[Text/Observer Network Xu Qian'ang]
"China's demand is weak!" "Graphic processor demand is weak!" "Mining machine demand is weak!"
The financial report season of US listed companies seems to have become a "burst season".
Last night (local time 28), American engineering machinery giant Caterpillar (hereinafter referred to as CAT) and artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia (hereinafter referred to as NVIDIA) announced their fourth quarter financial report or financial report guidance. The revenue performance of the two companies was worse than expected, with stocks plummeting 13.8% and 9.1% respectively.
Analysts expect these two "report cards" may cause concerns among U.S. stock investors. Overall, US stocks opened sharply last night, and the three major indexes fell by more than 1% in three minutes. In the end, the S&P 500 fell 0.79%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points, closing down 0.84%, and the Nasdaq fell 1.1%.
two report cards, both mentioned in China
Specifically, CAT's quarterly financial report said that the company's fourth quarter revenue was US$14.3 billion, an increase of 11 percentage points year-on-year; last year's revenue was US$54.7 billion, an increase of 20 percentage points from last year's performance.
But in the field of engineering construction, CAT's quarterly revenue fell 4%. The statement pointed out that was caused by "soft demand in China". Although revenue from other markets in the Asia-Pacific region played a role in boosting, the total revenue eventually declined.
CNBC News Network quoted a data from Goldman Sachs last year that 59% of CAT's revenue comes from markets outside the United States, and nearly 25% are backed by the Asia-Pacific. On the 28th, a CAT spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the revenue share of in China accounted for 5-10%.
In addition, CAT also lowered its earnings per share in 2019 to the range of $11.75 to $12.75, lower than the earlier expected $12.73. The revenue forecast for the first quarter of fiscal year 2019 was US$14.34 billion, basically the same as the minimum estimate of US$14.33 billion.
Affected by this, CAT opened on the day and fell by more than 7%, and the decline quickly expanded to more than 8%, leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average and finally closed down 9.13% at $124.37 per share.
NVIDIA, The company released its fourth-quarter financial report guidance yesterday: its fourth-quarter revenue adjusted to US$2.2 billion, down 23% from the previous expected US$2.7 billion.
report pointed out that "the deterioration in macroeconomic situation, especially in China, has affected consumers' demand for NVIDIA gaming graphics processors."
In addition, the "declining demand for cryptocurrency mining machines" also forced the company to lower its revenue expectations.
On the same day, NVIDIA plunged more than 18% at the opening. Although it rose slightly during the session, it finally closed down 13.82% at US$183.01 per share.
has been crazy for a week, which may trigger a "sequential burst"
It is worth noting that last week (24th) Intel released its fourth-quarter financial report estimates that both revenue and profit were lower than market expectations, and its stock fell 8% after the market trading that day. Intel's financial report eventually triggered a chain reaction , and its old rival US Ultramicro Semiconductor (hereinafter referred to as: AMD) fell nearly 2.9% after the market.
This time Nvidia lowered its revenue expectations, and AMD was affected by again, falling nearly 8% yesterday to US$20.18. MarketWatch predicts that AMD may eventually "follow Intel's footsteps" and hand over a poor report card.
FAANG The five major technology stocks also closed down collectively yesterday. Google and Amazon both fell nearly 2%, and Apple fell 0.93%.
This week is the most intense week for the financial reports of listed U.S. stock companies. CNBC News revealed that about 100 S&P 500 stocks and nearly half of the Dow Jones companies will release their financial reports. The most eye-catching are the performance of technology stocks such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft that have led the bull market growth.
According to data from the US financial analysis company FactSet, as of now, among the US listed companies that have completed financial reports (or guidance), 30% of the companies performed worse than market expectations.
Analysts are worried that phenomena like "blame China" will cause another chain reaction. Quincy Krosby, head marketing strategist at Prudential Financial Group, said, "If this week, if this (blame China) becomes a theme in multiple fields, the outside world will further believe that the pace of the global economy is slowing down.”
In addition, CNBC News said that three major external factors in may affect the trend of US stocks this week : Trump After the government "reopened", various US economic data will be released soon; Sino-US trade negotiations will be held this week; the British House of Commons voted on the amendment to Brexit Plan B this week.
Bruce Bittles, investment strategist at Beiya, pointed out that "in order to keep the market going, investors need to become more optimistic, (because) worries in the trade sector are gradually disappearing, and the impact of slowing global growth is also fading. ”
