TradingKey Daily Market Briefing: Negotiation Deadlock Seesawing, Three Major US Indices Close Lower but Rally Post-Market, Asia-Pacific Stocks Open Under Pressure

TradingKey - As U.S.-Iran ceasefire negotiations hit a stalemate, market risk aversion intensified. International oil prices surged over 4% at one point, while risk assets including U.S. equities, Treasuries, gold, and Bitcoin faced simultaneous pressure. Following the U.S. market close, Trump stated he would delay strikes on Iranian energy facilities by ten days, causing oil prices to drop sharply before rebounding, while U.S. stock futures pared gains after a brief spike as the market was caught in a cycle of shifting expectations and intense price volatility.

Precious metals prices were under pressure, with spot gold (XAUUSD) falling below $4,400 per ounce at one point and spot silver (XAGUSD) dropping to near $68.4 per ounce.

In the energy market, during U.S. after-hours trading, WTI crude oil futures plunged from $94.39 per barrel to $89.51 before quickly rebounding to $93.6; Brent crude oil futures dove from $107.58 per barrel to nearly $100, sharply paring intraday gains.

Among individual stocks, the "Magnificent Seven" (Mag 7) were under pressure: Nvidia fell 1.37%, Tesla dropped 3.59%, Meta plummeted 7.96%, Apple edged up 0.11%, Google fell 3.44%, Amazon declined 1.97%, and Microsoft shed 1.37%.

Meta's share price has faced ongoing pressure recently as the market attempts to find a pricing equilibrium between AI prospects and high infrastructure costs.

Market Headlines

Trump announces delay of strikes on Iranian energy assets. Trump announced a further 10-day delay for strikes on Iranian energy facilities, extending the deadline to 8 p.m. ET on April 6. He stated that U.S.-Iran negotiations are "going very well" and noted the extension was at Iran's request. Previously, Trump had set deadlines of 48 hours and this Friday, making this the second postponement. Rallied by the news, international oil prices experienced sharp intraday volatility; WTI crude, which had surged nearly 6% during the session, subsequently turned lower.

Central Bank of Turkey sells gold following the outbreak of U.S.-Iran conflict. The Central Bank of Turkey, a long-term major buyer, sold or utilized approximately 60 tons of gold worth over $8 billion through sales and swap operations in the two weeks following the outbreak of the Iran conflict. Some of the gold was sold outright, while the remainder was used in swaps for foreign currency or lira liquidity. This move marks a significant shift in its policy stance and exerted downward pressure on gold prices in the short term.

Meta further scales up investment in AI infrastructure. On Thursday, the company announced it is increasing the investment for its data center project in El Paso, Texas, to approximately $10 billion—more than six times the initial $1.5 billion budget—underscoring its aggressive stance on computing power expansion. Against this backdrop, Meta's full-year capital expenditure could climb to a high of $135 billion. Although Wall Street has questioned the sustainability of such massive capex, tech giants overall continue to maintain intensive investment during this critical stage of the race for AI dominance.

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