Wall Street experienced a surge on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq 100 leading the charge, thanks to a surprising boost from China’s central bank. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) unleashed a series of aggressive measures, including cutting banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) and lowering the seven-day repo rate. This comes after a recent reduction in the 14-day reverse repo rate. These actions are projected to inject approximately $140 billion (1 trillion yuan) into the banking system, providing banks with more liquidity to fuel lending.
The news sent Chinese equities soaring, with the iShares China Large-Cap ETF FXI skyrocketing over 8%, marking its largest single-day gain since March 2022. Commodities followed suit, with copper and silver prices climbing more than 3% each. Gold also rose 0.7%, hitting a record high for the fourth consecutive session.
The Nasdaq 100 posted a 0.5% gain, outperforming other U.S. indices. The S&P 500 remained relatively flat, hovering just below its all-time highs. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar weakened by 0.4% following a lower-than-expected September consumer confidence report from the Conference Board. This data has strengthened expectations for a possible 50-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in November. Treasury yields fell on short-term maturities, while longer-dated yields held steady.
Oil prices climbed 1.2%, although concerns about U.S. demand persisted due to the disappointing consumer confidence figures. Bitcoin BTC/USD slipped 0.2%, failing to join the China-led rally in other risk assets.
Here’s a snapshot of major indices and their performance:
*
Nasdaq 100:
19,958.91 (up 0.5%)*
S&P 500:
5,726.37 (up 0.1%)*
Russell 2000:
2,218.10 (up 0.0%)*
Dow Jones:
42,081.24 (down 0.1%)According to Benzinga Pro data:
* The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) rose 0.1% to $570.49.
* The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) remained flat at $420.90.
* The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (QQQ) rose 0.6% to $485.85.
* The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) stalled at $220.69.
* The Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLB) outperformed, up 1.2%.
* The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) lagged, down 1.2%.
Chinese stocks rallied on Tuesday, including:
* Tencent Music Entertainment Group – ADR (TME): up 14%
* JD.com Inc. (JD): up over 10%
* PDD Holdings Inc – ADR (PDD): up 10%
* XPeng Inc – ADR (XPEV): up 9%
* NIO Inc – ADR (NIO): up 8.7%
* Li Auto Inc. (LI): up 9%
NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) surged nearly 4% amid rising growth prospects in China. Materials stocks showing the largest gains included:
* MP Materials Corp. (MP): up 10%
* Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FCX): up 7.5%
* Alcoa Corp. (AA): up 7.6%
* Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO): up 7.3%
