U.S. chip stocks and storage concepts surged late at night, with Intel rising nearly 8%, Western Digital soaring 10%, and oil prices falling 2%.

Reporter | Zhang Jiayu

Editor | Li Yutong

On April 1, stock markets in Europe and the U.S. rose across the board. As of 21:52 Beijing time, the STOXX 50 Index was up 2.4%, the German DAX Index was up 2.15%, and the UK FTSE 100 Index was up 1.28%.

The three major U.S. stock indexes opened higher and kept climbing. As of the time of publication, the Dow was up 0.55%, the Nasdaq was up 0.89%, and the S&P 500 index was up 0.59%. Technology stocks and China-concept stocks rose broadly, and storage-related stocks surged. Gold rose more than 2%, while international crude oil fell more than 2%.

Large-cap technology stocks rose across the board. Google rose more than 2%, Facebook rose more than 1%, and Nvidia, Tesla, and Apple rose more than 0.5%. Among the U.S. tech “Magnificent Seven,” only Microsoft fell, down 0.36%.

U.S. chip stocks climbed strongly. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3%, Intel jumped nearly 8%. According to a report by Caixin Finance, Intel will repurchase 49% of its equity in its joint venture wafer plant in Ireland for $14.2 billion. Micron Technology and Marvell Technology rose more than 7%. The storage segment showed particularly strong performance: Western Digital rose more than 10%, and SanDisk and Seagate Technology rose more than 6%.

Nike fell more than 12%. Earlier, the company unexpectedly lowered its sales outlook for the fourth fiscal quarter.

Oil stocks fell broadly. ConocoPhillips fell more than 2%, Exxon Mobil fell more than 2%, and Chevron fell more than 2%.

Gold mining stocks rose. Harmony Gold rose more than 5%, and Kinross Gold rose more than 2%.

Popular China-concept stocks rose collectively. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose more than 1%, Hesai Technology rose more than 7%, Kingsoft Cloud and Li Auto rose more than 5%, NIO and Futu Holdings rose more than 3%, Bilibili and XPeng Motors rose more than 2%, and Baidu Group and PDD rose more than 1%. On the downside, Meituan fell more than 4%, and BYD fell more than 2%.

In commodities, gold and silver moved in different directions. Spot gold rose 1.62% on the day to $4,744.562 per ounce, and at one point rose more than 2% intraday to break above $4,760. Spot silver fell 0.53% on the day to $74.74 per ounce.

In international crude oil, as of the time of publication, both WTI crude and ICE Brent were down more than 2%. WTI crude was $99.11 per barrel, and ICE Brent was $100.96 per barrel.

Iran signals ceasefire. According to CCTV News, Iranian President Pezeshkian said Iran is willing to end the war, but only if its demands are met—especially with assurances that it will not be subjected to aggression again. The U.S. president said on April 1 on social media that the Iranian side “has just requested a ceasefire from the United States.” However, he said the U.S. would only “consider” it when the Strait of Hormuz is opened. The Iranian side has made no response yet.

The U.S. says its forces will withdraw from the Iran conflict soon. According to CCTV News, local time on April 1, the U.S. president said the U.S. would “soon” withdraw from Iran (amid the conflict), but would carry out “pinpoint strikes” if needed. He said U.S. military action has made Iran “unable to obtain nuclear weapons,” and said that after withdrawal, if the situation changes, the U.S. may still re-intervene. When discussing NATO, the U.S. president expressed strong dissatisfaction, accusing the alliance of failing to support the United States’ goals on the Iran issue, and said the U.S. is “absolutely” considering pushing for the United States to exit NATO. He also said there is no clear timetable for when the Iran war will end, but the U.S. will not stay indefinitely.

U.S. March ADP employment and February retail sales both beat expectations. According to Xinhua Finance, U.S. February retail sales rose 0.6% month-on-month, versus 0.5% expected; the prior figure was revised from -0.2% to -0.1%. U.S. March ADP employment added 62,000 jobs, versus 40,000 expected; the prior figure was 63,000.

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