【Morning Report】Saudi Arabia and Qatar oil and gas facilities attacked and catch fire; Iran warns: Middle East three countries' oil facilities become legitimate strike targets

Today, no new stock listings or subscriptions.

Macro News

1. On March 18, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on the Pilot Work of Extending the Second Round of Land Contract Expiry by 30 Years,” which made specific arrangements for the second round of land contract extensions. The opinions include five main parts: overall requirements, prudent and orderly implementation of the extension pilot, strengthening farmers’ land contract rights protection, improving rural land contract management, and strengthening organizational leadership, with a total of 15 specific measures.

2. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian hosted a routine press conference yesterday. A reporter asked that U.S. President Trump has confirmed the postponement of his visit to China, stating that the meeting with China will take place in about five to six weeks, and China has accepted this. Lin Jian said that high-level diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic leading role in China-U.S. relations, and both sides will continue to communicate regarding President Trump’s visit to China.

3. Iran announced on the 18th local time that it successfully struck the U.S.-exclusive area of the Riyadh Oil and Gas Joint Refinery located in the suburbs of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Explosions occurred consecutively inside the refinery, causing a large-scale fire. Qatar Energy issued a statement on the 18th local time that Qatar Ras Laffan Industrial City was attacked by missiles that night. The statement said the attack caused a fire and significant property damage but no casualties. Earlier that day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued an emergency warning, stating that five oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar had become legitimate targets and would be attacked within the next few hours, urging residents in the area to evacuate.

4. According to the Wall Street Journal on March 18, citing U.S. officials, after Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field that day, President Trump stated that he “does not want further attacks on Iran’s energy facilities.”

5. Liu Ji from the Ministry of Commerce hosted the “Invest in China” roundtable in Hong Kong and met with leaders of relevant Hong Kong chambers of commerce. Liu Ji pointed out that he hopes Hong Kong enterprises and multinational companies based in Hong Kong will actively participate in the emerging pillar industries and future industries outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan, leveraging Hong Kong’s “Four Centers” advantages to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.

6. The Federal Reserve announced that it will keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, maintaining the status quo for the second consecutive time, in line with market expectations.

7. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that the Federal Reserve believes the current policy stance is appropriate; he has no intention of leaving the Fed before the conclusion of the Department of Justice investigation.

Industry News

1. The China Securities Regulatory Commission held a meeting on March 17 to review the comprehensive strict governance of the party and disciplinary inspection work for 2026. The meeting emphasized further deepening special governance on corruption in key areas, focusing on key personnel and issues, increasing case investigations, especially cracking down on those who disrupt capital market order and harm the interests of small and medium investors, and resolutely removing “obstacles” and “stumbling blocks” hindering the reform and development of the capital market.

2. Global demand for AI has surged, and token call volume has increased, leading Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Smart Cloud, and other products to raise prices. According to comprehensive research reports, although the current large-scale commercialization of AI applications still lacks clear visibility, forecasts generally predict that in the next 3 to 6 months, as inference AI applications are densely implemented and combined with continuous iteration of training models, computing power demand is expected to further rise.

3. The Ministry of Natural Resources announced that China’s new round of mineral exploration breakthrough strategic actions has yielded new results, with solid mineral discoveries in Mianyang, Sichuan, and Dangchang, Gansu, including rare earths, fluorite, barite, and antimony.

4. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) long-term demand forecast (LTDP) shows that by 2050, global air passenger demand is expected to more than double the current scale.

5. Quadruped robots are becoming a priority for security in U.S. data centers. These robot dogs are equipped with sensors that can detect temperature fluctuations, leaks, water accumulation, and even abnormal noises indicating potential issues in server rooms or mechanical rooms.

6. Data from the China Index Academy shows that from January to February 2026, the total planned construction area of various land transactions in 300 cities was 237 million square meters, down 23.7% year-on-year. Overall transaction scale remains low. In terms of transaction structure and premium performance, high-quality land parcels in first-tier and core second-tier cities are highly competitive. From January to February, the premium rate for residential land transactions in first-tier cities reached 14.2%.

