On the evening of April 25, the China Securities Association released special statistics on securities companies' bond underwriting business for the first quarter of 2024. In the first quarter of this year, small and medium-sized brokerage firms, such as Western Securities, Guoxin Securities, Dongwu Securities, and CDB Securities, showed outstanding performance in some indicators with their own differentiated development advantages, surpassing leading brokerage firms to win the championship in individual indicators in some segments. Among the leading brokerage firms, CITIC Securities maintained the first place in the five indicators. Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, said in an interview with reporters: “Brokerage firms need to strengthen their professional capabilities, especially in terms of risk assessment, pricing, and transaction structure design, to provide customers with high-quality services. This requires brokerage firms to have deep financial knowledge, rich market experience and excellent innovation capabilities.” (Securities Daily)

Economic data for each region for the first quarter of 2024 have been released one after another. According to the reporter's incomplete statistics, up to now, 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) have published economic “report cards” for the first quarter. Of these, the GDP growth rate of 16 provinces has outperformed the national average (5.2%). Specifically, Jilin's GDP growth rate reached 6.5%, temporarily leading the country; followed by Jiangsu and Chongqing, both at 6.2%. There are also five provinces with growth rates above 6%, including Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Hubei, and Beijing. Liu Xiangdong, vice-director of the Economic Research Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told reporters that overall, economic growth in various regions continued to recover, showing the resilience of development. In particular, major economic provinces such as Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang played a leading role, leading the Chinese economy to continue to recover and improve. (Securities Daily)

In recent years, under the wave of vigorous capital investment and fund investment promotion in various regions, Shanghai's state-owned funds have also been quietly increasing. According to the relevant departments in Shanghai, there are 366 state-owned funds set up by Shanghai state-owned enterprises alone, raising more than 500 billion yuan. Currently, the paid-up capital is over 300 billion yuan, which has initially formed a “jungle” ecosystem of state-owned venture capital in Shanghai. Previously, most of these “jungles” fought on their own, and there were even situations where they rushed up when investing in projects. In order to better meet the current demand for “joint investment”, Shanghai is reorganizing state-owned funds and coordinating resources to increase industrial development and investment in science and innovation. (Securities Times)

An article in the 7th edition of Economic Daily pointed out that although the “white list” is promoted from the coordination mechanism to financial institutions within the administrative region, “apportionment” cannot be carried out. It is necessary to adhere to the principles of marketization and legalization, and it is up to the specific financial institution to decide whether to lend, because the final risk is also borne by the financial institution. In the decision-making process, financial institutions should scientifically and impartially evaluate support targets promoted by the coordination mechanism, and should actively meet their reasonable financing needs for projects with normal development and construction, sufficient collateral, reasonable assets and liabilities, and guaranteed repayment sources; they should not blindly draw loans, press loans, or cut loans for projects that are temporarily difficult to develop and build but whose funds are balanced.

The article said that to build a national industrial cluster, it is necessary to focus on advantageous industries and leap towards high-end. Forge a long board, based on advantageous industrial chains such as rare earths, photovoltaics, new energy vehicles, and 5G, to continuously improve technical level and product quality; repair shortcomings, thoroughly implement industrial infrastructure reconstruction projects and major technical equipment research projects, and accelerate the upgrading of basic industrial capabilities. Focus on the innovation and development of major national and regional strategies and key industrial chains, optimize the layout of national high-tech zones, strengthen management services, and build an open and innovative world-class high-tech industrial park. Strengthen collaborative innovation, enhance advanced manufacturing capabilities, expand high-quality enterprise groups, and accelerate the upgrading of national industrial clusters to a world-class level.

The current large and relatively rapid rise in non-ferrous products has put pressure on the profit levels and cash flow of some downstream enterprises. According to our understanding, relevant enterprises are gradually developing the ability to avoid the risk of upstream raw material price fluctuations through various effective financial instruments. For enterprises that only carry out commodity processing business, hedging and price locking for long orders are basic ways to deal with the risk of fluctuations in raw material prices. The recent rise in non-ferrous commodity prices has undoubtedly also placed higher demands on the hedging business of downstream processing companies. Cheng Xiaoyong, deputy general manager of the Guangzhou Financial Holdings Futures Research Center, suggested that for manufacturing companies, using futures and options to hedge and manage the risk of fluctuations in raw material prices is the most important and effective way to deal with the cost pressure brought about by rising raw material prices. (Securities Times)

At the end of the New York session on Thursday (April 25) (tech giants such as Google A, Microsoft, and Intel released their quarterly reports after the market), S&P 500 stock index futures finally rose 0.51%, the Dow futures fell 0.81%, and the Nasdaq 100 stock index futures rose 0.92%. Russell 2000 stock index futures fell 0.90%. WTI crude oil futures rose 1.16% to $83.77 per barrel; Brent crude futures rose 0.04% to tentatively reported $89.22. Spot gold rose 0.70% to 2332.46 US dollars/ounce, and rose to 2344.86 US dollars at 22:39 Beijing time.

Funds investing in US investment-grade corporate bonds experienced capital outflows for the first time this year, fully demonstrating the anxiety of the credit market. According to LSEG Lipper data, short-term and medium-term investment-grade bond funds had outflows of US$607.1 million for the week ending April 24. The sell-off of such assets and the Federal Reserve's hawkish stance on inflation have put pressure on investors. An index tracking such bonds fell 2.53% this month, moving towards the worst monthly return since September last year. Investment-grade bonds have declined by 2.92% so far this year.

Musk has expanded the court battle with OpenAI to request documents from Helen Toner (Helen Toner), a former board member of OpenAI. She was a key figure in the OpenAI “palace fight” last year, which led to the brief dismissal of OpenAI CEO Ultraman. According to a Washington DC Superior Court document, as one of OpenAI's earliest investors, Musk asked Tona to hand over documents and communications relating to her decision to leave the OpenAI board of directors and remove and reinstate Ultraman. The subpoena required Tona to hand over the information by May 21, 2024. This request is related to Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Ultraman last month. He claims that OpenAI and Microsoft, its biggest investor, reached a multi-billion dollar partnership, which violated the company's initial promise to create artificial intelligence for the benefit of all. OpenAI called Musk's statement “revising history” and was aimed at boosting Musk's own artificial intelligence company.

Teradir closed up 8.15%, Nvidia doubled the ETF up 7.17%, Nvidia 3.71%, ultra-microcomputers 4.33%, TSMC ADR up 2.7%, Scantech and Intel about 1.8%, AMD up 1.3%, Asmak ADR and ST Semiconductor's ADR up about 1.1%, Apple up 0.5%, and Micron Technology closed down about 0.2%. Azenta fell more than 1.1%, Knowles fell more than 1.5%, Arm Holdings fell more than 1.9%, and Meta fell more than 10.5%.