**U.S. stock market sees decline across the board, with initial jobless claims higher than expected

**Middle East tensions could worsen, causing a surge in international oil prices

**Most Chinese concept stocks fall, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index down 2.37%

Persistent concerns surrounding the situation in the Middle East, coupled with the latest initial jobless claims exceeding expectations, led to a decline across all three major U.S. stock indices on Thursday (3rd). By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 184.93 points, a decrease of 0.44%, to 42011.59 points; the NASDAQ Composite fell by 6.65 points, a decrease of 0.04%, to 17918.48 points; the S&P 500 index fell by 9.60 points, a decrease of 0.17%, to 5699.94 points.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported during the day that the number of initial jobless claims increased slightly last week, slightly higher than expected. For the week ending September 28th, the total number of initial jobless claims was 225,000, 6,000 more than the previous week and higher than the market's expectation of 220,000. Joe Quinlan, Chief Investment Officer at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Private Bank, believes that the labor market is neither too good nor too bad, and the overall situation is still quite good, and it is crucial to recognize this.

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The market is awaiting the release of the non-farm employment data on Friday. Jeremiah Buckley, Portfolio Manager at Janus Henderson, a UK-based asset management firm, stated that although the upcoming employment report and other economic data remain the focus of the stock market in the short term, the market fundamentals are still strong enough to withstand the impact of weak data.

Middle East tensions could worsen, causing a surge in international oil prices

Geopolitical tensions have caused fluctuations in the energy market, affecting investor nerves. The price of the near-month contract for U.S. WTI crude oil futures closed up 5.15%, at $73.71 per barrel; the price of the near-month contract for Brent crude oil futures closed up 5.03%, at $77.62 per barrel.

According to U.S. media reports, President Biden hinted in response to a question that the U.S. is discussing whether to support Israel in attacking Iranian oil facilities. This statement was interpreted by the market as considering actions against Iran's energy infrastructure, causing international oil prices to rise.

Iran is one of the world's top ten oil-producing countries, with about half of its production exported abroad. Since Iran launched a missile attack on Israel on Monday of this week, the price of Brent crude oil has risen by about 10%, but it is still below the levels seen earlier this year. Some market analysts believe that as tensions in the Middle East escalate, the risk of oil supply disruptions increases, but OPEC+ has a large amount of spare crude oil that can fill the gap.SEB, the Swedish Nordic bank, Chief Commodity Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop stated that if Israel retaliates against Iran's ballistic missile attacks by striking Iran's oil infrastructure, OPEC+'s remaining production capacity is sufficient to compensate for the interruption of Iran's exports.

There are also warnings that any increase in major energy prices could push up gasoline prices, as well as natural gas and electricity bills, thereby increasing inflation; particularly concerning is the potential blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant amount of global oil tanker transportation and liquefied natural gas transportation currently pass.

ING Group's research report pointed out that the Strait of Hormuz is crucial for the transportation of oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, and Qatar produce 22.8 million barrels of oil per day, of which approximately 20 million barrels are transported through this route daily, accounting for 20% of the global consumption of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

Furthermore, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) oil research department, most of the crude oil transported through the Strait of Hormuz is directed towards the Asian market, exposing the relevant economies to greater supply risks; given the global nature of the oil market, any blockade would affect all regions with rising oil prices.

Most Chinese concept stocks fell, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index down 2.37%.

As of the closing bell, 9F Inc. fell 24.19%, QuantumS之歌 fell 17.40%, NetEase Youdao fell 13.78%, Bilibili fell 8.80%, NIO and XPeng Motors both fell nearly 7%, iQIYI fell 6.58%, Baidu fell 5.12%, Alibaba fell 2.09%, and JD.com fell 0.45%. Among the gainers, AMTD Digital fell 33.50%, Tiger Brokers rose 14.02%, Futu Holdings rose 8.81%, and Zhihu rose 3.66%.

Among other focus stocks, NVIDIA closed up 3.37%. Its CEO, Huang Renjun, used the term "insane" to describe the market's huge demand for the company's Blackwell chips. Huang Renjun stated in a media interview that despite recent design issues causing delays in launching the chips, they have now gone into full production.

Previously, the postponement of Blackwell's market launch had sparked market concerns, leading to adjustments in NVIDIA's stock price. However, investors and analysts remain confident in the development momentum of the artificial intelligence industry. Bloomberg's survey results show that 90% of Wall Street analysts recommend buying the stock, with most analysts predicting that NVIDIA's stock price will rise to around $147.60 in the next year. So far this year, NVIDIA's stock price has risen by more than 150%; over the past five years, its stock price has cumulatively increased by more than 2600%.

In addition, ChatGPT developer OpenAI has just announced the completion of a $6.6 billion financing round, valuing the company at $157 billion. Market analysis points out that this will also be beneficial to NVIDIA, as part of OpenAI's latest financing will directly flow to NVIDIA, and its data center demand will benefit the chip giant.