded crude oil is likely to fill the available tankers in the region. Images from Monday show 13 ships (mostly supertankers) anchored on the eastern side of the island; whereas images taken the day before the blockade began (April 13) showed about half the number of ships docked. Is the US stock market rebound in place? Fidelity warns: if oil prices do not fall, the pullback will not stop. Julien Tilm mentions that the longer oil prices stay high, the longer the recent adjustment in the US stock market will continue. Given that oil prices are currently driving the stock market trend, Tilm reviews historical oil price shocks to assess where the market may be headed. Tilm said, "The Gulf War in 1990 raised oil prices from $41 to $100 (in today's terms), but this shock had a shorter duration and only led to a brief 19% pullback in P/E ratios." He pointed out that the market is currently pricing in similar results, and since the rebound has already occurred, "we need to see this narrative continue to support the current gains." Tilm also compared this to the period of soaring inflation after the pandemic in 2022, when oil prices rose from $79 to $136 (in today's terms). Individual Stock News Crushing expectations, validating CPU strategic value! Intel Corporation (INTC.US) launches a turnaround from "survival" to "expansion" under Chen Liwu's leadership. Intel Corporation released first-quarter earnings and second-quarter earnings guidance far exceeding market expectations, indicating that this long-struggling chipmaker is benefiting from the wave of large-scale AI infrastructure construction. Intel Corporation's first-quarter revenue increased by 7% year-on-year to $13.6 billion, significantly higher than analysts' average expectation of $12.4 billion. Non-GAAP net profit was $1.5 billion, up 156% year-on-year; adjusted earnings per share were $0.29, up 123% year-on-year, also significantly higher than analysts' average expectation of $0.01. Gross margin was 41.0%, compared to 39.2% in the same period last year. Client Computing Group (CCG) revenue was $7.7 billion, up 1% year-on-year; Data Center and AI (DCAI) revenue was $5.1 billion, up 22% year-on-year; Outsourcing revenue achieved $5.4 billion, up 16% year-on-year. The stock rose over 25% in pre-market trading, leading tech stocks higher. Newmont Mining (NEM.US) relies on high gold prices in Q1 to "cover its shame," warning signals of cost overruns. Newmont Mining Company announced first-quarter profits that exceeded Wall Street expectations, with record high gold prices helping offset the impact of declining production. Adjusted, the company achieved quarterly earnings per share of $2.90 as of March 31, while analysts' average forecast was about $2.18 per share. Q1 revenue was $7.31 billion, a significant increase of 45.9% year-on-year, significantly exceeding the market's expectations of about $6.36 billion. The company also set a record for free cash flow, reaching $3.1 billion, a 161% year-on-year increase. Adjusted EBITDA was $5.2 billion. CEO Natascha Viljoen stated that this was "one of Newmont Mining's strongest quarters ever." "We have doubled the size of our stock buyback program, adding $6 billion in authorization," Viljoen said. Business AI drives SAP (SAP.US) Q1 performance above expectations, cloud business transformation accelerates with 25% growth, maintains strong guidance for the full year. SAP reported total revenues of 9.56 billion in Q1, up 12% year-on-year, exceeding market expectations, with GAAP earnings per share of $1.94 and adjusted earnings per share of $2.01, both surpassing analysts' forecasts. Due to deep integration of Business AI into its cloud product portfolio, SAP's cloud business and operating profit both surpassed market expectations, with current cloud backlog growing 25% at constant currency. When measured at constant currency, current cloud backlog reached 21.93 billion, up 25% year-on-year; cloud revenue was 5.96 billion, up 27% year-on-year, with cloud ERP suite revenue at 5.21 billion, up 30%. Q1 operating profit was 2.87 billion, up 24% year-on-year, with an operating profit margin of 30.0%, up 2.8% year-on-year. Nomura Holdings, Inc. Sponsored ADR (NMR.US) achieves record profits for two consecutive years! Core business blooming, full-year profits reach 362.1 billion yen. In the three months ended March 31, Nomura Holdings, Inc. Sponsored ADR saw a 2.7% increase in net profits compared to the same period last year, reaching 73.9 billion yen. This data was lower than the aggregated average forecast of 98.9 billion yen by four analysts. Annual profits set a new record at 3,621 billion yen. Fourth-quarter revenue was 