Market Snapshot

Before the market opened on Wednesday, Nasdaq 100 futures rose by 0.15%, S&P 500 futures increased by 0.07%, Dow futures declined by 0.02%, U.S. crude oil advanced by 0.04%, and spot gold fell by 0.72%.

As the Middle East conflict and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz triggered a surge in energy prices, the US CPI data is undoubtedly surpassing non-farm payrolls to become the most closely watched US economic indicator at this stage. At 8:30 PM Beijing time tonight, the US Department of Labor released the highly anticipated March CPI data. The US CPI for March increased by 3.30% year-over-year, below the expected growth of 3.40%, and up from the previous reading of 2.40%. The core consumer price index (CPI) for March grew by 2.6% year-over-year, compared with an estimate of 2.7% and a prior value of 2.5%. On a month-over-month basis, the index rose by 0.2%, lower than the projected increase of 0.3%.

$Star Tech Companies (LIST2518.US)$Pre-market fluctuations were observed as Taiwan Semiconductor rose by 2.34%, ASML Holding gained 1.47%, and Oracle fell by 0.95%.

$China Concept Stocks (LIST2517.US)$Pre-market fluctuations were noted as Li Auto surged over 3%, Baidu climbed more than 2%, and XPeng Group dropped by 0.69%.

$Optical Communication (LIST23979.US)$Gains were seen pre-market as AAOI surged over 6%, Lumentum rose more than 5%. Bloomberg reported that the company expects to sell out its 2028 production capacity within two quarters. Coherent and Ciena both gained over 3%.

Individual Stock News

Anthropic agrees to pay$CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$Anthropic has agreed to lease data center computing power from CoreWeave to meet the growing demand for its artificial intelligence services. According to CoreWeave’s CEO, the computing power will include various NVIDIA chip architectures across U.S. data centers. This agreement will help Anthropic build and deploy its Claude AI model, with CoreWeave now adding four major AI model developers to its client list.

A leading player in the optical module sector$Lumentum (LITE.US)$Announcements indicate that orders may be fully booked through 2028, with NVIDIA directly securing capacity with a whopping $2 billion investment. All signs point to optical components following the same explosive growth logic as HBM, set to become the next ‘storage-grade’ trend in AI computing infrastructure.

Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston stated that the demand from top U.S. technology companies for its optical components is accelerating and is expected to fill its order book by 2028.

Hurlston said in an interview in Tokyo on Friday, “The capital expenditures of U.S. hyperscale cloud service providers are enormous and currently show no signs of slowing down. We are increasingly lagging behind demand. It is anticipated that within two quarters, our production capacity will be fully booked through the end of 2028.”

$Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$ The latest quarterly revenue released on Friday showed a 35% increase, indicating that global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips remained stable during the initial weeks of the Middle East conflict.

This major chip manufacturer for NVIDIA (NVDA.US) and Apple (AAPL.US) announced that its revenue for the three months ending in March reached NT$1.13 trillion (US$35.6 billion), surpassing the average analyst forecast of NT$1.12 trillion. Sales in March grew by 45%.

This report may help ease market concerns that prolonged conflicts in the Middle East could dampen demand for high-energy-consuming AI data centers and devices such as iPhones. The ongoing conflict has already placed pressure on global shipping routes and energy prices, with investors closely monitoring whether its impact will extend to the spending plans of technology giants.

• Applied Digital’s Q3 earnings report triggered a sharp sell-off: despite a 139% surge in revenue, shares plummeted by 8%, with analysts focusing on the next lease agreement.

$Applied Digital (APLD.US)$ The stock price fell nearly 8% on Thursday, despite the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter results for fiscal year 2026 and overall positive sentiment from analysts.

Applied Digital released its Q3 earnings report on Thursday Eastern Time. The data showed that revenue for Q3 was $126.6 million, an increase of 139% compared to the same period last fiscal year, surpassing the market consensus; the net loss attributable to common shareholders was $100.9 million, a decline of 179% compared to the same period last fiscal year, with basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common shareholders at $0.36, falling short of market expectations.

Needham maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock with a price target of $41. The firm noted that the company’s execution progress met expectations and it is currently awaiting lease agreements from hyperscale customers.

