According to CCTV News, on the 16th local time, a memo sent by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to employees showed that the Fed plans to cut about 10% of its staff in the coming years. This move aims to align with President Trump's overall policy of streamlining the federal government.
U.S. stocks closed higher, Moody's downgraded U.S. sovereign credit rating
On Friday (May 16), the U.S. stock market opened high and closed high, with all three major indices rising collectively, the S&P rising for the fifth consecutive day, and the Dow recovering all its losses for the year. At the close, the Dow Jones Index rose 0.78%, shifting from decline to gain for the year, after having previously dropped about 14% this year.
From a weekly perspective, the Dow rose 3.41% this week, the S&P rose 5.27%, and the Nasdaq rose 7.15%. The Nasdaq's leading rise is primarily due to strong performance from technology stocks, with Nvidia rising 16.07% this week, Meta rising 8.08%, and Apple rising 6.55%.
U.S. stock market technology giants' closing data on Friday
It is worth noting that during Friday's trading session, the three major indices briefly turned negative. According to Caixin, the consumer confidence index released by the University of Michigan fell to its second-lowest level in history, with respondents expecting U.S. prices to rise by 7.3% over the next year, the highest level since 1981 and up from last month's 6.5%.
According to CCTV News, international credit rating agency Moody's announced on the 16th that due to the increased proportion of U.S. government debt and interest payments, it decided to downgrade the U.S. sovereign credit rating from Aaa to Aa1, while adjusting the outlook for the U.S. sovereign credit rating from 'negative' to 'stable'.