On September 23rd, US stocks plunged during the session, with all three major indices closing lower. The Dow fell 0.19%, the Nasdaq fell 0.95%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.55%.

Large-cap tech stocks were mostly lower. Oracle fell over 4%, Amazon fell over 3%, NVIDIA fell over 2%, and Microsoft fell over 1%.

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 2.22%. Popular Chinese concept stocks generally declined. Baidu fell over 8%, Zhihu fell over 5%, Bilibili fell over 4%, TAL Education and New Oriental fell over 3%, and JD.com fell nearly 3%.

According to CCTV News, on September 23rd local time, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell commented on policy direction and the economic situation, pointing out that increased downside risks in the job market were a key reason prompting the Fed to take interest rate cut action last week.

Powell stated that this move is a step towards shifting the policy stance to "neutral" and emphasized that there is no preset course for future policy. He acknowledged that the current inflation level remains slightly above the target, with the August core PCE inflation rate estimated at 2.3%. The rise in goods prices mainly reflects the impact of tariffs, rather than broad inflationary pressures.

Powell believes that some asset prices are high relative to historical levels, and by many measures, stock valuations are quite high.

Powell also pointed out that consumer spending has shown signs of slowing, business confidence is affected by uncertainty, and labor market dynamism has weakened somewhat. He judged that tariffs might lead to some increase in inflation over the next few quarters, but the inflation caused by tariffs could be "relatively short-lived." The Fed will guard against one-time price increases evolving into a persistent problem.

International gold prices rose. COMEX gold futures closed up 0.58% at $3,796.9 per ounce; COMEX silver futures closed up 0.12% at $44.265 per ounce.