Dow Jones up over 500 points, chip stocks rally, SanDisk surges 7%, Brent crude plunges below $100, UAE oil facilities attacked

Why did AI and Brent Oil fall below $100 due to geopolitical risks?

Reporter | Zeng Jingjiao

Editor | Li Yutong

On March 16, U.S. stock three major indices opened higher and continued to rise. As of around 22:10 Beijing time, all increased by over 1%. Popular Chinese concept stocks surged, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up nearly 2%.

Tech stocks strengthened, with Facebook up over 3%, Tesla and Nvidia up over 2%, Google and Apple up over 1%. In news, Meta reached a $27 billion AI computing power supply agreement with Nebius.

Chip stocks mostly rose, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up over 2.6%. Micron Technology rose nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report this week; SanDisk surged over 7%, Intel up over 4%.

Optical communication stocks all surged, with Coherent up over 7%, Lumentum and Ciena up over 5%.

Most popular Chinese concept stocks rose, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index up nearly 2%. Tencent Music rose over 5%, Li Auto and Dingdong Maicai up over 4%, iQiyi, ZaiDing Medicine, and KE Holdings up over 3%, JD.com and Alibaba up over 2%. News reports revealed Alibaba’s new business division.

In commodities, due to ongoing geopolitical tensions, gold and silver turned positive. As of around 22:05 Beijing time, spot gold surged to $5,030 per ounce, and spot silver rose nearly 1% to $81.32 per ounce.

International crude oil plummeted sharply, with WTI crude down over 4.5%, Brent crude falling below $100 per barrel, dropping over 3% intraday.

Major cryptocurrencies all surged. At the time of writing, Bitcoin rose over 3.6%, surpassing $74,000; ETFs increased over 9%, SOL up nearly 7%. In the past four hours, nearly 99,000 traders were liquidated globally, with a total liquidation of $429 million.

Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, according to Xinhua News Agency, no ships transited the strait on the 14th, the first time since the outbreak of the US-Israel-Iran conflict, whereas before the conflict, an average of 77 ships passed daily.

Oil pipelines are the main alternative routes for transporting oil around the Strait of Hormuz, but there are few such pipelines, mainly two pipelines operated by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Xinhua reported that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on the 16th that restoring navigation through the strait “is not easy.” The UK is working with allies to develop feasible plans to restore free passage. German Defense Minister Pistorius stated that Germany refuses the US request for military support to ensure safe navigation through the Strait.

Additionally, according to CCTV News, on the 16th local time, the UAE’s Fujeirah Emirate media office issued an official statement confirming that an important port’s oil facilities in Fujeirah were attacked by drones and caught fire. No casualties have been reported. The UAE Civil Defense team immediately intervened.

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(Disclaimer: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors operate at their own risk.)

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