外媒每日新闻 Semiconductor Bear Market Edition

U.S. Central Command announced its eighth consecutive night of airstrikes against Iran on July 18, targeting road and rail bridges in southern Hormozgan Province. Iran confirmed at least five bridges were destroyed. In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched ballistic missiles and suicide drones against U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and Jordan. The Revolutionary Guard also struck a U.S. unmanned vessel storage facility in Bahrain and warned it would enter a phase of "comprehensive offense and destruction" if American strikes continue. The Strait of Hormuz vessel traffic has plunged 60% since the crisis began, with just eight ships confirmed passing on July 17 — the lowest in three weeks.^[1]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Defense Minister Fedorov — a figure with high public approval ratings — triggering the largest wave of public protests in Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. Thousands took to the streets of the capital on July 18 to denounce the move, which exposed deep tensions within Ukraine's military command. Separately, Ukraine claimed a successful drone strike on Russia's Engels airbase in Saratov Oblast, approximately 800 km from the Ukrainian border, destroying a Tu-95 strategic bomber.^[2]

U.S. equities ended the week lower on July 18, with the Dow Jones falling 0.77% to 52,146.42, the S&P 500 down 1.01% to 7,457.69, and the Nasdaq declining 1.40% to 25,520.24. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 2.3%, bringing its total drawdown from June highs to over 20% — the technical definition of a bear market. Nvidia and AMD both fell more than 3%, while the VIX volatility index surged. The weekly decline marked the third consecutive week of losses for the S&P 500. Energy stocks were the sole bright spot, buoyed by Brent crude holding above $80/barrel.^[5]

WTI crude oil for August delivery jumped 4.3% to close at $82.34 per barrel on July 18, while Brent crude gained 4.6% to $88.10. The weekly gains of approximately 15.5% (WTI) and 15.9% (Brent) marked the steepest weekly increase in years. The rally was driven by escalating U.S.-Iran military confrontation, with Iran's Revolutionary Guard striking a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. restarting interception operations. Oil drilling data showed the U.S. rig count rose to 452 (up 7 from prior week), but this was overshadowed by geopolitical risk premium.^[6]

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chiapas State in southern Mexico on July 18, triggering a tsunami warning for the Pacific coastline. Neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador also reported strong shaking. Mexican emergency services mobilized rapidly, though initial assessments suggested no major structural collapses in urban centers. The quake's depth was measured at 35 km below the surface, and seismologists warned of potential aftershocks exceeding magnitude 5.0 in the coming days.^[9]

Huawei showcased its Ascend 950 SuperNode (Atlas 950 SuperPod) at the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai on July 18 — the company's most powerful AI computing device to date. The chip cluster reportedly delivers 6.7 times the compute performance of Nvidia's equivalent system. Alibaba's Pingtouge, Baidu's Kunlun Core, and chips from沐曦, Moore Threads, and Suiyuan Technology also demonstrated the full lineup of Chinese AI silicon. The conference unveiled Shanghai's "Xingshu Initiative" — a flagship space-based computing project deploying satellite constellations for orbital AI processing.^[12]

SpaceX's Starship Flight 13 mission was dramatically aborted less than one second before liftoff on July 18, after multiple Raptor engines failed to ignite. The automatic abort system triggered propellant unloading and scrubbed the launch. It was SpaceX's first Starship launch attempt since going public in June, and the failure sent the company's stock tumbling below its $135 IPO issue price to $131.11. Elon Musk later posted on X that two engines would be replaced and a retry attempted "early next week." SpaceX's corporate bond yields have climbed to 7.5%, reflecting investor anxiety.^[13]

The hashtag #KimiK3 exploded across Chinese tech Twitter and financial circles after Moonshot AI's K3 model outperformed leading Western models. The development reignited memories of DeepSeek's breakthrough earlier this year, triggering a panic selloff in semiconductor stocks worldwide. Investors debated whether the "compute scaling paradigm" was dead, with one viral thread arguing: "Every time China proves you don't need a trillion dollars to build AGI, Wall Street loses a trillion dollars in market cap."^[16]