Late-night U.S. stocks see storage chip plunge, AMD crashes 28%, Chinese concept stocks tumble

Ask AI · Why has gold failed to hold onto its safe-haven status amid the conflict in the Middle East?

Reporter | Jin Shan Wu Bin

Editor | Jiang Peixia

On March 20, the three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower and kept falling. As of 22:25 Beijing time, the Dow Jones Index was down 0.61%, the S&P 500 Index was down 0.93%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.27%.

Large-cap tech stocks continued to slide. Tesla was down more than 2%; Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook were all down more than 1%.

Chip stocks saw more declines than gains. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 1%, TSMC fell more than 2%, ASML and Micron Technology fell more than 1%, ARM rose 5%, and Qualcomm rose 0.8%. Storage chips were collectively hammered, with Western Digital and SanDisk down more than 5%.

In addition, Super Micro Computer fell by more than 28%, hitting a new low since November 2024. According to Caixin/ 财联社, Super Micro Computer has recently been involved in a smuggling case that violates U.S. export controls.

As for China concept stocks, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 1.78%. Popular China concept stocks generally fell. Kingsoft Cloud fell by more than 11%, XPeng Motors fell by nearly 5%, and Bilibili, HD, Baidu Group, and others fell by more than 2%.

Gold and silver dropped sharply in the short term. Specifically, spot gold fell by more than 2%, losing the 4600 level, to $4,555 per ounce. Spot silver was down more than 5% intraday, currently at $69 per ounce, and its year-to-date gains have been completely erased.

As the traditional “king of safe havens,” gold, amid the Middle East’s thunder of fire, has not shown its safe-haven attributes. This week’s “unexpected” downtrend has left investors shocked. The Middle East conflict is pushing up energy prices and raising concerns about inflation. As a result, the market expects major central banks to keep borrowing costs at high levels, and the gold price has been falling for seven consecutive trading days.

Fawad Razaqzada, a senior strategist at GAIN/嘉盛集团, told 21 reporters that gold is caught between two opposing forces: on one hand, geopolitical tensions that typically benefit safe-haven assets; on the other, a macroeconomic environment dominated by rising yields and a stronger U.S. dollar. Previously, gold had managed to withstand these negative factors with impressive resilience. But over the past few weeks, things have started to look bad. Even though geopolitical tensions can provide some demand for safe haven, macro factors have largely suppressed that. Gold itself does not generate yield, and it tends to perform better in a low interest-rate environment. Now, traders no longer expect the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy this year, and some have even begun hedging against potential rate hikes. (See details)

As the gains in international oil prices widened, WTI crude rose 1.05% to $96.552 per barrel; Brent crude rose 1.39% to $105.221 per barrel.

U.S. 10-year Treasury yields rose to 4.36%, the highest level since August.

According to a report by CCTV International News, citing information from people familiar with the matter, today (March 20) the U.S. “Axios” reported that the Trump administration is considering pressuring Iran by taking over or blocking Iran’s Qhark Island/哈尔克岛, forcing it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Several people familiar with the matter said the relevant plan is still under evaluation and no final decision has been made. (See details)

Meanwhile, according to a report by CCTV News, local time on the 20th, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement saying that its navy and air force coordinated operations and launched the 68th wave of the “True Promise-4” operation. The statement said the operation used the “Khoramshahr-4” missile, the “Kader” missile, and dozens of attack drones to carry out strikes on 25 targets in places including Haifa and Tel Aviv in Israel, and it also targeted multiple U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

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

Produced by | 21 Finance Client 21st Century Business Herald