Must-know Overnight Global News On Friday: Iran Situation, US Personnel Changes And Economic Trends

[Overnight global news you need to know on Friday: Iran denies blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary will be replaced, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange lowers the margin ratio of gold and silver futures] 1. The Permanent Mission of Iran to the United Nations stated that the so-called claim that Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz is baseless and ridiculous. Iran has always abided by international law and safeguarded freedom of navigation. 2. Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Larijani said that Iran is ready to respond to US ground operations. 3. The Iranian military said it used a drone to hit the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier. 4. U.S. President Trump nominated U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. 5. Oregon, together with 23 other states, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of International Trade, requesting to block the new tariff measures recently announced by the Trump administration. 6. The United States and Mexico have launched a joint review process for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and U.S.-Mexico negotiators will begin holding bilateral talks the week of March 16. 7. The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to announce measures to deal with soaring energy prices as soon as Thursday, senior White House officials said, including using the oil futures market. 8. According to official news from Bahrain, a facility at the Bahrain National Oil Company's main refinery was hit by an Iranian missile on the 5th, causing a fire. 9. According to ICI, U.S. money market fund assets rose to a record $7.82 trillion. 10. European Central Bank President Lagarde said that monetary policy will be decided on a meeting-by-meeting basis based on data and there is no preset position. 11. Traders have increased their bets on the European Central Bank to raise interest rates, predicting a 75% chance of raising interest rates this year. 12. CME Group lowered the initial margin for its COMEX 100 gold futures from 9% to 7%, and lowered the initial margin for its COMEX 5000 silver futures from 18% to 14%. 13. The settlement price of international crude oil futures closed sharply higher. WTI crude oil futures April contract closed up 8.51%, Brent crude oil futures May contract rose 4.93%. 14. The three major U.S. stock indexes collectively closed down, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 1.61%, the S&P 500 Index falling 0.57%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 0.26%. Major European stock indexes closed down collectively, with Germany's DAX30 index falling 1.72%. 15. OpenAI releases GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.4 Pro models, supporting context windows of up to 1 million tokens. 16. Google has committed to investing US$50 million by 2030 to take action to combat powerful greenhouse gases. 17. Paramount CEO confirmed that HBO MAX and PARAMOUNT+ will be merged.