U.S. stock indices experienced significant volatility during Thursday's session, initially declining sharply before recovering. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 each gained over 0.1%. For the week, the Dow has accumulated a gain of 1,338 points, a rise of 3%. The Nasdaq is up 930 points, or 4.4%, and the S&P 500 has advanced 3.36%, marking its largest weekly gain since November of last year.
Technology stocks displayed a mixed performance. Intel gained nearly 5%, Advanced Micro Devices rose over 3%, and Nvidia increased by nearly 1%. In contrast, ASML and ARM both fell more than 3%. Tesla Motors saw a sharp decline of 5.4%, its largest single-day drop since November. The company reported first-quarter deliveries of 358,000 vehicles, a sequential decrease of 14.4%, marking the second consecutive quarter of results falling short of expectations.
Chinese concept stocks were also mixed. Popular tea chain brand saw gains of over 10%, Tencent Music rose more than 2%, and Nio increased over 1%. On the downside, Century Internet declined over 4%, GDS Holdings fell more than 4%, while JD.com, Alibaba, Lufax, and Kingsoft Cloud each dropped more than 1%. A standout performer was a Chinese chemical stock, which surged over 15% and has now rallied for three consecutive trading sessions, accumulating a gain of more than 69%.
In other individual stock news, low-earth orbit satellite communications company Globalstar jumped 13.4%. Reports indicate that Amazon is in negotiations to acquire the company.
International crude oil futures prices rose sharply. WTI crude surged 11.4% to settle at $111.54 per barrel, trading above $110 for the first time since 2022. Brent crude increased by 7.8%.
Precious metals generally declined, with gold prices halting a four-day winning streak. Spot gold closed down 1.71% at $4,677.1 per ounce, while spot silver fell 2.73% to $73.05 per ounce. COMEX gold futures dropped 2.3%, and COMEX silver futures declined 3.8%.
The cryptocurrency market faced a broad sell-off. As of 6:30 AM ET, Bitcoin was down nearly 2%, and Ethereum had fallen over 4%. Over the past 24 hours, nearly 190,000 traders globally faced liquidations, with total liquidations amounting to $460 million.
Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, reports state that the Iranian military announced the strait will remain closed to U.S. and Israeli vessels. Separately, due to the "uncertain outlook" for the Strait of Hormuz, some Gulf nations are reportedly considering constructing new oil pipelines to export oil and gas while bypassing the strait.
In a related development, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy Command stated it had targeted data centers belonging to U.S. tech giants Oracle and Amazon located in the Gulf region, specifically in Dubai, UAE, and Bahrain. However, the Dubai Media Office issued a statement denying that an attack occurred on the Oracle data center in Dubai.
In response to potential U.S. military action, the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, Amir Hatami, reportedly instructed combat command that if the enemy launches a ground attack, not a single enemy soldier should be allowed to survive.
(Note: This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors should proceed at their own risk.)
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