Iran announced the indefinite closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while the US military attacked Iran for the fourth time within a week, sending international oil prices up more than 3%.

Futures for the three major US stock indices were mixed. DJIA futures edged up 6 points, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures lost 0.35% and 1.15%, respectively. South Korean stocks plunged 9%, while US chip and memory stocks came under pressure in pre-market trading. Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) dived 5.5% pre-market. Sandisk Corporation (SNDK.US), Western Digital Corporation (WDC.US) and Seagate (STX.US) shed 4.8-7% pre-market. Marvell Technology, Inc. (MRVL.US), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD.US), Intel Corporation (INTC.US), QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM.US) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) faded 1.9-3.1% pre-market.

Major Asia-Pacific stock markets generally declined today (13th). China's three major A-share indices closed down between 2.1% and 3.5%. Hong Kong stocks gained 38 points, or less than 0.2%, to close at 24,213 points, with turnover of HKD309.515 billion. Japan's Nikkei closed down 1,315 points, or 1.9%, at 67,242. South Korea's Kospi closed down 669 points, or 8.95%, at 6,806, marking a more than two-month low and triggering the seventh circuit breaker this year. Samsung Electronics plunged 10.7%, while SK Hynix tumbled 15.4%, marking the stock's biggest single-day decline on record. SK Hynix ADR, which was listed in the US last Friday, closed at USD168.01, 12.8% above its offer price. UBS previously issued a report recommending buying SK Hynix ADR while short-selling its listed South Korean shares.

European stocks were mixed in early Monday trading. The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.2% to 639.82. The UK's FTSE 100 edged down 0.1% to 10,486. France's CAC dipped 0.15% to 8,326. Germany's DAX added 0.1% to 25,087. Italy's FTSE MIB hiked 0.1% to 52,660. Spain's IBEX 35 sank 0.2% to 19,352.
~

AASTOCKS Financial News
Website: www.aastocks.com

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Stock & Type	Code	Strike(Call Level)	Last	Effective Gearing
MU (P)	11114	400 (-)	0.385	2.3 X
AMD (C)	11214	700 (-)	1.170	3.2 X
Nvidia (C)	11185	275 (-)	0.149	5.8 X
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