Dow Jones drops over 900 points, U.S. chip stocks decline across the board, oil prices surge 10%, Trump says he will not reach any agreement with Iran

On March 6, the U.S. stock market’s three major indices opened sharply lower. As of press time, the decline continued to widen, with the Dow down nearly 2%, the Nasdaq down 1.49%, and the S&P 500 down 1.65%. The VIX fear index reached a high not seen in over four months, currently at 28.57 points, up 4.82 points intraday.

Major tech stocks in the U.S. fell across the board, with all seven giants in the tech sector declining. Facebook dropped over 3%, Tesla and Amazon fell more than 2%. Most chip and semiconductor stocks declined, with ASML dropping over 5%, TSMC down nearly 3%, and AMD about 2%.

U.S. oil stocks performed strongly, with Battalion Oil surging as much as 50%, U.S. Energy up over 15%, Western Oil up more than 3%, and ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil rising nearly 2%. U.S. crude oil ETFs soared over 10%, with weekly gains approaching 30%.

Chinese assets defied the trend and strengthened, with the China Golden Dragon Index rising 0.44%. Among well-known stocks, JD.com gained over 5%, NetEase up more than 4%, Xpeng Motors and Zhongtong Express up over 2%, while Pony.ai fell more than 8%. Bilibili and Dingdong Maicai declined over 3%.

In precious metals, gold and silver prices rose. As of press time, spot gold increased by 0.22% to $5,095.8 per ounce, and spot silver surged 3% intraday to $84.78 per ounce.

Oil prices continued their upward momentum. WTI crude oil rose 10.27% to $89.33 per barrel, reaching a new high since April 2024. Brent crude increased 7.11% to $91.48 per barrel, also hitting a new high since April 2024.

According to Xinhua News Agency, citing Iran’s Mehr News Agency on March 6, a U.S. oil tanker was struck and caught fire near Kuwaiti waters.

Xinhua News Agency also reported that U.S. President Trump claimed on social media that “no agreement will be reached with Iran unless it unconditionally surrenders.” He added that the U.S. and its “many allies” will “make Iran great again!”

According to Xinhua Finance, on March 6, the U.S. released several economic data points: the February unemployment rate was 4.4%, versus an expected 4.3% and previous 4.3%. January retail sales month-over-month fell 0.2%, versus an expected decline of 0.3% and a previous flat reading. The average hourly wage in February increased at an annual rate of 3.8%, slightly above the expected 3.7% and previous 3.7%. The monthly increase was 0.4%, in line with expectations and previous 0.4%. Non-farm payroll employment in February decreased by 92,000, significantly below expectations, with the previous figure revised from 130,000 to 126,000.

Following the release of the data, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell sharply, while spot gold prices surged, leading traders to increase bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at least once by 2026.

According to Cailian Press, after the data was released, traders now estimate the probability of a Fed rate cut in June has risen to about 50%, up from 35% prior to the employment data release.