[Pre-market U.S. Stocks] Continued strong bank earnings results drive risk appetite, and the market focuses on White House industry floor prices and tariff inflation (2025.10.16)

Risk appetite continues, policy and cost signals form the main line before the market

U.S. stocks remained optimistic before the opening bell, mainly due to the strong financial reports of large banks, which outweighed the uncertainty of rising trade tensions between the United States and China. The White House plans to set a price bottom line in a number of industries. Together with the Beige Book of the Federal Reserve, the Fed shows that tariffs are pushing up corporate costs, and policies and inflation paths have become the focus of wait-and-see. Small-cap stocks have strong momentum, and the market is waiting for next week's technology leader earnings report to provide the next step. Before 9:30 tonight in Taiwan time, the volatility of futures and pre-market individual stocks will increase.

The White House formulates industrial floor prices and accelerates industrial policy intervention

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the White House is preparing to launch a price bottom-line mechanism for some industries in response to China's non-market behavior in areas such as rare earths. The bottom line of prices is usually higher than the market price, which is equivalent to government pricing intervention. In the short term, it may stabilize domestic demand and supply or support key industries, but it may also push up costs, affect corporate pricing and cross-border competition. Capital markets focus on policy scope, timetable and implementation details, especially the impact levels of raw materials, defense, clean energy and advanced manufacturing supply chains.

Tariffs push up price pressures, and Beige Book shows uneven cost transmission

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book pointed out that import tariffs cause most companies to face higher input costs, some of which choose to absorb them to maintain competitiveness, while others completely pass on to customers. This divergence means that the importance of gross profit and inventory management has increased, and the resilience of terminal demand has been tested. The market continues to evaluate the impact of inflation stickiness and demand trends on corporate profits, and pays attention to the cost hedging and price strategy explanations of companies in the legal theory.

Wall Street banks continue to report good news, with outstanding results in investment banking and markets businesses

Bank of America(Bank of America) and Morgan Stanley(MS) paid out outstanding second-quarter results, far exceeding market expectations, and reported good news with JPMorgan Chase(JPM) and Goldman Sachs(GS). Active trading, high stock markets and recovery in M & A activity have driven fees and investment banking income, while capital conditions and provisioning rhythm have also attracted attention. The steady performance of financial stocks provides index confidence, and the subsequent focus is on fee control and capital return policies.

Major indices rise, small stocks hit high and spread

In the previous trading day, the S & P 500 and Nasdaq index closed higher, with the Russell 2000 setting a new high. Small caps led the gains, indicating an improvement in market breadth. Companies with high sensitivity to domestic demand and interest rates re-evaluated, and the delicate balance between prosperity and inflation has become a key variable. If corporate profits remain resilient, market style may continue to be skewed between large technology and prosperity sensitive stocks.

Asian and European stock markets are overcrowded, and cross-market risk sentiment is transmitting

Asian stocks mostly rose in early trading, with South Korea's Kospi setting a new high, European stocks Stoxx 600 up about 0.57%, and luxury brands strengthened. The positive tone of international stock markets and the support of corporate financial reports have helped the pre-market atmosphere of U.S. stocks. External variables still include trade frictions, policy uncertainty and supply chain adjustments, and short-term fluctuations may be amplified.

Energy flow becomes the focus, and India reports that it will adjust Russian oil purchases

A White House press conference message pointed out that Indian Prime Minister Modi told Trump that India would stop purchasing Russian crude oil, but it would take time to complete the adjustment. If trade flows change, it may affect freight rates, refining differences and regional supply and demand balance. Energy stocks and shipping groups are highly sensitive. The trend of oil prices also affects inflation expectations and the structure of consumption costs.

AI infrastructure investment heats up, data center mergers and acquisitions hit new highs

An alliance of Nvidia(NVDA), Microsoft(MSFT), BlackRock(BLK) and xAI spent $40 billion to acquire Aligned Data Centers, making it the largest data center transaction to date. This move highlights the long-term capital expenditure driven by AI computing demand, and the status of the industrial chain of power infrastructure, servers, heat dissipation and power grid upgrades has been improved. The market also focuses on valuation, integration progress and subsequent spillover effects on cloud services and edge computing.

Technology earnings report is imminent, key guidance affects style rotation

Next week, Tesla(TSLA) and Intel(INTC) financial reports will become the focus of observation, focusing on the pace of AI investment, electric vehicle demand curve, self-driving progress, PC and data center chip cycles, and capital expenditure and gross margin path. Management's comments on tariff costs, supply chains and pricing strategies may shape market profit assumptions for the latter part of the third quarter and the end of the year.

Futures and pre-market trading, financial and AI topics attract financial attention

Before 9:30 tonight in Taiwan time, the three major index futures were mostly volatile. Pre-market trading focused on the continuation effect of bank financial reports and the popularity of the subject matter driven by AI-related mergers and acquisitions. The market also pays attention to the volume and energy changes and pre-market fluctuations of large equity stocks as an early signal of the direction of funds after the opening.

Volatility of exchange rates and commodities, US dollar and oil and gold affects evaluation

The trend of the US dollar continues to affect the P/E ratio and foreign exchange conversion of large technology and export-oriented stocks. Oil prices fluctuate due to geographical and supply and demand news, and safe-haven demand for gold has also adjusted with policies and inflation expectations. These variables will be reflected in the relative performance of aviation, transportation, energy and defense groups.

Today's focus on observation, policy signals and cost transmission have attracted the most attention

The market is concerned about the scope and implementation path of the White House's industrial floor price policy, the intensity of companies 'passing on tariff costs and the pace of inventory adjustment, the guidance and capital planning of bank stocks after peak performance, and the extended impact of AI data center mergers and acquisitions on the supply chain. Before 9:30 tonight in Taiwan time, the flow of small-cap funds, changes in bond yields and the trend of the US dollar have a high impact on opening sentiment. The overall atmosphere is still dominated by financial reports and policy pulse.