Bloomberg

• Close: three major indexes of US stocks closed slightly higher, energy stocks were strong, and technology stocks suffered a Waterloo.

All three major indexes of U. S. stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday, with the S & P 500 recording its longest straight gain since February. Energy stocks are strong, while technology stocks are lacklustre. The data showed strong growth in the US manufacturing sector and a larger-than-expected decline in initial jobless claims, masking concerns about the spread of the epidemic.

On Friday, the United States will release a non-farm payrolls report for June, which will help guide the market on when the Fed may start to scale back its stimulus program.

Given the strong economic and profit growth prospects, loose policies and still attractive valuations relative to bonds, we believe that the current environment is conducive to further stock market gains.

-Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer, Global Wealth Management, UBS

• Operate in the opposite direction with hedge funds? Short-term traders buy epidemic recovery stocks at bargain prices.

Airline and tourism stocks have fallen recently on concerns about the rapid spread of the COVID-19 variant, but US short-term traders have once again deviated from hedge fund operations on the recovery of the epidemic.

The data compiled by Vanda Research showShort-term traders snapped up shares in hotels, casinos and cruise companies on Monday at the fastest pace in a year as they bought stocks on the back of the epidemic.

At the same time, professional institutional investors are cutting back their bets on stocks with the concept of economic recovery. Data from Morgan Stanley institutional brokerage show that after selling travel and leisure stocksHedge fund net exposure to epidemic recovery stocks fell last month to its lowest level since the end of 2020.

Wall Street Journal

• Car sales in the United States are still booming, and the shortage of chips is a big constraint.

Us car sales continued to grow rapidly in the second quarter, but growth slowed in June due to a mismatch between supply and demand caused by a shortage of chips.New car sales are expected to reach about 8.3 million in the first half of the year, up 32% from a year earlier and 1% from the same period in 2019, according to J.D. Power. Shrinking inventories have pushed car prices to an all-time high.

$Volkswagen (ADR) (VWAGY.US) $In the face of tight supply, the best first-half sales in the United States in nearly half a century were reported.$General Motors (GM.US) $Car sales rose nearly 40 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier and 10 per cent month-on-month, while inventory of a variety of models was not enough to sustain sales for a week, the report said.

• OPEC + plans to increase production are opposed, and oil prices continue to rise.

With the global economic recovery, especially the surge in oil demand in developed countries, oil prices are rising. IHS Markit expects demand in North America and Europe to increase by about 7 million barrels a day in the third quarter compared with the first quarter of this year, up 10 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

OPEC, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia and Russia, began formal deliberations on Thursday and may agree to increase production by about 500000 barrels a day from August and 2 million barrels a day by December, according to people familiar with the matter. But the deal was opposed by key members of the United Arab Emirates, and oil prices rose above $75 a barrel.

CNBC

• Virgin Galactic rose more than 27% in after-hours trading! The founder will be sent into space on July 11th

Virgin Galactic, a space travel company, has announced that it will carry its founder Richard Branson for the next space flight test on July 11. Virgin Galactic shares soared more than 27% in after-hours trading on Thursday on the news.

That means Branson, 70, will fly into space ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.Bezos will not be able to fly into space on the Blue Origin New Shepard spaceship until July 20.

• "Big short" prototype: investors' funds are drying up and meme stocks will eventually collapse.

According to a report by Barron Weekly on FridayMichael Burry, the prototype of the "big short", believes that the meme stocks favored on Reddit forums will eventually collapse like the dotcom bubble and real estate bubble of the past few decades.

I don't know exactly when Meme stocks like this will collapse, but I think we may not have to wait too long, because I believe retail investors are fully involved, but Wall Street is already making a lot of money.

-"Big short" prototype Michael Burry

Financial Times

• The financial panic index once hit a new high! Investors are uneasy about US stocks

The s & p 500 rose more than 16% in 2021 and expanded to 92% since the outbreak last year, with u.s. stocks witnessing one of the strongest recoveries in history.

However, given the high valuations and the possible stock market turmoil during the month of light summer trading, some investors became more worried and began to buy derivatives and financial panic indices for the sharp fall in the stock market.Chicago Board options Exchange SKEW Index (.SKEW.US) $It has recently reached an all-time high. Although the index has moved upward for most of the past decade, it has begun to climb sharply in the past month, and financial speculation may have spread throughout the market.

• Gold out of favor? Gold prices suffered their biggest monthly decline since 2016

Fed officials spoke last month, indicating an increase in the likelihood of raising interest rates in 2023. Gold fell 7 per cent to $1779 an ounce in June, suffering its biggest monthly decline since November 2016, undermining the attractiveness of gold holdings.

Analysts at Citi said they expected gold prices to continue to fall in the summer, but not to collapse, with gold trading at $1760 an ounce next year. However, there was only a small outflow of gold held by ETF in the week ended June 25, accounting for about 0.2 per cent of total assets, according to the World Gold Council.

Follow this week

Focus today: us non-farm payrolls data for June, US unemployment rate for June

The above is the headline breakfast of today's foreign media. We sincerely invite you to enjoy it and enjoy your investment.