New U.S. development: On March 11, U.S. President Trump abruptly reversed course, announcing he would tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to cool soaring oil prices. Speaking in Cincinnati, he said the U.S. would first 'slightly draw down' the reserve before refilling it—aiming to calm energy-market panic triggered by U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran.

At 10 a.m. on the 10th, Secretary Wright had still firmly told allies that market intervention was premature and should not be undertaken rashly. Who could have imagined that just two hours later, a barrage of urgent White House phone calls would force him into an on-the-spot policy reversal. Such a sudden break from policy inertia is exceptionally rare in politics. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had long been seething with anger, directly blaming the White House’s hardliners as the arsonists behind this energy crisis. In reality, this is a high-stakes gamble for survival. Since late February, U.S. gasoline prices have surged by 20% nationwide. Ordinary Americans don’t care who’s fighting whom in the Middle East—they only care that filling up their tank now costs an extra $10–$15. 172 million barrels, to be released over 120 days. It sounds massive—but against the cold laws of physics, it’s like trying to extinguish a refinery engulfed in flames with a garden hose. Consider this stark comparison: The U.S. pipeline’s current maximum release capacity stands at 2 million barrels per day. Meanwhile, the blockaded Strait of Hormuz has cut off 16 million barrels per day in global flow. After the crude release policy was announced, international oil prices remained above the $100-per-barrel threshold; Brent crude’s price curve vividly reflected market dissatisfaction and skepticism. Markets are never swayed by hollow rhetoric—capital always focuses squarely on the real gap between supply and demand. Even more bizarre maneuvers unfolded behind the scenes. To stabilize oil prices, the U.S. reportedly pressured Israel to halt its imminent strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure. It’s hard to imagine a major-power president acting with such caution. This contradictory 'pressing the accelerator while simultaneously slamming the brakes' reveals Washington’s deepest fear: It wants to flex muscle in the Strait of Hormuz—but dreads that rising fuel gauges might literally burn its electoral votes to ash. If you open the U.S. Department of Energy’s ledger, the picture there is even more alarming than the oil price itself. As of March 6, the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve had plummeted to a historic low of 415.4 million barrels. After releasing this latest 172 million barrels, America’s energy defense buffer will shrink to less than 30% of its total capacity.

Wall Street Insights Morning Briefing FM-Radio | October 22, 2026

Tencent’s share price hit a one-year low: falling below HK$400, with year-to-date losses nearing 40%. Core pressure stems from massive AI investments: capital expenditures surged 176% year-on-year to RMB 52.78 billion in Q2; UBS estimates AI-related operating expenses reached RMB 16 billion in Q3, dragging adjusted operating profit down 2% year-on-year. However, excluding AI strategic investments, underlying profit growth remained robust at 13%, and gross margin rose逆势 to 57.2%. Tencent will release its Q3 earnings on November 18 and has already issued bonds to further ramp up AI spending. Pop Mart fell over 13% in five days. Duan Yongping stated he would add to his position. He remarked, 'I’ll likely buy more,' but emphasized his stake would remain under 10% of the company—since exceeding that threshold would alter the firm’s power structure. DeepSeek open-sourced its inference framework; social media calculations suggest inference gross margins may exceed 95%. DeepSeek open-sourced its foundational inference stack, DeepInfer, and disclosed per-GPU-hour revenue of $38. Overseas social media analysts used this data to estimate hardware-level gross margins per GPU card at 84%–96%. This calculation triggered industry-wide resonance; analysts further projected that API gross margins for mainstream models from OpenAI and Anthropic may likewise reach 95%. Overseas The U.S. deploys 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East; Israel prepares for another round of strikes; Iran issues war warnings—has the Middle East powder keg reached detonation point? The U.S. has deployed a third aircraft carrier and approximately 10,000 troops to the region; Israel is intensifying preparations for strikes against Iran; and Iran’s foreign minister has warned that a new war may erupt. Although Trump opposes reigniting hostilities before the midterm elections, Israel’s military drills and readiness upgrades continue unabated. As U.S.-Israel-Iran tensions escalate, regional conflict risks rise—Brent crude has broken above $110, WTI has crossed $100, and energy markets face fresh shocks. Trump unveils new oil-price measure ahead of election: U.S. plans to lend one-third of its heating oil reserve. The U.S. Department of Energy intends to lend up to 315,000 barrels of heating oil—roughly one-third of the Northeast’s emergency heating oil reserve—with delivery expected by November 13. A DOE official noted the government would assess whether further reserve drawdowns are necessary. Macron’s Middle East trip secures diesel supply: France to receive nearly 300,000 tons monthly. Saudi Arabia agreed to supply France with an additional 95,000 tons of diesel per month; the UAE and Bahrain each pledged an extra 100,000 tons monthly. French energy giant TotalEnergies is involved in implementation. The duration of this additional supply remains unspecified. Macron previously stated in September that France must prepare to deploy 'military means' in response to international crises, stressing all efforts would be made to reopen the Strait of Hormuz—including potentially lowering fuel taxes to curb soaring oil prices. NVIDIA GTC Berlin: Telecom base stations poised to become AI compute nodes; Jensen Huang urges Europe-wide AI adoption. Jensen Huang unveiled a slew of new products at the Berlin GTC conference—including the modular AI factory DSX Pod, the agent-security architecture OpenShell, a humanoid robot reference platform, and autonomous driving partnerships—and announced nearly $10 billion in European investments over the past year. He called on every industry to become an AI company, predicting telecom base stations will evolve into distributed AI networks.

US to Loan One-Third of Heating Oil Reserve to Tame Prices

Nov 4, 2026

The US Energy Department will loan 300,000 barrels of fuel oil from its emergency reserve to four companies to curb surging winter heating prices amid Middle East disruptions. Deliveries from Northeast storage sites are scheduled by November 6.

reuters

2026-10-20

US Energy Department Collaborates with Refiners to Boost Diesel Output

2026-11-04

US to Loan One-Third of Heating Oil Reserve to Tame Prices

US to Loan One-Third of Heating Oil Reserve to Tame Prices

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