ADDX GO Market Morning Wrap - 17th May

Stock Market

On Friday (May 16), U.S. stocks opened and closed higher, with all three major indices rising collectively. The S&P 500 gained for the fifth consecutive day, and the Dow recovered all its year-to-date losses.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.78% to 42,654.74, turning its year-to-date change from negative to positive, now up 0.26% cumulatively. The index had previously fallen approximately 14% year-to-date.

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.7% to 5,958.38, notching its fifth straight daily gain; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.52% to 19,211.10.

On this week, the Dow rose 3.41% for the week, the S&P gained 5.27%, and the Nasdaq rose 7.15%. The Nasdaq's leadership primarily stemmed from strong performance in tech stocks, with NVIDIA up 16.07% for the week, Meta up 8.08%, and Apple up 6.55%.

CoreWeave surged over 22%, with its stock price more than doubling since its U.S. IPO in March. UnitedHealth (UNH) rose over 6%, ending a trend of eight consecutive trading days of declines.

Shortly before the morning wrap publication, Moody's, one of the world's three major credit rating agencies, downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA1. Moody's projects that by 2035, the U.S. federal debt burden will rise to 134% of GDP, with the deficit reaching 9% of GDP.

Moody's also believes that U.S. GDP growth could slow due to the impact of tariffs.

Key Events

U.S. government plans to relocate 1 million Palestinians to Libya: According to informed sources, the U.S. government is formulating a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya as of May 16 local time.
Israeli military says it has launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza: The Israel Defense Forces stated on May 16 local time that it has launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, codenamed "Chariots of Gideon."
Moody's downgrades U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA1: International credit rating agency Moody's announced on the 16th that it has decided to downgrade the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA1 due to increased U.S. government debt and interest payment ratios, while adjusting the outlook on the U.S. sovereign credit rating from "negative" to "stable."
OpenAI to help the UAE build one of the world's largest data centers: OpenAI plans to build a large new data center in the UAE, which could eventually become one of the world's largest data centers. This is not only a major investment by the company in the Middle East but also a key expansion of its global AI infrastructure expansion plan.
Ukrainian officials say negotiations yielded no results: The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that trilateral talks between Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine have ended. Ukrainian Supreme Rada deputy Zhelezniak said the Istanbul negotiations were fruitless.

Forex & Commodities

COMEX gold futures settled down $39.40, or 1.22%, at $3,187.20 an ounce.

Light crude oil futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 82 cents to close at $61.97 a barrel, up 1.34%; Brent crude oil futures for July delivery rose 88 cents to close at $65.41 a barrel, up 1.36%.

The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.15% to 100.9828, up 0.56% for the week. Most non-U.S. currencies fell.

Key Events

UK media reports EU plans to sharply increase tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural products: UK media recently reported, citing multiple EU diplomatic sources, that the EU will impose higher tariffs on agricultural products imported from Ukraine in the coming weeks. This means that the import quotas for Ukrainian agricultural products that previously enjoyed duty-free treatment will be significantly reduced.
LME plans to set position limits to curb large positions: According to informed sources, the London Metal Exchange (LME) is discussing setting position limits to curb large position holdings. The LME has been having informal conversations with market participants to discuss appropriate position limit levels. The LME has hinted that it may attempt to prevent traders from holding positions in near-month contracts that exceed total inventories.
The world's second-largest bauxite producer takes strong action, reclaiming 51 mining rights in one go: According to media reports, the government of Guinea announced that it has reclaimed 51 mining permits. Some analysts believe this move is a warning from the world's second-largest bauxite producer to large operators.

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin was up 0.6% at $103,874, with the cryptocurrency's 24-hour trading volume rising 0.1% to $47.11 billion.

Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second-largest digital asset by market value, was up 2% to $2,587.

XRP (XRP-USD) lost 1.3%, BNB (BNB-USD) dipped 0.3%, and Solana (SOL-USD) rose 0.8%. Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) rose 1.9%, and Cardano (ADA-USD) climbed 0.2%.

The total market value of the cryptocurrency industry rose 0.7% in the past 24 hours to $3.32 trillion, with trading volume down 10.9% to $113.47 billion.

Key Events

Brazilian fintech company Méliuz spends $28 million to buy Bitcoin, becoming the first listed company in South America to establish a Bitcoin reserve: According to Decrypt, Brazilian listed company Méliuz recently announced an investment of $28.4 million to purchase 274.52 bitcoins at an average purchase price of $101,703 per coin. This makes it the first listed company in South America to establish a Bitcoin reserve, and the company's stock price rose 26% in a single day after the news was announced.
U.S. listed company Basel Medical Group launches $1 billion Bitcoin acquisition strategic plan: According to Globe Newswire, U.S. listed company Basel Medical Group Ltd. announced today that it has initiated exclusive negotiations for a Bitcoin (BTC) acquisition plan totaling $1 billion.