Cailian Press, July 18th (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng)
Last night and this morning, driven by the growth in retail data and a decrease in initial jobless claims, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes once again reached new historical closing highs.
By the close of trading, the S&P 500 index had risen to 6300 points for the day, closing at 0.54%, with a final price of 6297.36 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 0.75%, reaching 20885.65 points; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.52%, ending at 44484.49 points.
(S&P 500 Index daily chart, source: TradingView)
The ongoing earnings season has also boosted market sentiment, with well-known companies such as Coca-Cola, TSMC, and United Airlines all experiencing strong increases after releasing strong financial reports.
According to statistics, approximately 50 S&P 500 constituents have already released their financial reports, with 88% exceeding expectations.
Bret Kenwell, an investment analyst from eToro in the US, stated, “At the start of the earnings season, reassuring retail sales data is just in time. If the financial reports perform better than expected, and management continues to convey positive information about consumer spending, the stock market may respond positively. In the end, consumption is the backbone of the American economy.”
As of Thursday’s close, the “Big Seven” stocks were mixed. Apple fell by 0.07%, Microsoft increased by 1.2%, Amazon rose by 0.31%, Nvidia increased by 0.95%, Google-A gained by 0.33%, Tesla declined by 0.7%, and Meta fell by 0.21%.
Industry leaders such as Nvidia, Oracle, Microsoft, Broadcom, Palantir, Caterpillar, and GE Vernova hit new historical highs on Thursday.
Among them, the price increase of Oracle’s甲骨文 (Oracle) since the beginning of the year has exceeded 50% (and more than doubled if we start from the low point in early April), helping its founder Larry Ellison become the world’s second-richest man with a net worth of nearly $260 billion.
(Oracle daily chart, source: TradingView)
Chinese concept stocks have also quickly regained their upward momentum, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closing up 1.23% on Thursday.
By the close of trading, Alibaba rose by 1.36%, JD.com by 3.32%, Baidu by 1.38%, Pinduoduo by 2.68%, Bilibili by 1.36%, NIO by 7.06%, NetEase by 0.44%, Futu Holdings by 4.51%, TSMC by 3.37%, Li Auto by 6.67%, XPeng Motors by 1.62%, Yonyou Intelligent by 2.5%, Huya by 6.21%, and Kingsoft Cloud by 3.85%.
【Amazon Admits to Layoffs in Its Cloud Business】
On Thursday (July 17), Amazon confirmed that it was laying off some employees from its key business segment – the cloud computing division. Previously, two sources revealed that Amazon had laid off at least hundreds of people in its AWS division. Several employees told the media that they received emails on Thursday morning informing them of their termination and that their computers would be disabled.
【Coca-Cola “Sugar Substitute” Controversy Hits High-Fructose Corn Syrup Industry】
On Thursday, Coca-Cola’s high-fructose corn syrup producer, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), fell by 0.85%, with its stock price dropping more than 3.2% at its lowest point; sweetener supplier Ingredion fell by 0.61%, at one point nearly dropping by 5%. Following news reports, President Trump of the United States stated on social media on Wednesday (July 16) that Coca-Cola Company had agreed to use real cane sugar in the production of Coca-Cola in the United States.
Uber, Lucid, and the autonomous driving technology company Nuro jointly announced the launch of a “next-generation high-end global Robotaxi project” tailored specifically for the Uber platform. As part of the agreement, Uber stated it would invest $300 million in Lucid and would purchase 60,000 Lucid’s Gravity SUVs in the future. In response to this news, Lucid saw its stock price increase by 36.24% on Thursday.
TSMC reported a significant increase in net profit of over 60% in Q2.
TSMC released its latest financial report on Thursday, achieving a net profit of 398.3 billion Taiwanese dollars in the second quarter of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 61%, setting a new historical record and surpassing the forecasted 377.9 billion Taiwanese dollars by London Stock Exchange SmartEstimates. Other core financial indicators also achieved an increase in both the same period and the previous period.
At the earnings call, TSMC estimated that sales for the third quarter would reach between $31.8 billion and $33.0 billion, previously estimated at $31.72 billion; the operating margin was expected to be between 45.5% and 47.5%, previously estimated at 46.9%. Bolstered by the financial report, TSMC’s stock price rose by 3.38% on Thursday in the US market.
Netflix disclosed its Q2 revenue of $11.08 billion after the market closed, with an estimate of $11.06 billion; earnings per share were $7.19, with an estimate of $7.08. Netflix forecasted annual revenue between $44.8 billion and $45.2 billion, previously estimated at $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion, and market estimates at $44.56 billion; the operating margin was expected to be 29.5%, previously estimated at 29%, and market estimates at 29.7%. Following the release of the data, Netflix’s stock price fell by more than 2% after the market closed.