U.S. stocks close mixed after June CPI report

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors digested fresh inflation data and a wave of earnings reports from major financial institutions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 436.36 points, or 0.98 percent, to close at 44,023.29. The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 24.8 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,243.76. In contrast, the Nasdaq Composite rose 37.47 points, or 0.18 percent, to 20,677.8, marking a new all-time closing high.

Ten of the 11 primary Standard and Poor's 500 sectors closed in the red. Materials and health care were the biggest decliners, falling 2.11 percent and 1.88 percent, respectively. Technology was the only sector to finish higher, gaining 1.27 percent.

June's inflation data, released Tuesday, showed consumer prices rising 0.3 percent for the month, in line with expectations and up from May's pace. The annual CPI rate stood at 2.7 percent. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, climbed 0.2 percent from the previous month and 2.9 percent year over year, both matching analysts' forecasts.

On the earnings front, several major banks delivered underwhelming results. Wells Fargo beat profit expectations but issued lower guidance for net interest income, pushing its shares down more than 5 percent. JPMorgan Chase also posted strong results but saw its shares slip. BlackRock dropped 5.88 percent after missing revenue estimates. Citigroup stood out, gaining 3.68 percent after beating second-quarter earnings expectations.

In the tech sector, Nvidia surged 4.04 percent after announcing it would resume shipments of its H20 AI chips to China, following White House assurances that current export restrictions would be eased. The news sparked a rally in semiconductor stocks. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose 6.41 percent, Arm Holdings and Broadcom each added less than 2 percent, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF climbed 1 percent.

Among other mega-cap tech names, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon posted modest advances. Tesla declined 1.93 percent, and Meta Platforms lost 1.46 percent.  

U.S. stocks close mixed after June CPI report

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027