Oracle and Amazon data centers in the Middle East were bombed?! U.S. stocks opened lower but rebounded, oil prices surged significantly, and gold prices halted their consecutive gains.

Originally from: Securities Times Network

Affected by certain signals of diplomatic easing released by the situation in the Middle East, U.S. stocks opened lower and rebounded. By the close on Thursday local time, U.S. stocks were mixed. On Friday, U.S. stocks will be closed for the Easter holiday.

Looking at it in detail, during the trading session, the three major U.S. stock indexes once fell sharply. The Dow fell by more than 600 points at most, but then quickly rebounded and even turned positive for a time. At the close, the Dow fell 61.07 points, down 0.13%, to 46,504.67. The Nasdaq rose 38.23 points, up 0.18%, to 21,879.18. The S&P 500 index rose 7.37 points, up 0.11%, to 6,582.69.

By sector, large-cap tech stocks saw mixed performance, with the Nasdaq U.S. Technology Seven Majors Index down 0.15%. At the individual stock level, Tesla fell by more than 5%, Facebook fell 0.82%, Amazon fell 0.38%, Google fell 0.54%, Microsoft rose more than 1%, Nvidia rose nearly 1%, and Apple rose 0.11%.

Among them, according to Tesla’s disclosed data, the company’s vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of this year were 358k, up 6.3% year over year, down 14.4% quarter over quarter, and below market expectations of about 370k, marking two consecutive quarters missing expectations. Tesla’s production in the first quarter was 408k vehicles.

Energy stocks were mixed: Exxon Mobil fell 0.07%, Chevron rose 0.76%, ConocoPhillips rose more than 1%, Schlumberger fell by more than 1%, and Occidental Petroleum rose by more than 1%.

Most airline stocks declined. Boeing rose 0.48%, American Airlines fell by more than 2%, Delta Air Lines fell by more than 1%, Southwest Airlines fell by more than 1%, and United Airlines fell by more than 3%.

Chip stocks were mixed: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.4%, Intel rose nearly 5%, AMD rose more than 3%, Nvidia rose nearly 1%, ARM fell by more than 3%, ASML fell by more than 3%, Lam Research fell by more than 1%, and Applied Materials fell by more than 1%.

China concept stocks were mixed: the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index fell 0.34%, while the Wind China concept technology leaders index fell 1.40%. Among popular China concept stocks, Bawang Chaji rose by more than 10%, Tencent Music rose by more than 2%, NIO rose by more than 1%, and Huazhu Group rose by more than 1%. On the downside, CenturyLink fell by more than 4%, 万国数据 fell by more than 4%, JD Group fell by more than 1%, Alibaba fell by more than 1%, LuKong fell by more than 1%, Kingsoft Cloud fell by more than 1%, and Atour fell by more than 1%.

Europe’s major stock indexes closed mixed. Germany’s DAX index fell 0.56% to 23,168.08 points, France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.24% to 7,962.39 points, and the UK’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.69% to 10,436.29 points.

In terms of oil prices, concerns about crude oil supply surged sharply in the market, and international oil prices rose significantly. By the close that day, light crude oil futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $11.42 to $111.54 per barrel, up 11.41%; London Brent crude futures for June delivery rose by $7.87 to $109.03 per barrel, up 7.78%.

Precious metals broadly fell. Gold ended a four-day winning streak; spot gold fell 1.71% to close at $4,677.1 per ounce; spot silver fell 2.73% to $73.05 per ounce. COMEX gold futures fell 2.3%, and COMEX silver futures fell 3.8%.

Oil price volatility has become the core driving force behind the sharp swings in global stock markets. Baird market strategist Michael Antonelli said, “At the moment, the stock market lacks a clear direction, but the pricing of October oil reflects the market’s belief that this crisis is likely to end before autumn.”

Max Gokhman, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions (FTIS), said, “Every new piece of news causes violent fluctuations in asset prices. Until all parties reach a clear, mutually acceptable agreement on reopening the strait, economic growth will continue to face downward pressure, while overall inflation faces upside risks. For both stock and bond investors, this will be a bitter ordeal that’s hard to digest.”

On the news front, according to CCTV, in a statement released on Thursday evening local time, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that south of Qeshm Island, Iran’s largest island, it “used a new air-defense system to hit an advanced enemy aircraft.” The IRGC said that after being hit, the aircraft crashed into the Persian Gulf.

According to CCTV International News, the naval command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement saying it carried out strikes on the U.S. Oracle company data center located in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and the Amazon company data center located in Bahrain.

However, the Dubai media office has denied this report.

On the other hand, U.S. President Trump delivered a national address on Wednesday evening local time, providing “important updates” on the Iran issue. Trump said that the war against Iran has achieved a “rapid, decisive, overwhelming victory,” and the core strategic goal “is nearly completed.” He said the U.S. will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons, and that in the next two to three weeks it will carry out extremely severe strikes on Iran. If no agreement is reached, strikes will be made on Iran’s power plants. In addition, Trump also said that the U.S. has ample gasoline. The U.S. is prepared like never before on the economic front. Oil production will soon increase significantly. He suggested that other countries buy oil from the U.S. We hardly import oil transported through the Strait of Hormuz. Once the conflict ends, the strait will naturally reopen.

In terms of economic data, the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the U.S. trade deficit in February was $57.3 billion, up 4.9% month over month, but below market expectations of $62 billion.

The U.S. Department of Labor showed that initial jobless claims for the previous week were 202k, lower than expected, indicating that the job market still has resilience.

A massive amount of information and precise analysis—exclusively on the Sina Finance APP