International oil prices surge significantly! U.S. stocks close lower! Iran's new Supreme Leader issues a tough statement

【Dahai Financial Cube News】U.S. stock three major indices all closed lower. By the close of the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 739.42 points from the previous trading day to 46,677.85, down 1.56%; the S&P 500 index fell 103.18 points to 6,672.62, down 1.52%; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 404.15 points to 22,311.98, down 1.78%.

Large-cap technology stocks mostly declined across the board, with Intel down more than 5%, AMD, Micron Technology, and Tesla down more than 3%, Qualcomm, Oracle, and META down more than 2%, and Apple, Google, and Nvidia down more than 1%.

Most of the popular Chinese concept stocks were lower, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index down 1.02%. Fangdd Network rose more than 16%, XPeng Motors rose more than 3%, and Tencent Music rose more than 2%; Futu Holdings fell more than 6%, TSMC fell more than 5%, iQIYI and DouYu fell more than 4%, and Bilibili fell more than 2%.

International oil prices surged significantly on the 12th. By the close that day, the light sweet crude oil futures price for April delivery at the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $8.48 to $95.73 per barrel, an increase of 9.72%; the light sweet crude oil futures price for May delivery at London Brent crude oil futures rose by $8.48 to $100.46 per barrel, up 9.22%.

In the New York late trading session on March 12, spot gold fell 1.88% to $5,080 per ounce. It continued to trend lower since 21:00 Beijing time, with the 04:31 update setting a new intraday low of $5,055.45. COMEX gold futures fell 2.06% to $5,072.40 per ounce, with an intraday trading range of $5,197.80–$5,058.20. Spot silver fell 2.13% to $83.9060 per ounce. As of the time of writing, spot gold rebounded and broke through $5,090 per ounce, up 0.26% for the day intraday. Spot silver was up 0.53% intraday.

On the news front, Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader Mujtaba Khamenei made his first statement on the 12th via State Television, mainly focusing on unity within Iran, external conflicts, regional relations, and mourning the late leader Ali Khamenei.

Mujtaba said that Iran will continue to adopt strategic measures, including blockading the Strait of Hormuz, and will open new fronts if necessary.