7. Leading domestic titanium dioxide company Longbai Group Co., Ltd. issued a price adjustment letter on March 16, announcing an increase in the price of all “Xuelian” brand titanium dioxide products from now on. Notably, this price increase occurred only 14 days after the previous round, which is relatively rare in terms of frequency.

Company News

1. Tencent Holdings announced that its Q4 non-IFRS net profit was 64.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17%.

2. ST Yigou announced plans to sell 100% equity of four subsidiaries at 8 yuan, expecting to increase the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders by about 117 million yuan.

3. *ST Jingfeng announced that the controlling shareholder has changed to Shiyao Holdings.

4. Changfei Optical Fiber announced that the third-largest shareholder, Yangtze River Communications, plans to reduce holdings by no more than 1 million shares.

5. Zotye Auto announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Shenkang Body, has resumed production.

6. Heshun Petroleum announced plans to acquire 51.11% voting rights of Kuaixin Technology, a high-speed interface IP company, for 540 million yuan, gaining control.

7. Watson Bio announced that the actual controller will change to Huang Tao, and trading will resume from today.

8. Shunhao Co., Ltd. announced that the “Ground Data Day Calculation” business may have advantages in competing with ground data centers in the next 5-10 years, though this process may face strong competition from industry peers.

9. CATL responded on the interactive platform regarding the electric vehicle subsidy policy adjustment, stating that subsidies will tilt toward mid-to-high-end models, which will be more favorable for the company’s market dominance in the mid-to-high-end segment.

10. GCL System Integration announced that Qianhai JinKong reduced holdings of 58 million shares from March 12 to March 17.

Global Markets

U.S. stocks closed lower across the board, with the Dow down 1.64%, the Nasdaq down 1.46%, and the S&P 500 down 1.36%. Major European stock indices also declined, with Germany’s DAX 30 down 0.96%.

International oil prices rose, with WTI crude futures closing at $96.32 per barrel, up 0.11%; Brent crude futures closed at $107.38 per barrel, up 3.83%.

International gold prices declined, with spot gold down 3.67%, at $4,822.05 per ounce; COMEX gold futures down 3.72%, at $4,821.90 per ounce.

Investment Opportunities Reference

1. The hard currency of the AI era, the “Token Factory” era begins

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang repeatedly emphasized the core concept of “Token Factory” in his GTC2026 keynote: under existing power, space, and cost constraints, enabling data centers to produce more, faster, and more commercially valuable tokens. He stated that tokens are the hard currency of the AI era, and computing power is the revenue of enterprises.

Currently, as model markets expand and accelerate realization, the token industry chain is becoming a new core focus. Zhong Jianshu from Changjiang Securities believes that as models enter the demand era, with increasing installed user base, the explosion of tokens will directly boost inference computing power and cloud demand in the short term. Vertically, AI applications in tools, social, entertainment, and other fields are expected to benefit from continuous improvements in model capabilities. Key points include: (1) Model side: explosive growth in Token/MaaS revenue leading to revaluation; (2) Domestic computing power: demand inflection point may ease supply and accelerate realization; (3) Cloud + IDC; (4) Applications: high-value, high-barrier, high-fulfillment varieties in scenarios like taxation and industry.

2. SK Hynix states global storage chip shortage may persist until 2030

According to media reports, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said in an interview in San Jose, USA, on the 16th that the global storage chip shortage may last until 2030. SK Hynix will do its best to stabilize prices and is considering issuing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

A Jian Securities analyst noted that benefiting from the sustained high prosperity of AI servers and the parameter upgrade cycle of storage chips in smartphones like iPhones, the storage industry will enter a new development cycle. Investment opportunities in domestic storage industry listed companies are recommended.