Oil rebounds as Middle East diplomacy eases, gold stabilizes around $3,950

Brent crude rose by 1.7% to $106.53/bbl, recovering part of an earlier 8% rout from the start of the week. The commodity market remains on edge and sensitive to any geopolitical signal. Comments that Tehran's leadership has expanded negotiating authority and hints of diplomatic progress have capped prices, but the ongoing conflict maintains a high risk premium.

The recent easing of oil pressure gave precious metals some relief. Gold posted its best one-day gain of 1.9% in two months and is now consolidating near $3,950 per ounce as traders try to find a floor after October's sell-off. A mix of elections, macro prints, and commodity swings promises a nervy week for traders, best managed with a wide toolkit of trading instruments. Follow the link for more details.

US semiconductor sell-off slams Asian markets on election day

Asian stock markets were hit by a wave of selling: South Korea's Kospi plunged by more than 3%, Taiwan's benchmark lost 3.6%, and tech giants Samsung and SK Hynix fell by 4% each. The sell-off was triggered by a large pullback on Wall Street where the Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped by 12% over three days and the Nasdaq 100 entered a technical correction. Investors are trimming positions in crowded AI-heavy portfolios ahead of the US vote and the release of critical US labor data.

Worries about the payback period for massive AI investments are pushing capital into safer havens and leaving the high-tech sector under heavy pressure. Follow the link for more details.

Intel's 28.6% crash sparks global semiconductor panic

Intel suffered its worst single-day collapse since 1974, plunging by nearly 29% and wiping roughly $140 billion off its market cap in a single session. The paradox is that the trigger was not the quarter report, with Q3 revenue jumping by 21%, but an extremely gloomy outlook for the end of the year. The AI boom pushed memory-chip prices to extremes, sharply raising PC costs and hammering consumer demand: Intel's CPU revenue is now expected to fall by more than 20%. The situation was worsened by an accident at Intel's Israeli factory that will be offline for two weeks, costing roughly $300 million in lost revenue.

Intel's weak guidance prompted banks to cut their price targets and sparked a contagion of selling globally. The US semiconductor index tumbled by 7.2%, AMD shares lost 11%, and trading in SK Hynix and Samsung was halted in Seoul after steep declines. Follow the link for more details.