The Hang Seng Index opened down 182 points, New World surged over 5%, and Zijin Mining fell 6% | Hong Kong stock market opening

Meta and Microsoft's post-earnings performance diverged, dragging down the market. The S&P 500 closed down 9 points or 0.13%, at 6,969 points; the Nasdaq fell 172 points or 0.72%, at 23,685 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 55 points or 0.11%, at 49,071 points; the Golden Dragon Index, reflecting the performance of Chinese concept stocks, rebounded 0.35%, at 7,919 points. Meta closed up 10.4%, as the group’s revenue and profit exceeded expectations last year, and it projected full-year capital expenditures between $115 billion and $135 billion, surpassing expectations. In contrast, Microsoft plummeted nearly 10%. The group also exceeded revenue and profit expectations, but its capital expenditures surged 66% last quarter to a record high. Among other major tech stocks, Tesla fell 3.4%, NVIDIA rose 0.52%, and both Alphabet and Apple rose about 0.7%. Gold prices fluctuated significantly. Spot gold approached $5,600 on Wednesday, then fell nearly 6% to $5,104.6, but later recovered most of the losses, rising back to around $5,330. Silver prices also fluctuated, with spot silver rising to a new high of $121.65 before briefly falling over 8%, and most recently recovering to around $115. In the Hong Kong stock market, the Hang Seng Index opened down 182 points, at 27,785 points. Tech stocks generally declined, with Tencent (700) down 1.12%; Alibaba (9988) down 1.9%; Meituan (3690) down 0.55%; Xiaomi (1810) down 1.14%; and Baidu (9888) down 1.22%. New World (017) opened up 5.57%, at HKD 11.75. Bloomberg reported yesterday that New World’s controlling shareholder, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, is in deep discussions with Blackstone regarding the potential sale of New World’s controlling stake. New World later announced that Chow has been approached by some potential investors regarding possible investments in New World. Precious metal prices were volatile, with Zijin Mining (2899) opening down 3.51%; Zijin Gold International (2259) down 5.96%; Zhaojin Mining (1818) down 3.33%; Shandong Gold (1787) down 4.35%; and China Silver Group (815) down 2.66%. Aluminum Corporation of China (2600) invested over 4.2 billion RMB to partner with Rio Tinto to acquire a stake in Brazilian aluminum. The stock price opened down 3.32%. Regarding northbound capital flows, on Thursday, net buying of Hong Kong stocks amounted to HKD 4.374 billion. The Tracker Fund (2800), Tencent (700), and Xiaomi (1810) received net purchases of HKD 2.395 billion, HKD 800 million, and HKD 643 million, respectively; while China Mobile (941), Zijin Mining (2899), and Alibaba (9988) faced net sales of HKD 646 million, HKD 377 million, and HKD 331 million, respectively