Musk's "Lightning" Visit to China Achieves Significant Breakthrough, Tesla's Pre-market Shares Surge 10%! The Fed May Show Its "Hawkish Claws" This Week, Bitcoin Falls to a Weekly Low

With Tesla's stock price soaring due to optimistic news from China, the futures for the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index both rose by about 0.2%; Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by about 0.1%.

Musk's "Lightning" Visit to China Achieves Significant Breakthrough Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, unexpectedly visited China on Sunday, bringing immediate benefits to the electric vehicle manufacturer by removing two major obstacles for launching fully autonomous driving software in China.

On Monday, according to Reuters citing two informed sources, Tesla has reached an agreement with Chinese internet giant Baidu, allowing Tesla to use its mapping license to collect data on Chinese roads.

The news boosted Baidu's stock price by 2.4% in the Hong Kong stock market, and Tesla's stock price surged 10% in pre-market trading in the US. This deal is seen as potentially helping to curb its sales decline in the vast market.

All smart driving systems landing in China must first obtain a mapping license before operating on the roads.

Foreign companies need to collaborate with Chinese companies that own a mapping license, including Baidu and several other Chinese enterprises that possess this license.

According to informed sources, under the agreement, Baidu will allow Tesla to use its lane-level navigation system.

Although it seems that Tesla has now removed two major obstacles for launching fully autonomous driving software in China, its driver-assistance systems still face issues in the US.

The US's top automotive safety regulator has just initiated an investigation into Tesla's weaker autonomous driving system, listing 20 accidents that have occurred since December.

In last week's earnings call, Musk emphasized the importance of developing autonomous driving and expressed doubt about those who are skeptical of Tesla's capability to "solve" autonomous driving, stating they should not invest in the company.

Even in China, despite an initially warm reception, Tesla has recently faced more intense competition from domestic electric vehicle manufacturers led by BYD, and its market share in China for the fourth quarter of 2023 shrank to around 6.7% from a growth of 10.5% in the first quarter of last year.

Tech "Big Seven" Rise Together

The U.S. stock market is expected to return to the strong gains of last Friday, driven by robust earnings from Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Microsoft, boosting optimism for a sustained rally driven by large tech companies.

As for Apple and Amazon, whose quarterly reports are due this week, they will once again test these hopes. The costs and prospects of artificial intelligence (AI) will be closely monitored.

Meanwhile, investors are counting down to the Fed's two-day rate decision on Wednesday.

Despite widespread expectations that the Fed will keep rates at their highest in 23 years, debate over the timing of rate cuts in 2024 is still intense, with a focus on whether Fed policymakers will abandon earlier predictions of significant easing of lending.

Traders have already scaled back bets on rate cuts, and the April employment report ending this week may once again play a motivating role.

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market retreated on Monday, as the market showed signs of tension ahead of this week's Fed meeting, given that the Fed has indicated it will keep rates high for a longer period.