European stocks plunge at opening! Gold dives, silver crashes

On March 19, Asian-Pacific stock markets collectively declined, with the Nikkei 225 index down 3.38%, the Korea Composite Index falling 2.73%, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 and New Zealand S&P/NZX 50 indices dropping nearly 2%.

Major European stock indices also opened lower, with Germany’s DAX, the UK’s FTSE 100, and France’s CAC 40 all falling over 1%.

Spot gold plunged sharply, touching a low of $4,696.0 per ounce, breaking below the $4,700 mark, with intraday declines exceeding 2%. Currently, it’s down 2.07% at $4,714.1 per ounce. Spot silver’s intraday drop widened to 7%, breaking below $70 per ounce.

In the A-share market, both major indices tumbled significantly, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling over 1% and briefly losing the 4,000-point level, while the Shenzhen Component Index dropped over 2%. Hong Kong stocks also declined, with the Hang Seng Index and Hang Seng Tech Index both down over 2%, and southbound funds net buying exceeding HKD 26 billion.

Specifically, during the trading session, stock indices fluctuated and declined rapidly toward the close. The Shanghai Index briefly fell below 4,000 points, and the Shenzhen Composite and STAR Market indices dropped over 2%. By the close, the Shanghai Index was down 1.39% at 4,006.55 points, the Shenzhen Composite fell 2.02%, the ChiNext Index declined 1.11%, and the STAR Market index dropped 2.3%. The combined trading volume of Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing markets was approximately 21.3 trillion yuan, up about 660 billion yuan from the previous day.

Over 4,900 A-share stocks declined, with the metals, steel, and chemical sectors leading the declines. Three-Board Lane, which had hit four consecutive daily limit-ups recently, was halted during trading. AnYang Steel fell nearly 9%. Conversely, gas and oil sectors rose against the trend, with TianHao Energy (300332) hitting a 20% daily limit, KaiTian Gas up nearly 20%, and ShouHua Gas up nearly 14%. The coal sector also gained, with Shaanxi Black Cat hitting the daily limit and China Shenhua rising over 4%. The computing power concept also saw renewed activity, with Copper Bull Information hitting a 20% daily limit and Hongjing Technology rising over 18%, both reaching new highs. Notably, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of China all advanced collectively.

Oil and Gas Sector Surge

The oil sector surged strongly during the session. By the close, ShouHua Gas was up nearly 14%, Blue Flame Holdings hit the daily limit, and CNOOC and PetroChina rose over 5% each.

The gas sector also gained, with TianHao Energy up 20%, KaiTian Gas nearly 20%, and Hongtong Gas and Guo Xin Energy hitting the daily limit.

Amid escalating Middle East conflicts, international oil prices surged sharply on the 18th, with May-delivered Brent crude futures briefly surpassing $110 per barrel.

According to CCTV Finance, on the 18th, Israel’s Defense Forces attacked Iran’s largest natural gas facility in Bushehr, southern Iran, which processes 40% of Iran’s natural gas.

Early on the 19th, Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas facility was hit again by missiles. Earlier that day, Iran claimed it had attacked oil facilities in Gulf countries hosting Iranian enemies. Ras Laffan Industrial City is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas production site.

Additionally, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Media Office confirmed on the 19th that fragments from intercepted missiles fell on Habbashan Gas Facility and Bab Oilfield, affecting both. Habbashan Gas Facility has been temporarily shut down.

Citigroup analysts believe Brent crude could rise to $120 per barrel in the coming days. If energy infrastructure suffers widespread attacks or the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for an extended period, Brent crude could average $130 per barrel in Q2 and Q3 this year.

Coal sector also rallied, with Shaanxi Black Cat hitting the daily limit, Dayou Energy and China Shenhua rising over 4%, and Shaanxi Coal Industry, Yankuang Energy, and China Coal Energy up over 3%.

Institutions note that geopolitical conflicts between the US, Israel, and Iran have caused rapid increases in international oil, gas, and chemical prices. Coupled with adjustments in Indonesian coal quotas and export policies, international coal prices have also risen. These events have heightened market focus on energy security and inflation, boosting the overall energy sector.

Computing Power Sector Active

The computing power concept was active again during the session. By the close, Copper Bull Information hit a 20% high, setting a new record, Hongjing Technology rose over 13%, reaching new highs with an 18% increase during the session, Jiechuan Intelligent rose over 10%, and Meili Yun and Litong Electronics both hit the daily limit.

Industry-wise, as AI applications become more widespread and OpenClaw gains popularity, the market for computing services is entering a price increase cycle. Major cloud service providers like Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Baidu Cloud, and others have announced price hikes for AI computing power and related services. Since the beginning of the year, overseas cloud providers have also raised prices for core products. On January 22, Amazon announced a 15% price increase for EC2 instances used for large model training. On January 27, Google Cloud announced price hikes for data transfer, AI, and computing infrastructure services, with increases up to 100%.

Analysts say that the wave driven by OpenClaw is pushing AI Agent concepts toward large-scale application, redefining human-computer interaction paradigms and forcing security system upgrades. Its high demand for reasoning tokens further boosts the growth of the AI industry’s computing power.

Open Source Securities believes that the open-source AI assistant OpenClaw has launched a new Agent paradigm, becoming a focus for major domestic cloud providers like Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tianyi Cloud, China Mobile Cloud, JD Cloud, Volcano Engine, and Baidu Cloud, all supporting it. OpenClaw continues to perform tasks such as coding, debugging, tool invocation, file reading, and iteration. Token consumption has shifted from “human-machine dialogue” to “machine self-loop,” with each task potentially consuming hundreds of thousands or millions of tokens, driving massive demand for computing power.