Crude oil surges, gold dives! Israel enters "highest alert state"
[Crude oil surges, gold dives! Israel enters "highest alert state"] On July 23, two major factors disturbed the market. The conflict between the United States and Iran continued to escalate. International oil prices rose again, with WTI crude oil futures rising by more than 3%. International gold prices took a plunge, falling by more than 1% during the session. In addition, US technology giants increased their capital investment in the field of artificial intelligence, causing market doubts about the prospects of returns.
On July 23, two major factors disturbed the market. The conflict between the United States and Iran continued to escalate. International oil prices rose again, with WTI crude oil futures rising by more than 3%. International gold prices took a dive, falling by more than 1% during the session. In addition, US technology giants increased their capital investment in the field of artificial intelligence, raising market doubts about the prospects of returns. Against this background, European stock markets experienced a sharp decline after the opening, but then the decline narrowed; before the U.S. stock market opened, Tesla, Google and other technology stocks fell sharply, and Nasdaq 100 index futures fell by more than 0.5%. International oil prices surge again As of press time, WTI crude oil futures rose by 4% to US$90.31/barrel; ICE Brent oil prices rose by nearly 3%, with the highest price reaching US$92.75/barrel, a new high since June 8 this year. According to Xinhua News Agency, the Times of Israel reported on the 22nd that the United States has notified Israel that it plans to intensify its attacks on Iran in the next few days, including the use of heavy bombers for the first time since the United States and Israel took military action against Iran this year. According to reports, the heavy bombers are expected to be used to attack Iran’s Haoshan underground nuclear facility. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened in the past week that a strike in the region "may be coming soon." According to reports, the United States and Israel maintain close coordination to prepare Israel for counterattacks by Iran that may escalate as the United States intensifies its strikes, including launching missiles at Israel. According to reports, after receiving the notification from the United States, Israel has entered the highest alert state. Crude oil prices continued to strengthen, and international gold prices plunged. COMEX gold and London spot gold both fell by more than 1%; COMEX silver fell by more than 2%, and London silver fell by nearly 2%. Shenyin Wanguo Futures Research pointed out that continued disturbances from the conflict between the United States and Iran, while the Federal Reserve maintains a hawkish stance and repeated interest rate hike expectations, limit the rebound space of precious metals. From a mid- to long-term perspective, the price center of precious metals has the basis for a sustained upward trend: global geopolitical risk centers are rising, the restructuring of the political and economic order continues, at the same time, the fiscal pressure on the United States intensifies, the de-dollarization process will continue to advance, and the trend of global central banks increasing their gold reserves continues. U.S. technology stocks come under pressure before market opens Technology giants’ increased capital investment in the field of artificial intelligence has triggered market doubts about the return prospects. Before the U.S. stock market opened, Google fell more than 3%. Google parent company Alphabet announced its second-quarter results. Cloud business revenue significantly exceeded Wall Street expectations, and cloud order backlog exceeded the $500 billion mark for the first time. However, the market focus quickly turned to the other side: This is the first time that Google's free cash flow has turned negative in decades since it went public. At the same time, the company raised its full-year capital expenditure guidance for the second time this year, causing investors' concerns about whether the AI gamble can bring corresponding returns. Tesla fell more than 5% before the market opened. Tesla announced revenue of US$28.24 billion in the second quarter of 2026, with adjusted earnings per share (EPS) falling 18% year-on-year to US$0.33. Gross profit margin for the quarter was 16.8%, lower than the expected 19.4%. Tesla CEO Musk said in a conference call that Optimus is the company's most difficult product to achieve large-scale mass production. Tesla executives reiterated that capital expenditures (CapEx) will exceed US$25 billion this year, and pointed out that the negative free cash flow in the second quarter was due to CapEX more than doubling quarter-on-quarter, and CapEx is expected to grow in the next two or three years. U.S. technology giants fell before the market opened, causing U.S. stock index futures to generally fall before the opening, with Nasdaq 100 index futures falling by more than 0.2%. Major European market indexes fell sharply after the opening, but then rebounded in shock. France's CAC40 index fell by more than 1% during the session, and the decline narrowed to less than 1% as of press time; Germany's DAX index once fell nearly 1% during the session, with a decline of 0.37% as of press time; Britain's FTSE 100 index fell by 0.5% during the session, and then continued to rise and showed a brief rise.