Houthi Attack Shifts Focus to US-Iran Showdown, US Stocks Trim Losses, Asia-Pacific Markets Plunge at Open, Cryptocurrencies Experience Slight Recovery

BlockBeats News, March 4th. Last night and this morning, Trump first vowed to "pay any price" on the Iran issue, causing a sharp drop in the US stock market at the opening, with the Dow once plummeting nearly 1300 points. Trump later announced that he would provide insurance and escort for oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, causing a sharp retreat from high levels in crude oil, the US dollar, and US bond yields. The stock market's decline narrowed, but the Nasdaq still fell by over 1%.

However, Iran is still closely monitoring the Strait of Hormuz. Mohammad Akbarzadeh, Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, stated that the Strait of Hormuz is now fully under the control of the Iranian Navy, with more than ten oil tankers hit by shells in the strait. The probability of "Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz" on Polymarket remains high.

In addition, Trump announced a trade embargo against Spain for refusing to support the United States, triggering renewed market concerns about trade uncertainty.

Iran has already chosen a successor to Khamenei. According to The New York Times, three Iranian officials familiar with the discussions revealed that Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, has become the leading candidate to be Iran's Supreme Leader. Officials said that the Iranian Experts Assembly is considering announcing Mojtaba as the successor on Wednesday morning, but some have expressed reservations, fearing that this may make him a target of US and Israeli attacks.

In early Asia-Pacific trading, the Japanese and South Korean stock markets plummeted. As of the time of writing, the South Korean KOSPI index's decline expanded to 6%, the South Korean KOSPI 200 index futures fell by 5%, and programmatic trading was halted for 5 minutes. The Nikkei 225 index fell below 55,000 points, with an intraday decline of 2.31%.

Cryptocurrencies saw a slight rebound last night and then stabilized in the morning. Bitcoin is now trading at $68,151.61, with a 24-hour increase of 0.64%, while Ethereum, relatively weaker, is trading at $1,981 with a 24-hour gain of 0.61%.