Stock Market
The three major US stock indexes showed mixed performance. The US CPI inflation in February was lower than expected across the board, alleviating some of the market concerns.
As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82.55 points from the previous trading day to close at 41,350.93 points, a decrease of 0.20%; the S&P 500 Index rose 27.23 points to close at 5,599.30 points, an increase of 0.49%; the NASDAQ Composite Index rose 212.36 points to close at 17,648.45 points, an increase of 1.22%.
In the Indian market, the Sensex closed at 74,029.76, down 0.10%; the NIFTY 50 closed at 22,470.50, down 0.12%.
In other Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 (Japan) closed at 36,819.09, up 0.07%; the HSI (Hong Kong, China) closed at 23,600.31, down 0.76%; the KLCI (Malaysia) closed at 1,484.83, down 2.32%; the STI (Singapore) closed at 3,833.07, up 0.19%; the IDX Composite (Indonesia) closed at 6,665.05, up 1.82%.
- Designed specifically for the robotics industry! Google launches two new AI models: On Wednesday local time, Google announced the launch of two new artificial intelligence (AI) models based on Gemini 2.0, aiming to develop more flexible and interactive robots, which is expected to promote the application and popularization of robots in more scenarios.
- US regulators are reportedly advancing a large - scale antitrust investigation into Microsoft：The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is advancing a large - scale antitrust investigation into $MSFT towards the end of the Biden administration. This shows that scrutinizing tech giants is a priority for Andrew Ferguson, the new FTC chair appointed by Trump.
- Is TSMC planning to take over Intel's foundries together with NVIDIA and others? TSMC: No comment: On March 12th, there were reports that $TSM had proposed to $NVDA , AMD, and $AVGO to invest in a joint venture that would operate Intel's foundries, and TSMC's shareholding in the joint venture would not exceed 50%. In response to the above reports, TSMC replied that it would not comment on rumors.
Key Events
- US CPI inflation cooled down across the board in February, but the impact of Trump's tariffs has not fully emerged: On Wednesday local time, data released by the US Department of Labor showed that the US CPI inflation in February was lower than expected across the board, alleviating some of the market concerns. However, this improvement may be only temporary, as the wanton imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration is expected to continue to drive up the prices of most goods in the coming months.
- The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by 25 basis points as expected and warned of an impending crisis: On Wednesday (March 12th) local time, the Bank of Canada announced a 25 - basis - point cut in the policy interest rate and warned that “a new crisis” was approaching, as the tariff war launched by Trump could cause serious damage to the Canadian economy.
The latest price of BTC Bitcoin broke through to $83,784.01, with an intraday increase of 1.187%, and the 24 - hour trading volume reached $40.28 billion.
The latest price of ETH Ethereum reached $1,909.41, with an intraday decrease of 0.54%, and the 24 - hour trading volume was $22.869 billion.
- Standard Chartered Bank: The recent decline in Bitcoin is related to the overall weakness of risky assets, and it is expected to reach $200,000 by the end of 2025: Geoff Kendrick, Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, said that the recent price fluctuations of Bitcoin are in line with the performance of risky assets such as the “Magnificent Seven” in the US stock market, rather than issues within the cryptocurrency itself. If the downward trend continues, Bitcoin may fall below $76,500 and test the support level of $69,000. Despite short - term pressure, Kendrick remains optimistic about the long - term prospects of Bitcoin and expects it to reach $200,000 by the end of 2025.
