Top 20 in US Stock Trading Volume: Super Micro Computer's Stock Drops Nearly 12% as Preliminary Financial Report Disappoints
On Wednesday, Tesla, the top-traded stock on the US stock market, closed down 3.38% with a trading volume of $35.226 billion. Data indicates that in the week ending April 27, the number of newly registered Tesla electric vehicles in the domestic market reached 10,300. This represents a 51% increase compared to the 6,780 units in the previous week. However, it still falls short of the same period last year, experiencing a year-on-year decline of 30.5%.
Coming in second place is Nvidia, which closed down 0.09%, with a trading volume of $23.471 billion. The performance forecast of Super Micro Computer, a manufacturer of artificial intelligence servers, was far below expectations. This triggered investors' concerns about the weak demand for AI servers and subsequently dragged down the stock prices of Nvidia and other related stocks.
Meta Platforms, ranked third, closed down 0.98%. The company reported a first-quarter revenue of $42.31 billion, surpassing the estimated $41.38 billion. Its first-quarter operating profit amounted to $17.56 billion, marking a 27% year-on-year increase. The first-quarter earnings per share reached $6.43, compared to the estimated $5.25. Additionally, the first-quarter advertising revenue was $41.39 billion, showing a 16% year-on-year growth.
Microsoft, the fourth on the list, closed up 0.31% with a trading volume of $13.14 billion. Microsoft's third-quarter revenue hit $70.07 billion, exceeding the estimated $68.48 billion. The third-quarter earnings per share were $3.46. The revenue of its intelligent cloud business in the third quarter was $26.8 billion, compared to an estimate of $25.99 billion. The cloud revenue in the third quarter was $42.4 billion, slightly higher than the analysts' estimate of $42.22 billion. Moreover, the growth of Azure in the third quarter contributed 16 percentage points to the artificial intelligence (AI) business, surpassing the analysts' expected 15.6 percentage points.
Palantir, ranked fifth, closed up 2.03%, with a trading volume of $12.426 billion. The stock has seen an impressive increase of over 40% in April.
Amazon, ranked seventh, closed down 1.58% with a trading volume of $9.541 billion. On April 29 local time, Amazon announced that it would publicly display the additional costs of goods resulting from US tariff policies in the price of each item. The Trump administration promptly launched a scathing attack on this move.
The White House press secretary described this pricing plan as "hostile and political behavior." Multiple media outlets also revealed that Trump immediately called Amazon CEO Bezos to demand an explanation upon learning the news.
In response, Amazon quickly stated that the company was only "considering" showing the tariff fees on some products, and these products were part of its ultra-low-price shopping segment, Amazon Haul, not the entire platform. Trump seemed quite satisfied with this "emergency retraction," stating, "Bezos solved the problem very quickly. He did the right thing. He's a good guy."
Google's Class A shares, ranked eighth, closed down 0.85%, with a trading volume of $5.355 billion. Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified in Washington on Wednesday morning. Antitrust enforcers are seeking an order that would compel the company to sell its Chrome web browser and implement other measures to boost competition among online search providers.
Pichai will be testifying on behalf of Alphabet to defend against the proposal put forward by the US Department of Justice. The company has stated that these proposals would cause unforeseen harm to browser developers, smartphone manufacturers, and Internet users.
Eli Lilly, ranked twelfth, closed up 1.55% with a trading volume of $3.854 billion. The stock has witnessed an 8.8% increase in April. Media reports suggest that US President Trump held an event named "Invest in America" on Wednesday. The event invited CEOs of companies such as Nvidia, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and SoftBank to attend, aiming to showcase the investment projects in the US that these companies announced within the first hundred days of his presidency.
Starbucks, ranked sixteenth, closed down 5.66% with a trading volume of $3.237 billion. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said that the company's recent earnings have been disappointing, but he believes that the company's "Return to Starbucks" business transformation plan is taking effect.
Niccol noted that the coffee chain is leveraging algorithms and new labor models to speed up service. Also, it no longer views the high-tech "Siren" device as a one-size-fits-all solution.Goldman Sachs downgraded Starbucks from a "Buy" to a "Neutral" rating and lowered the target price from $103 to $85.
Super Micro Computer, ranked eighteenth, closed down 11.50% with a trading volume of $2.935 billion. The preliminary results announced by Super Micro Computer showed that its financial performance was far below market expectations, causing investors' concerns and leading to a significant decline in its stock price. According to the announcement, for the third fiscal quarter, Super Micro Computer expects sales to be between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion, which is significantly lower than the company's previous guidance of approximately $5.5 billion and also lower than the analysts' average estimate of $5.53 billion.
Furthermore, for the third fiscal quarter, the expected adjusted earnings per share are between $0.29 and $0.31, which is also significantly lower than the market's expected $0.53. In the announcement, Super Micro Computer also mentioned that during the third fiscal quarter, some customer platform decisions were delayed, and part of the sales were postponed to the fourth fiscal quarter.
In addition, the company's GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins decreased by 220 basis points compared to the second fiscal quarter, mainly due to the increase in inventory of older products and the additional costs incurred to accelerate the launch of new products.