Bloomberg reported that six institutional shareholders of OpenAI, including hedge funds and prominent venture capital firms, sought to sell approximately $600 million worth of their OpenAI shares via the secondary market platform Next Round Capital. However, after reaching out to hundreds of institutional buyers, no takers were found.

The timing of this news is delicate. In the same week, OpenAI announced it had completed a new round of financing worth $122 billion, raising its valuation to $852 billion, setting a new record for unicorn valuations globally. Meanwhile, there were also reports that OpenAI is preparing for an initial public offering as early as Q4 this year. On one hand, there is capital euphoria; on the other, there is weak demand for existing shares.

As the venture with the highest funding in history, OpenAI is currently facing a rather complex situation. On April 7, another AI giant, Anthropic, announced that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) surpassed $30 billion, exceeding OpenAI’s previously disclosed $25 billion. For a time, headlines blared that ‘OpenAI’s revenue has been overtaken.’ Coupled with adverse news such as the loss of core talent and setbacks in trillion-dollar infrastructure plans, uncertainty around OpenAI’s IPO journey this year continues to grow.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced that the Monetary Authority has issued stablecoin issuer licenses under the Stablecoin Regulations to two entities—Dingdian Fintech Limited (a company jointly established by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT, and Ant Group) and HSBC—marking a new phase in the implementation of Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulatory framework. Licensed issuers must complete relevant preparatory work before officially launching their compliant stablecoins, including technology platform and system testing, risk management measures, and human resource arrangements. Based on the current business plans of these two institutions, it is anticipated that regulated stablecoins in Hong Kong will be rolled out between mid-year and the second half of this year.

Global Macro

As volatility surges and such extreme fluctuations once exceed those in the stock market, British government bonds (also known as ‘Gilts’), which have been favored by global investors over the past century, are now facing a severe test of their appeal. Some top asset management giants from Wall Street have even directly warned that holding one of the most popular bond assets traded over the last century now requires nerves of steel. Once considered ‘cheap and safe’, British Gilts have now become high-volatility assets amid Middle Eastern conflicts, fiscal concerns, and changes in market structure.

“The UK has recently been the market most exposed to this kind of high volatility and exceptionally sharp movements driven by geopolitics,” said Ales Koutny, head of international rates at Vanguard. He has unwound his aggressive bet on UK bonds outperforming continental European bond assets. “We still believe UK assets look very cheap, but now you need greater resilience to withstand this volatility.”

The ‘Rules for Price Behavior on Internet Platforms’ officially took effect on April 10. Previously, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Cyberspace Administration of China organized major platform enterprises to conduct self-examinations and corrections focusing on four areas: price competition, price labeling, autonomous pricing, and consumer rights protection. Key issues addressed included price fraud, unclear price labeling, forcing merchants to lower prices, and insufficient notifications regarding automatic renewals.

• Ukraine’s chief negotiator says progress is being made toward a ceasefire; oil prices plummet, European stocks jump. Kremlin: The special envoy’s visit to the US does not represent the resumption of peace talks.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s chief negotiator with Russia, stated that talks were moving toward a resolution and that the end of the conflict was “not far off.” WTI crude oil prices dropped sharply in the short term; the STOXX Europe 600 Index rose by 0.6%. Putin announced a ceasefire during the Orthodox Easter period. Zelenskyy expressed willingness to meet with Putin but stated it could not happen in Moscow, suggesting locations in the Middle East, Europe, the US, or other suitable venues. A special investment envoy of the Russian president is currently visiting the US, and the Kremlin clarified that this visit does not mean peace talks have resumed.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ravanchi stated at a meeting attended by foreign envoys and representatives of international organizations stationed in Iran that a consensus had been reached, and Iran’s ten-point plan would serve as the basis for negotiations.

He emphasized that Iran has always welcomed diplomacy and dialogue but will never accept discussions based on false information aimed at deception or paving the way for renewed military aggression against Iran.

Top 20 pre-market trading volume stocks in the U.S.

Reminder of the US stock market macroeconomic calendar

(The following times are in Beijing Time)

20:30

US March Unadjusted CPI Year-over-Year

US March Seasonally Adjusted CPI Month-over-Month

US March Seasonally Adjusted Core CPI Month-over-Month

U.S. March Unadjusted Core CPI Year-over-Year

22:00

U.S. April Preliminary One-Year Inflation Expectations

U.S. April Preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index

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Editor/Lee