577.2 billion yen, up 27% year-on-year, while total revenue for the year was 21.7 trillion yen, up 15% year-on-year. Benefiting from the recovery of the Japanese financial market, Nomura achieved record profits for the second consecutive year, despite its fourth-quarter performance falling short of analyst expectations. Nomura Securities' stock trading revenue grew by 26%, climbing for the 12th consecutive quarter, in line with Wall Street companies recording similar double-digit growth. Fixed income business revenue grew by 18%, marking the first growth in five quarters. Procter & Gamble Company (PG.US) withstands the impact of Middle East conflicts with its brands! Organic growth reaches over a year high, maintains full-year performance outlook. Procter & Gamble Company announced strong performance data that exceeded market consensus, driven by strong growth in beauty products; meanwhile, the company significantly raised its overall cost expectations related to commodities for this fiscal year. Procter & Gamble Company's organic sales in the third quarter ended March 31 achieved a 3% year-on-year growth, surpassing the most optimistic forecasts of Wall Street analysts. This is the strongest organic growth data in over a year. Core earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter were $1.59, higher than the market consensus of about $1.56 and last year's $1.54; the third-quarter operating profit was about $4.576 billion, significantly higher than the market consensus and close to the strong profit data from the same period last year. Meta (META.US) joins forces with Amazon.com, Inc.: investing billions of dollars to enhance AI infrastructure. Meta has reached a multi-billion-dollar multi-year agreement with Amazon.com, Inc. (AWS), planning to lease tens of millions of Amazon.com's in-house Graviton5 CPU chips. This transaction elevates Meta to one of the top five global customers for Graviton. While NVIDIA Corporation's GPUs remain the training core, the demand for high-performance CPUs has surged with the rise of "intelligent agent AI" and the need for multi-task scheduling and real-time inference. This move is a key step in Mark Zuckerberg's "multi-vendor strategy," aiming to reduce reliance on a single supplier by partnering with AMD, leasing Alphabet Inc. Class C TPUs, and using Amazon.com, Inc. chips to meet the enormous computing gap. Meanwhile, Meta is offsetting the high expenditure on AI infrastructure with structural layoffs. From NVIDIA Corporation's AI error correction to Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO.US) aiming for "quantum interconnection," the quantum wave is once again surging! Tech giants compete in commercializing quantum computing. Cisco Systems, Inc., one of the world's largest computer network and internet equipment manufacturers, showcased a high-performance switching chip aimed at the quantum computing field to global investors on Thursday. As a "founder of the Internet era" riding the wave of AI infrastructure, Cisco Systems, Inc. emphasizes in a statement that this switch chip will be able to connect different types of quantum computers. With the recent wave of quantum technology sweeping the globe, this move is a crucial step for this computer hardware equipment leader in the forefront of technologyit aims to ultimately connect a large network composed of super quantum computers, much like its devices connect existing internet systems. Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) initiates Cybercab production! Musk's "physical AI super macro plan" makes a key move. In a post on X on Friday, Elon Musk stated that Tesla, Inc. has started production of its Robotaxi modelthe highly anticipated fully autonomous taxi Robotaxi named "Cybercab." As Tesla, Inc., the US-based electric vehicle leader, faces a continual decline in global electric vehicle sales, Elon Musk has fulfilled his long-standing promise of Cybercab mass production plan since 2024. Looking at Tesla, Inc.'s latest financial reports and capital expenditure plans exceeding $25 billion, Elon Musk has undoubtedly raised AI, Robotaxi, and humanoid Siasun Robot & Automation, Space AI data centers to higher priorities, and the latest production dynamics of Robotaxi are undoubtedly a key force in Elon Musk's "physical AI super macro plan" reaching the ground implementation stage. Important economic data and event preview 10:00 PM Beijing time: Final value of the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index for April in the US. Next day, 1:00 AM Beijing time: Total US rig count as of April 24th. Next day, 3:30 AM Beijing time: CFTC releases weekly commitment of traders report.