U.S. chip stocks surge collectively, Western Digital skyrockets 9%, a Chinese concept stock soars nearly 300% intraday, gold falls below $5,000.

On March 18 Beijing time, all three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher collectively. The Dow rose 0.1%, the Nasdaq rose 0.47%, and the S&P 500 index rose 0.25%. Major European stock indexes also closed higher; Germany’s DAX 30 rose 0.71%, and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.83%.

Large-cap tech stocks experienced mixed performance: Google increased by 1.64%, Amazon by 1.63%, Tesla by 0.94%, while Microsoft, Nvidia, and Facebook saw declines within 1%. According to China Financial and Economic News, Google recently dispatched a team to China to inspect liquid-cooling equipment used for data center servers.

Storage chip stocks rose across the board. Western Digital gained over 9%, and Seagate Technology increased by more than 5%. Micron Technology’s stock price rose over 4%, with its total market value reaching $519.6 billion, setting a new record high.

Aviation stocks advanced, with Delta Air Lines up over 6% and American Airlines up more than 3%. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly fell nearly 6%, and Intel declined over 3%.

China concept stocks saw more declines than gains. Tencent Music dropped 24% after releasing its Q4 2025 and full-year financial reports yesterday. Cango fell nearly 16%, Hyga and Niu Technologies declined over 8%. XPeng Motors and Kingsoft Cloud rose over 4%. Small Win Technology, Atour, Bilibili, and others led the gains.

China concept car company YOYOUNG experienced a significant surge during trading, rising nearly 300% at its peak and triggering multiple circuit breakers. By the close, the stock was up 62.73%.

Gold and silver prices declined. Spot gold opened on March 17 and again failed to hold above $5,000, while spot silver dropped below $79.

International oil prices generally increased on March 17. WTI crude oil futures opened at $95; Brent crude oil futures were at $103.5, up over 3% during the day.

Cryptocurrencies saw a slight pullback. Bitcoin was priced at $74,296, down 0.51% for the day. Ethereum, SOL, Dogecoin, and others also declined.

According to CME “FedWatch”: the probability that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 25 basis points this week is 0%, while the chance of holding rates steady is 98.9%. The chance of a 25 basis point rate hike is 1.1%. The probability of a total 25 basis point cut by June is 78.1%.

According to CCTV News, the U.S. government plans to further relax sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry to boost crude oil production amid rising oil prices driven by the Iran conflict. These measures may be announced as early as this week, including issuing individual licenses to more foreign companies so they can participate in Venezuela’s oil sector without violating U.S. sanctions.

According to CCTV News, U.S. President Trump again expressed dissatisfaction with NATO on March 17 at the White House. When asked whether the U.S. is re-evaluating its relationship with NATO or considering withdrawal, Trump said: “This is something we should be thinking about. I don’t need Congress to make this decision.”