The international gold price remains close to the US$4,000 mark as the US-Iran conflict escalates and both sides expand the scope of their strikes: Global Markets

The international gold price remains close to the US$4,000 mark as the US-Iran conflict escalates and both sides expand the scope of their strikes: Global Markets.

On Friday Eastern Time, the three major U.S. stock indexes collectively closed down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.77%, a total loss of 0.93% this week; the Nasdaq fell 1.4%, a total loss this week of 2.9%; the S&P 500 Index fell 1.01%, a total loss this week of 1.55%.

Heavyweight chip stocks suffered a third straight session of losses as investors cut bets on the artificial intelligence (A) sector. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index retraced more than 20% from its all-time high on June 22 that day, officially entering bear market territory.

Rosenblatt Securities analyst Michael James said that the current market performance is "extremely driven by emotion and market sentiment" and was still in decline on Friday, which will not increase investor confidence in next Monday's market conditions.

International oil prices rose to their highest level in more than a month as the risk of conflict between the United States and Iran further escalated.

Both sides expanded their strikes and began attacking critical infrastructure: the United States attacked bridge facilities in Iran, while Iran launched an attack on a power and desalination facility in Kuwait.

The settlement price of WTI crude oil futures closed at US$82.49/barrel, an increase of US$3.54, or 4.48%, and a cumulative increase of 14.35% this week. The settlement price of Brent crude oil futures closed at US$88.10 per barrel, an increase of US$3.87, or 4.59%, and a cumulative increase of 15.91% this week.

COMEX gold futures closed up 0.77% at US$4,023/ounce, down 2.56% this week; COMEX silver futures closed up 0.06% at US$56.22/ounce, down 6.77% this week. [The US military says it will launch a new round of strikes against Iran] The U.S. Central Command stated that the U.S. military launched a new round of strikes against Iran at 3 p.m. Eastern Time that day.

This was the seventh consecutive night of air strikes by the U.S. military. The U.S. Central Command stated that this round of operations was carried out at the direction of President Trump and was designed to continue to weaken Iran's military capabilities.

[The United States is revealed to be sending dozens of additional tankers to Israel] Several sources from the United States and Israel said that the U.S. government has "notified" Israel that it will send dozens of additional aerial tankers to Israel and may subsequently expand military operations against Iran.

The news also pointed out that Prime Minister Netanyahu will make the final decision on this. According to Israeli sources, these US military tankers will arrive in Israel at a rate of 5 to 8 per day and are not expected to land at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The United States currently has about 30 tanker aircraft parked at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, and a similar number of tanker aircraft at Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

[Military Advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader: The U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is dead in name only] On the 17th local time, Mohsin Rezai, the military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said that the United States had violated the terms of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, and now this memorandum of understanding exists in name only.

Rezaei also said that the U.S. military is launching large-scale attacks on infrastructure in southern Iran through a hybrid warfare approach. As the US military launches another attack, Iran has expanded the scope of the war in accordance with previous warnings.

Rezaei said that if the United States continues to attack in the next few days, Iran's armed forces will transcend the current "deterrence and retaliation" phase and enter the "all-out attack and destruction" phase. By then, bases and soldiers outside the United States will become direct targets.

The United States should know that its attrition strategy of "fight and talk" has reached an impasse. In the coming days, Iran's attacks will become more violent. [Canadian wildfires damage U.S. air, Trump says he will recover losses with tariffs] U.S.

President Trump posted a post on social media on the 17th local time accusing Canada of not maintaining its forests well, saying that wildfires in Canadian forests have affected the air quality of the United States. Similar situations occur every year, causing "billions of dollars" in losses to the United States.

He said he would call the Canadian Prime Minister about this that day and threatened that US losses must be added to the tariffs paid by Canada. [Meta is said to be negotiating to lease computing resources to Anthropic worth up to US$10 billion over two years] Meta Platforms Inc.

is in preliminary discussions with Anthropic PBC and plans to lease the computing power of its data center to the latter. The partnership will last two years and be worth up to $10 billion. Previous reports stated that Meta was planning to launch a cloud computing business, including the possibility of leasing computing power to other companies.

Boosted by the above news, Meta's decline of nearly 6% earlier in the session narrowed. [SpaceX plans to provide AI computing power contract to the Pentagon, which may reach billions of dollars] According to media reports on Friday, SpaceX is negotiating with the U.S.

Department of Defense to provide data center computing power, and plans to provide the department with data center computing power worth billions of dollars for running AI models. The move will further deepen the partnership between Musk's companies and the Pentagon.

According to people familiar with the matter, the two parties are discussing an agreement: SpaceX will provide computing power to the Department of Defense, and the contract value may reach up to billions of dollars. However, negotiations are still ongoing and there is a possibility that the final agreement will fall apart. 【$100,000 per month!

Traders are reported to have access to a sneak peek service for Trump’s posts] U.S. President Donald Trump's social media company has discussed charging traders and investors up to $100,000 a month to give them faster access to content posted by the U.S. president on its social platform Truth Social, media reported on Friday.

Affected by this news, Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) U.S. stocks rebounded sharply during the session and finally closed higher. Since the beginning of this year, the stock has fallen by about 27%.

A spokesman for DJT said that the product will provide customers with content published by the 10 most influential accounts on Truth Social, and its push speed will be significantly faster than the notifications received by ordinary users through the Truth Social platform.

[Apple "draws its sword" on OpenAI again: About 40 former Apple employees received letters from lawyers] The latest news shows that Apple is taking a heavy blow in order to prevent OpenAI from launching competing AI hardware.

It is reported that about 40 former Apple employees currently working at OpenAI received a letter from their old employer’s lawyer, requiring them to save relevant documents and communication records, and meet with Apple lawyers to collect evidence.

As background, Apple took OpenAI to court last Friday, accusing it of stealing the iPhone maker's intellectual property to develop its own consumer-grade AI hardware. Apple requires OpenAI to stop such behavior and destroy all confidential information, while redesigning upcoming products to ensure that they do not contain any Apple technology. [U.S.

consumer confidence improved in July] U.S. consumer confidence rose to its highest level in five months in July, but the improvement may be temporary as renewed conflict in the Middle East pushes up gasoline prices.

The University of Michigan Consumer Survey said on Friday that its consumer confidence index rose to 54.4 this month, the highest level since February, compared with a final reading of 49.5 in June, and economists had forecast a rise to 51.0.

The survey was conducted from June 23 to July 13, and more than 70% of the interviews were completed before the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran collapsed last week, which pushed oil prices to a one-month high. (

#Stocks #Tesla #Apple #Meta #Amazon