Preview of US Stock Market | The three major stock index futures fluctuated, with Broadcom's financial report failing to boost technology stocks.

1. Before the US stock market opened on December 12th (Friday), the futures of the three major US stock indexes showed mixed movements. As of the time of reporting, the Dow Jones futures rose by 0.14%, the S&P 500 index futures fell by 0.18%, and the Nasdaq futures fell by 0.61%. 2. As of the time of reporting, the German DAX index rose by 0.25%, the UK FTSE 100 index rose by 0.25%, the French CAC40 index rose by 0.58%, and the European Stoxx 50 index rose by 0.35%. 3. As of the time of reporting, WTI crude oil fell by 0.24% to $57.46 per barrel. Brent crude oil fell by 0.29% to $61.10 per barrel. Market News To "unleash" AI giants! Trump signs executive order limiting state regulatory powers to push for federal "single rule". US President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday evening local time aimed at limiting states' ability to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and attempting to block some existing state laws. According to the text published on the White House website, this executive order aims to "maintain and enhance America's leadership in the global AI field through a nationally minimal regulatory framework." Trump said that AI companies "want to develop in the United States, they want to grow here, we have a lot of investments coming. But if they have to get approval from 50 states separately, then you can forget about it." The executive order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to establish a "AI litigation task force" within 30 days, whose "sole responsibility will be to challenge state AI laws that conflict with the Trump administration's light regulatory vision". Difficulties ahead for interest rate cuts next year? Internal dissent within the Fed affects prospects for easing. Fed Chairman Powell downplayed the dissent in the decision to cut rates again on Wednesday, but a series of details from the meeting indicate severe internal divisions within the Fed. Powell went against the majority to push through a 25 basis point rate cut. Several regional Fed presidents, who participated in discussions but are not voting members this year, expressed opposition to the rate cut. Only Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schneider and Chicago Fed President Austin Goolsbee formally opposed the rate cut, supporting maintaining the rates unchanged. FOMC voting members Paulson of the Philadelphia Fed and Hamack of the Cleveland Fed will deliver speeches tonight, and the statements of these voting officials at critical moments are crucial for investors to judge the future monetary policy direction of the Fed. Powell warns of "systemic overestimation" of employment data, dovish path may continue through 2026. In the Fed's dilemma of combating inflation and limiting unemployment, the latter had the upper hand in Wednesday's meeting. If the weakness in the labor market becomes more pronounced through clear overestimation of employment data, this side could maintain an advantage as we enter 2026. In the short term, concerns about employment conditions prompted the Federal Open Market Committee to vote 9-3 to cut the Fed's key rate by 25 basis points. Looking ahead, indications suggest that if labor market weakness persists, policymakers will lean towards further rate cuts. Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated multiple times at Wednesday's press conference that job growth in recent months was likely negative, providing a reason to implement more accommodative monetary policy. "Trump Gold Cards" visas officially launched, experts skeptical about economic benefits. US President Trump announced on Wednesday that the US government would start accepting applications for the "Trump Gold Cards" visa program. The program requires individuals to pay $1 million, and businesses to pay $2 million, to obtain US residency and a fast track to citizenship. Applicants also need to pay an additional $15,000 for processing and review fees. However, experts question its effectiveness. In September, Trump signed an executive order formally announcing the program. The program aims to replace the EB-5 investor immigration program, which requires a minimum investment of $1.8 million in the US, or $900,000 in distressed areas. Trump stated that the estimated revenue of up to tens of billions of dollars would go directly to the US Treasury for "doing positive things for the country." Wall Street comments on "400 billion bond purchases": Fed returning as the "top buyer" of US bonds eases financing pressures, cross-spread trading facing favorable conditions. The Fed's plan to purchase $400 billion in US bonds monthly has resulted in revisions to forecasts for debt issuance in 2026 on Wall Street and a decrease in borrowing costs. The Fed will start buying bonds to ease short-term rate pressures by rebuilding reserves in the financial system. Some banks estimate that the Fed may purchase nearly $525 billion in bonds in 2026. Strategists expect these purchases to alleviate market pressures and have a positive effect on cross-spread trading and SOFR-Federal funds rate spreads, but may not completely eliminate market volatility, especially around the year-end. Stock News Broadcom Inc. (AVGO.US) falls short of market "high expectations": Q4 performance remains strong but AI chip backlog fails to meet high valuation. After announcing their fourth-quarter earnings, Broadcom Inc. saw a decline in their stock price in after-hours trading, as the backlog of orders for AI chips was slightly underwhelming. In the fourth quarter ending November 2nd, Broadcom Inc. reported sales of $18 billion, a 28% increase year-over-year, surpassing analysts' expectations of $17.5 billion. Excluding certain items, earnings per share rose to $1.95, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.87. Semiconductor revenue reached $11.07 billion, a 34.5% increase year-over-year, while infrastructure revenue increased by 19% to $6.94 billion. Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter sales to be around $19.1 billion as of February 1st, with analysts' average expectations at $18.5 billion. The stock fell by 6% in pre-market trading, with other major tech stocks also showing weakness. Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST.US) exceeds Q1 expectations but market response is subdued, concerns arise over slowing membership renewal rates and high valuation. Costco's Q1 revenue was $67.31 billion, a 6.4% increase year-over-year, better than the market's expectation of $67.14 billion. Net sales reached $65.98 billion, an 8.2% increase year-over-year; membership fees were $1.33 billion, a 14.0% increase. Net profit was $2.0 billion, an 11.3% increase year-over-year; diluted earnings per share were $4.50, exceeding the market's expectation of $4.27. Q1 comparable sales increased by 6.4%, surpassing market expectations. The US comparable sales increased by 5.9%, while e-commerce sales grew by 20.5%. Riding the new trend! Coinbase (COIN.US) tokenized stocks and prediction market functionality set to launch next week. According to a source familiar with the matter, Coinbase Global plans to announce the launch of prediction markets and tokenized stocks next week, two of the hottest products in the financial market. The source said that the largest US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will unveil these products at a showcase event on December 17th. They indicated that the tokenized stocks will be launched internally, rather than through partners. Coinbase executives had previously expressed their intentions to enter these business areas, but have not formally announced their plans. Screenshots of the application implying these features have been circulating on social media for several weeks. A Coinbase spokesperson declined to comment on the company's specific plans but said, "Stay tuned for the live stream on December 17th to see what new products Coinbase will launch." Market cap loss of $40 billion doesn't scare retail investors! Netflix (NFLX.US) sees a wave of bottom fishing. Concerns about Netflix's rumored acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.US) have led to a $40 billion market cap loss for Netflix within just six trading days. However, for retail investors, this is a strong buy signal. In the week ending Monday, Netflix was the third most actively traded stock on the Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Class A platform. On the Fidelity platform, buy orders outnumbered sell orders, with a ratio of over three to one. Data from JPMorgan also shows a strong buying momentum from retail investors. Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) and Epic lose appeal in battle, 27% commission banned but intellectual property fees allowed. Apple Inc. failed to successfully challenge a judge's reprimand for defying orders but won a new opportunity to defend itself against charging developers for transactions outside the app store. In their long-standing dispute with Epic Games Inc., a federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the iPhone maker's challenge to an April ruling. The ruling found that Apple Inc. intentionally disobeyed a judge's order that previously determined Apple Inc. engaged in anticompetitive behavior that violated California law. However, in the 54-page ruling, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals instructed U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to consider allowing Apple Inc. to charge developers a commission on their use of intellectual property just not at the originally set 27% level. CoreWeave (CRWV.US) empowers Runway with NVIDIA Corporation's GB300 chip, upgrading AI video engine with a "superheart". CoreWeave announced on Thursday that it has signed an agreement with the AI startup Runway to introduce its AI cloud solution to Runway's video generation model. Runway will use the NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) GB300 NVL72 system provided by CoreWeave for large-scale training and inference, utilizing W&B Models for comprehensive observability of workloads. Important Economic Data and Events Preview Next day, 02:00 Beijing time: US total rig count for the week ending December 12th. 21:00 Beijing time: FOMC voting member and President of the Philadelphia Fed Paulson speaks on economic outlook. 21:30 Beijing time: FOMC voting member and President of the Cleveland Fed Hamack speaks on economic outlook. 23:35 Beijing time: Chicago Fed President Goolsbee participates in a moderator dialogue at the Chicago Fed's 39th Annual Economic Outlook Symposium. Next day, 04:30 Beijing time: CFTC releases weekly commitment of traders report.