The three major U.S. stock indices show divergent trends, with popular Chinese concept stocks experiencing mixed gains and losses.

Phoenix.com Finance reported on March 11 that the three major U.S. stock indexes traded differently. As of the time of this release, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.73%, the Nasdaq was up 0.01%, and the S&P 500 was down 0.24%.

In terms of China concept stocks, Li Auto rose more than 3%; PDD, Legend Biotech, TuSimple, Shell, and XPeng Motors rose more than 2%; Tencent Holdings (ADR) and Kingsoft Cloud fell more than 4%; Tiger Brokers fell more than 3%; and UP Fintech, Bilibili, Vipshop, and iQIYI fell more than 2%.

Global news

IEA member countries agree to release 400 million barrels of oil

All 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) unanimously agreed to put 400 million barrels of oil from its emergency reserves into the market to deal with disruptions to the oil market caused by the war in the Middle East. IEA member countries hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of emergency stockpiles, and another 600 million barrels of industrial inventory are held under government obligations. Coordinated stock release marks the sixth time in the IEA’s history; the agency was established in 1974. Previously, collective actions were carried out in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.

U.S. February CPI year over year rises 2.4% Market expects the Fed to cut rates in July

Data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on the 11th showed that in February this year, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.4% year over year; after stripping out food and energy prices with larger fluctuations, February core CPI rose 2.5% year over year. Analysts said the data reflects U.S. inflation conditions before the outbreak of military conflict in the Middle East. Given that international oil prices have surged recently and the Strait of Hormuz is still under blockade, risks of a rebound in U.S. inflation pressures cannot yet be ruled out. Even though the nonfarm payroll data released recently was far below expectations, the market still expects the Fed may not cut rates again until July this year.

G7: In principle, supports using strategic reserves if necessary to stabilize the energy market

In a joint statement released on the 11th local time, the G7 energy ministers said that the parties in principle support taking proactive measures to respond to the current situation, including using strategic energy reserves when necessary. The statement said that on the 10th, the G7 energy ministers held a video meeting, and the executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the impact of the Middle East conflict on global energy markets, including oil and natural gas supply security and energy prices.

Huang Renxun authors a blog post in his own name: AI is the foundation of a “five-layer cake” infrastructure—still needs tens of trillions of dollars more to build!

On Tuesday (the 10th) Eastern Time, he rarely published a long-form personal blog post, “AI is a five layer cake,” and wrote, “We’ve just begun this construction. We have invested hundreds of billions of dollars already. There are still tens of trillions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure that needs to be built.” Huang Renxun wrote, “Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful forces shaping the world today. It is not a smart application or a single model; like electricity and the internet, it is an indispensable piece of infrastructure.”

Company news

Oracle releases strong results; strong AI orders temporarily ease market concerns

On Tuesday (the 10th) Eastern Time, Oracle, a U.S. software giant, reported strong quarterly results and raised its revenue outlook for fiscal year 2027. Oracle expects that in fiscal year 2026, ending this May, the company will record revenue of $67.0 billion. In addition, company executives raised the 2027 fiscal year revenue outlook by $1.0 billion to $90.0 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had previously expected revenue of $86.6 billion.

NVIDIA plans to release a “mysterious chip”; possibly a new architecture designed specifically for inference

The NVIDIA GTC conference, to be held in mid-March in San Jose, California, is one of the most watched events in the AI space. Earlier, Huang Renxun announced that it would launch a new chip that is “unlike anything in the world.” Once that was announced, discussion in the capital markets surged. At present, one of the most widely accepted views is that the chip scheduled to be released at GTC is most likely to take the form of a new inference product integrated with the Groq LPU (Language Processing Unit) design.

Apple’s most accessible product goes on sale; after government subsidies, laptop price first falls below 4,000 yuan

On March 11, the iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo were officially released. The two products in this release also break Apple’s previous price floor; after government subsidies, both are below 4,000 yuan. A reporter from Yicai in Shanghai’s city center saw an Apple store where, although there was no scene of crowds, there were still many consumers who came by to go straight to the laptop display counter with the lowest prices in Apple’s history.

U.S. Department of Defense accelerates AI deployment; Google Gemini agent proxy will enter office systems

Emil Michael, deputy assistant secretary for research and engineering at the U.S. Department of Defense, said that Google is planning to introduce AI agent proxies to the Pentagon’s 3 million employees to automate everyday work. Michael said that Google’s Gemini AI agents can complete tasks independently after users set them, and they will run initially on “non-classified” networks. “We’ll start with non-classified networks, because most users are at the non-classified level; then we will expand to classified and top-secret levels.”