US Stock Market Close: Rebound Momentum Pauses, All Three Major Indexes Close Slightly Lower

Last night and this morning, the US stock market rebound that had lasted for over a month took a temporary pause, awaiting catalysts to guide the next direction.

At the close, the S&P 500 fell 0.39% to 5,940.46 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.38% to 19,142.71 points; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.27% to 42,677.24 points.

(Daily chart of the S&P 500 Index, source: TradingView)

After Tuesday's decline, the S&P 500's gap from its all-time high of 6,147 points in mid-February slightly widened to 3.5%.As the benchmark US stock indices approach "overbought" levels, the market is also watching whether this rally can continue.

The yield on long-term US Treasury bonds, a core indicator of concern, rose again. The 30-year US Treasury bond yield briefly touched 4.997%.Due to opposition from some Republican lawmakers to Trump's "Big Beautiful" tax cut bill, the US President was forced to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to apply pressure.According to US media reports, Trump, who was brought in to "save face," "clearly did not change anyone's mind" after the closed-door meeting ended.

The market's focus is not on the interest struggles of US lawmakers,but rather on the possibility that Trump's bill could add at least $3 trillion to the US government debt over the next decade.At the same time, the annual fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP will also rise from the current 6.4% to 6.9%.

Regarding the current situation, renowned investor Ray Dalio commented: "It's like being on a ship heading towards the reefs, and the people at the helm are arguing about which way to turn. I don't care if they turn left or right; I'm more concerned that they can turn the ship around and get it back on course."

Dalio stated that the US needs to quickly reduce the deficit to 3% of GDP through a combination of cutting spending, increasing revenue, and lowering real borrowing costs.

Performance of Popular Stocks

Among US tech giants, only Tesla managed to close slightly higher. Apple fell 0.92%, Microsoft dropped 0.15%, Amazon declined 1.01%, NVIDIA fell 0.88%, Alphabet (Google-A) dropped 1.54%, Tesla rose 0.51%, Meta fell 0.52%, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dropped 1.07%.

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.65% on Tuesday. At the close, Alibaba rose 1.79%, JD.com gained 0.77%, Baidu increased 0.1%, Pinduoduo fell 0.9%, Bilibili rose 0.89%, NIO dropped 1.98%, NetEase gained 1.59%, Futu Holdings rose 0.39%, Li Auto fell 0.32%, XPeng Motors dropped 1.45%, EHang Holdings rose 2.1%, GDS Holdings rose 1.85%, and Pony.ai surged 5.74%.

Company News

[Google's First Android XR Platform AR Glasses Developed by a Chinese Brand]

During Google's annual developer conference held on Tuesday, Google announced a strategic partnership with Chinese AR brand Xreal to launch its second Android XR device under the name Project Aura, which is also the first AR glasses equipped with the Android XR platform. Xreal stated that this product is positioned to compete with Meta's advanced AR glasses and is expected to be launched between the end of this year and early next year.

[Apple Reportedly to Open Access to Large Models for Developers]

Renowned tech journalist Mark Gurman wrote that Apple is preparing to allow third-party developers to use its artificial intelligence models to write software, aiming to drive the development of new applications and enhance the appeal of its devices.

[Musk Vows to Stay at Tesla for the Next Five Years]

Elon Musk pledged on Tuesday that he would continue to lead Tesla for the next five years and expected to reduce his political involvement to alleviate some investors' concerns about the future of the EV company.

[US Quantum Computing Company D-Wave Quantum Releases New Computing System]

On Tuesday (May 20), US quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced on its official website that its latest "Advantage2" quantum computing system is officially available. According to D-Wave, the Advantage2 quantum processor has significantly improved performance compared to the previous generation. The processor adopts the Zephy topology, with 20-way inter-qubit connectivity, enabling the embedding of more complex problem models.

As of Tuesday's close, D-Wave Quantum's shares surged by 25.93%, driving the quantum computing sector to strengthen as well.