Financial Markets:
- On February 29, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets performed strongly, with the Shanghai Composite Index up 1.16%, the Shenzhen Component Index up 2.06%, and the ChiNext Price Index up 2.17%. Nearly 5000 stocks advanced across the market. Northbound funds net bought 8.738 billion yuan, with a net inflow of 3.862 billion yuan from major investors.
- On Wednesday, in US stock markets, Bitcoin trading witnessed a mid-session surge of 13%, but later, the gains narrowed to less than 6%.
- Salesforce's performance in the fourth fiscal quarter was impressive, exceeding expectations in both revenue and profits, albeit its stock price fell by up to 7% after-hours.
- Commodity Prices Trends: U.S. crude turned lower during the session, Brent crude barely closed higher, gold prices turned positive, but futures gold eventually closed lower, while copper fell back to low levels.
- The U.S. real GDP for the fourth quarter was slightly revised down to an annual rate of 3.2%, below expectations; U.S. EIA crude oil inventories increased for the fifth consecutive week, with stocks unexpectedly rising by 4.2 million barrels last week.
- Federal Reserve officials discussed the possibility of adjusting the pace of rate cuts, indicating it may differ from previous rate-cut cycles.
Technology Sector:
- Meta plans to launch the Llama 3 model, hoping it will rival OpenAI's GPT-4, which has become a powerful multimodal model.
- Baidu's Q4 revenue hits a record high, up by 6% year-on-year, while net profit drops by 48%. Ernie Bot's user base surpasses 100 million.
- Volvo Cars plans to distribute about 62.7% of its approximately 48% stake in Polestar to Geely Holding, valued at about 6.63 billion yuan.
Legal and Regulatory:
- The former senior manager of the ICBC Fujian branch is under investigation by the Fuzhou Municipal Supervisory Committee for serious legal violations.
- The China Securities Regulatory Commission held a meeting on the construction of legal systems in the capital market, emphasizing the strengthening of legal system construction and law enforcement efficiency.
Other:
- The 2023 national economic statistics were released, showing an annual GDP growth of 5.2% and a population decrease of 2.08 million.
- Reliable Shares (301009.SZ) announced that the original actual controllers, the couple Jin Liwei and Bao Jia, have dissolved their marriage. After the division of shares, they each hold 30.93% and 29.93% of the company, respectively, making Jin Liwei the sole actual controller of the company.
