Nasdaq Enters Correction Territory | Rewire News Morning Brief

The Nasdaq confirms entry into correction territory, Brent crude oil surges to $108. The chip smuggling case moves from the court to Capitol Hill, Apple turns Siri into an AI supermarket.

1｜Nasdaq Confirms Correction, Oil Price, War, and AI Fatigue Simultaneously Crush Tech Stocks

The Nasdaq fell 2.38% on Thursday, down 11% from its historical high on October 29 last year, officially confirming entry into correction territory. The S&P 500 fell 1.74% to 6477 points, marking the largest single-day drop since January. The Dow fell 1.01% to 45960 points.

Tech stocks are the hardest hit. Meta dropped nearly 8%, with a social media addiction negligence ruling being the direct trigger. AMD fell over 7%, Nvidia fell over 4%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 2.9% in a single day. Micron fell nearly 20% over five trading days, as the market continues to digest the impact of Google's TurboQuant algorithm significantly reducing AI memory demand.

The underlying drivers are oil prices and war expectations. Brent crude oil rose 5.66% to $108, WTI rose 4.61% to $94.48. ECB President Lagarde warned on the same day that the Iran conflict would raise inflation, hinting at a possible rate hike. The market is pricing in a question: is this a 2025-style pullback buying opportunity, or the starting point of a triple pressure of war, inflation, and AI valuation reassessment?

(Source: CNBC / The Motley Fool / Reuters / The Street)

2｜Senators Demand Freeze of Nvidia Export License, Chip Control Oversight Battle Comes to the Forefront

Senators Warren and Banks wrote to the Commerce Department, demanding an immediate halt to Nvidia's export license approvals to China and Southeast Asia, covering countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. The two are concurrently advancing the "Chip Security Act," whose core provision is to transfer export license review authority from the Commerce Department to Congress.

The timing of this letter is not a coincidence. The Super Micro case exposed a fact: export licenses issued by the Commerce Department are being systematically circumvented, with $25 billion in hardware flowing to places it shouldn't have reached through shell companies. Warren and Banks' logic is straightforward: if the executive branch cannot control the licenses, let the legislative branch do it. The focus of chip control is shifting from a technical enforcement issue to a power struggle in Washington.

(Source: CNN / Fortune / Tom's Hardware)

3｜Iran Builds a Renminbi Toll Booth in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran has not only blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. Fortune and Al Jazeera report that Iran is charging passing vessels up to $2 million in toll fees, with at least two transactions settled in renminbi, facilitated by a Chinese maritime services firm acting as an intermediary. CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) saw record transaction volume in March. As of March 23, at least 20 ships have passed through this "pay-to-pass channel."

Ship owners must submit a full set of documents to an intermediary designated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, including IMO numbers, cargo manifests, destination, and crew lists, all scrutinized by Revolutionary Guard Navy personnel. The Iranian Parliament is drafting legislation to institutionalize the temporary toll as a permanent system.

On the same day, Trump announced an extension of the deadline to target Iranian energy facilities until April 6. But the signal here is not a timeline for escalating war; it's about settling currency. Iran has turned the world's most critical energy chokepoint into a renminbi-priced toll machine using wartime control. (Continued from yesterday's report)

(Source: Fortune / Al Jazeera / Asia Times / Foreign Policy)

4｜Apple Opens Siri to Gemini and Claude, Ending OpenAI's Exclusive Era

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Apple plans to open Siri to third-party AI assistants in iOS 27. Users will be able to choose to redirect queries to Gemini or Claude in settings, not just ChatGPT. Apple is expected to make this official announcement at WWDC on June 8. This means OpenAI will lose its exclusive partnership with Apple.

On the same day, two sidelights completed the picture. Apple is giving rare retention bonuses to the iPhone design team as OpenAI aggressively poaches Apple hardware engineers. OpenAI is also shifting its focus; according to the FT, at the end of last year, OpenAI issued a "Code Red" internal alert because the probability of enterprise clients choosing Anthropic for AI purchases was three times higher than OpenAI's. OpenAI's enterprise market share has dropped from 50% in 2023 to 27%.

