Strait of Hormuz, breaking news! Trump's latest statement! Crude oil surges, US-EU stock markets, gold, and silver all decline across the board!

Last night, international crude oil prices surged, while European and American stock markets, gold, and silver all declined collectively. Major news from the Middle East, with statements from Trump.

On March 20, international oil prices rose sharply. By the close of trading, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange increased by over 2%, and Brent crude for May delivery on the London ICE Futures Exchange rose by over 3%.

According to reports, on March 20 local time, a CCTV news reporter learned that U.S. Department of Defense officials have developed detailed plans for deploying U.S. ground forces to Iran. It is understood that President Trump has been considering whether to deploy ground troops in Iran.

On March 20, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform “Real Social” that as they consider gradually de-escalating major military actions targeting the Iranian regime in the Middle East, they are very close to achieving their set goals:

1. Completely weaken Iran’s missile capabilities, launch systems, and all related facilities.

2. Destroy Iran’s defense industrial base.

3. Eliminate Iran’s naval and air forces, including air defense systems.

4. Never allow Iran to even approach nuclear capability; at the same time, the U.S. must always maintain a posture that allows for rapid and forceful retaliation if such a situation arises.

5. With the highest level of effort, protect U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and other countries.

Trump stated that the guarding and patrols of the Strait of Hormuz should be undertaken by other countries that use the strait when necessary, and the U.S. will no longer bear this responsibility. If invited to assist, the U.S. is willing to support these countries’ operations in the Strait of Hormuz, but once the threat from Iran is completely eliminated, such assistance will no longer be necessary. Importantly, for these countries, this will be an easy military operation.

According to the latest report from CCTV News, citing the U.S. Department of the Treasury, on March 20 local time, the U.S. approved a 30-day authorization allowing the delivery and sale of ships loaded with oil and petroleum products originating from Iran. The new license permits the sale of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products already loaded onto ships as of March 20.

On March 20, the U.S. dollar strengthened, and international gold and silver prices plummeted. Spot gold fell by 3.43%, and COMEX gold futures dropped by 2.16%. Spot silver declined by 6.89%, and COMEX silver futures fell by 4.54%.

The three major U.S. stock indices all closed lower: Dow Jones down 0.96%, Nasdaq down 2.01%, and S&P 500 down 1.51%.

In individual stocks, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dropped over 33%. SanDisk fell over 8%, Western Digital declined over 7%, and Micron Technology fell over 4%.

In Chinese concept stocks, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index declined by 2.92%. Kingsoft Cloud dropped over 9%, Xpeng Motors fell over 8%, NIO declined over 7%, GDS Holdings fell over 7%, Hesai Photonics dropped over 6%, and Bilibili declined over 4%.

European stock markets mostly declined: Germany’s DAX 30 fell 2%, France’s stock index dropped over 1.8%, Italy’s stock index declined nearly 2%, and the UK stock index fell over 1.4%.

Some content compiled from CCTV News.

Editor: Liang Qiuyan

Proofreader: Xu Xin