Last week, the three major U.S. stock indexes fluctuated slightly near historical highs. On the day the Federal Reserve's "hawkish" interest rate cut, investors took profits and triggered increased volatility. Then the three major stock indexes closed up for two consecutive days, collectively rising throughout the week. Investors judge that the U.S. job market is weak but the unemployment rate has not soared, and the economic growth has slowed down but there is no risk of recession for the time being, so they regard this "risk-managed interest rate cut" as a positive thing. The Dow rose 1.05% last week, the S&P 500 rose 1.22%, and the Nasdaq rose 2.21%.

International oil prices fell slightly last week

The Fed¡¯s decision to cut interest rates last week did not effectively boost market optimism for energy commodities. U.S. employment markets frequently released weak signals, manufacturing and real estate activities heating down, all showing oil demand is weakening. Institutional investors expect over-supply market basics to continue, with New York oil prices falling 0.02 per cent last week and Brent oil prices falling 0.46 per cent.

International gold prices rose last week

The international gold price fluctuations last week were significant, reaching a closing record high before the Fed cut interest rates, and subsequently dropped due to investors' profits, although the week's cumulative rise was 0.53%.

Markets Focus on Key U.S. Inflation Data This Week

This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce will release the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index for August, which is one of the U.S. inflation indicators closely tracked by the Federal Reserve and even global capital markets. Last week, when interpreting the economic outlook report, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell indicated that the core PCE of the United States is expected to rise by 2.9% year-on-year in August. This forecast is the same as the July data, indicating that the Federal Reserve believes that U.S. inflation is resilient. If the real data is higher than expected, it is likely to strengthen the Fed's already "hawkish" interest rate cut path and suppress the market's risk appetite. The "dot plot" of interest rates released last week showed that most Fed officials expect to cut interest rates once next year and the year after next.

Several senior Fed officials gave intensive speeches this week

In addition, investors also need to pay attention to the upcoming speeches this week, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, new Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran, and a number of voting local Fed presidents. Among them, Powell will attend a symposium with U.S. business leaders on Tuesday local time and deliver a speech on the U.S. economic outlook; In addition, it is widely expected that the new Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran will explain his reasons for supporting a 50 basis point rate cut in a public speech this week. The public speeches of these senior Fed officials will provide more clues about the path of future interest rate cuts.

The market is concerned about the latest earnings reports of beauty technology and open market customers

As U.S. tech companies continue to invest in AI infrastructure to drive chip demand to stay high, U.S. storage chip manufacturers are gaining more initiative in product pricing, and several brokers have recently raised the U.S. tech stock target price this year. Since then, U.S. tech stock prices have increased more than 93% cumulatively. As the U.S. third largest retailer, one-third of its sales comes from imported goods, investors are closely watching how the company responds to tariff cost pressure and how to set future performance guidelines for this upcoming income report.

Reporter: Gao Yan