Apple acknowledges it can't produce top-tier AI, but it aims to have every AI vie for the access to 1 billion users. What OpenAI lost is not just a partner but an exclusive channel.

(Source: Bloomberg / MacRumors / FT / Entrepreneur / TechCrunch)

5｜Fannie Mae Accepts Crypto Asset Mortgage for First Time, Bringing Bitcoin into Housing Credit System

Coinbase and online mortgage lender Better have jointly launched the first Fannie Mae-approved crypto asset mortgage product. Borrowers can pledge Bitcoin or USDC as down payment collateral, retain asset ownership, avoid triggering a taxable event upon sale. Interest rates are 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points higher than standard 30-year rates. Key terms include no additional margin call requirement, no forced liquidation on Bitcoin price drop, with liquidation only initiated after a 60-day delinquency.

Simultaneously, another front is advancing in parallel. The White House has approved a review of crypto access rules for 401(k) retirement accounts, and if ultimately opened up, the $10 trillion retirement market will have an on-ramp for crypto assets.

This is not a victory party for the crypto industry but a recognition of the traditional financial infrastructure absorbing crypto liquidity. When Fannie Mae's name appears on a crypto product, the signal is clear that the federal housing credit system has embraced Bitcoin as an asset class.

(Source: CoinDesk / Bloomberg / WSJ / Fortune)

6｜Shield AI Valuation Soars 140% in One Year to $12.7 Billion, Reshaping War-Time Economy of Defense Capital

Defense AI startup Shield AI has announced a $12.7 billion valuation after raising $2 billion ($1.5 billion common equity and $500 million preferred equity), up from a $5.3 billion valuation a year ago. The lead investors are Advent International and J.P. Morgan Strategic Investments. The direct cause for the valuation surge was Shield AI's Hivemind autonomous flight system being selected for the U.S. Air Force's Air-Launched Collaborative Small Diameter Bomb program, providing software for Anduril's Fury unmanned combat aircraft.

On the same day, FT reported that Carlyle and KKR are building two $2 billion data centers for the U.S. Army. Traditional PE titans are treating military infrastructure as an asset class for allocation.

Shield AI's valuation cannot surge 140% in peacetime. The real signal is the source of capital, not venture capital, but institutional investors like J.P. Morgan and Advent betting that the wartime economy is a long-term state.

(Source: TechCrunch / Reuters / Bloomberg / FT)

Also Worth Knowing ↓

David Sacks' 130-day AI + Crypto Tsar term expires, moves to PCAST co-chair. No new Tsar appointed by White House. Sacks championed crypto executive order and Bitcoin reserve during his term, but stablecoin and market structure legislation remains unfinished. (Source: CNBC / Axios)

Goldman Sachs estimates Iran war could wipe out 10,000 jobs per month, with leisure hotels and retail hit hardest. Economist Pierfrancesco Mei's model projects Brent crude to average $105 in March, potentially spiking to $115 in April. Gen Z's concentration in hotel and food service industry makes them most vulnerable. (Source: Fortune / Goldman Sachs) (Continued from yesterday's report)

JPMorgan notes Bitcoin showing safe haven demand in Iran war, while gold and silver dip due to ETF outflows. $14 billion Bitcoin quarterly options expired on Friday, the largest this year. The traditional safe haven assets narrative is starting to loosen. (Source: CoinDesk / The Block / JPMorgan)

Cohere and Mistral simultaneously release open-source speech models, sparking a price war in the AI speech market. Cohere's 20-billion-parameter model can run on consumer-grade GPUs. Mistral's model is capable of running on a smartwatch. ElevenLabs' paid moat is narrowing. (Source: TechCrunch / VentureBeat)

China Information and Communication Research Institute, along with over 40 entities, releases the first industry standard in the field of embodied intelligence, effective June 1st. The standard covers benchmark testing methods and system framework. On the same day, Speedwise announces its first profitable quarter, with robot LiDAR annual sales of 300,000 units ranking first globally. (Source: 36Kr / CCTV News)

Helium shortage begins to impact tech supply chain. Several semiconductor company executives confirmed the impact at CERAWeek. Helium is a critical cooling material for chip manufacturing and fiber optics production, with the Iran war and Qatar production disruption exacerbating the supply crunch. (Source: Reuters)