Oil prices surge! Iran drones attack Oman’s largest oil storage facility

On March 11th, local time, the three major U.S. stock indices closed mixed, with the Dow down nearly 300 points. The market continued to focus on developments in the U.S.-Iran war situation and the oil price trend.

Iranian drones attacked Oman’s largest oil storage facility, leading investors to worry that the conflict could expand and evolve into a full-scale confrontation that disrupts global supply нефти.

The Dow fell 289.24 points, down 0.61%, to 47,417.27; the Nasdaq rose 19.03 points, up 0.08%, to 22,716.13; and the S&P 500 index fell 5.68 points, down 0.08%, to 6,775.80.

International Energy Agency member countries urgently release 400 million barrels of oil reserves

On Wednesday, Iranian drones attacked the oil storage facilities at the Port of Salalah in Oman, the latest attack targeting energy infrastructure in the Gulf region. Investors are concerned that the war in the Middle East will expand and evolve into a full-scale confrontation over global oil supply.

According to maritime security firm Ambrey and Oman’s official media, the port’s fuel storage tanks were hit in the attack, but no commercial ships in the area were damaged.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency oil reserves— the largest reserve-release operation in the organization’s history. Governments are trying to curb the surge in energy prices triggered by the war in the Middle East.

With traders weighing the threats facing oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz against the IEA’s historic emergency reserve release, oil prices rose by more than 4%.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures rose 4.76%, closing at $91.98 per barrel. U.S. WTI crude futures rose 4.55%, closing at $87.25 per barrel.

Even after the IEA said it would release 400 million barrels of oil (the largest reserve release in its history) to address supply disruptions caused by the war, oil prices still saw gains.

A protracted conflict may keep oil prices at elevated levels. On Tuesday, after Tehran attempted to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz— a key shipping lane crucial for oil supply— U.S. forces sank several Iranian ships near the strait, including 16 mine-laying boats.

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations also said on Wednesday that three cargo ships near Iran’s coast (one of them located in the Strait of Hormuz) were hit by shellfire.

Just a few days earlier, U.S. President Trump said earlier this week that the war would “end very soon.” On Wednesday, Trump again claimed to the media that oil prices would fall.

On Wednesday, U.S. economic data showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February rose 2.4% year over year, matching expectations from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. Before the report was released, signs of weakness in the labor market had been increasingly evident in recent months.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics under the Department of Labor reported that after a 0.2% increase in January, the CPI rose 0.3% in February. Over the 12 months through February, CPI rose 2.4%, the same as the increase in January, reflecting the removal of last year’s high-base effect. The CPI increase was in line with expectations.

To achieve the 2% inflation target, the central bank of the United States closely monitors the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index.

Data released by the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday showed that the U.S. federal budget deficit for the current fiscal year through February had already exceeded $1 trillion, but was far lower than the level in the same period last year. In February, government spending exceeded revenue by $308 billion, roughly unchanged from the deficit in the same month last year. The total budget deficit for this fiscal year to date is $1.004 trillion. Because government revenue is growing faster than spending, it is down about 12% versus the same period in 2025.

NVIDIA launches open-source model Nemotron 3 Super

In terms of sectors, among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, eight fell and three rose. The consumer staples sector and the real estate sector led the declines, with drops of 1.29% and 1.12%, respectively. The energy sector and the technology sector led the gains, with increases of 2.48% and 0.35%, respectively.

Most large tech stocks rose. Oracle rose more than 9%, Micron Technology rose more than 3%, and Intel, Tesla, and TSMC rose more than 2%. Advanced Micro Devices, NVIDIA, Google-A, ASML, and Meta saw slight gains. Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom, Amazon, and Qualcomm edged down. Boeing fell more than 1%, and Netflix fell more than 2%.

NVIDIA rose 0.66%, with trading volume of $25.935 billion. On Wednesday, NVIDIA launched Nemotron 3 Super, an open-source model with 120 billion parameters (120b-parameter). The model has been deeply optimized for the Blackwell architecture; it is claimed that when processing agent AI systems, its throughput can be as high as five times that of the previous Nemotron Super model, with accuracy improving by two times. NVIDIA’s purpose in launching this model is to address the costly issues caused by “Long Thinking” and “Context Explosion,” which have previously constrained the workflow speed of autonomous agents (Autonomous Agent). The open-source Nemotron 3 Supe model currently supports Google Cloud and Oracle, and support for Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure will also be rolled out soon.

Most financial stocks fell. Mizuho Financial fell more than 3%. Mastercard and regional banks fell more than 2%. Wells Fargo, Visa, BlackRock, Hartford Insurance, First Capital Financial, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Travelers Insurance all fell more than 1%. Goodstar Insurance, MetLife, Deutsche Bank, Charles Schwab, JPMorgan Chase, AIG, and Bank of America edged down. Morgan Stanley, UBS Group, Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp, and American Express edged up, while Mellon Bank rose more than 1%.

Most energy stocks rose. Petrobras rose more than 5%, Western Oil and BP rose more than 4%, Apache Oil rose more than 3%, and Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil rose more than 2%. Imperial Oil rose more than 1%, while Duke Energy and Schlumberger edged up. U.S. Energy fell more than 2%.

Most of the popular China-concept stocks declined. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index (HXC) closed down 0.77%. Tencent Music, iQiyi, Huya, and NIO fell more than 4%. Bilibili and Kingsoft Cloud fell more than 3%. Vipshop, Tiger Securities, NetEase, and Ctrip fell more than 2%. Pinduoduo fell more than 1%. Futu Holdings and Alibaba and Baidu edged down. New Oriental and JD.com rose more than 1%. XPeng Motors and Li Auto rose more than 2%.