The Strange Case of the Tang Palace: A female body was stolen. Li Peiyi took her own life to solve the case. The princess’ death was shrouded in mystery! , solving the case, the real murderer, secret marriage, extermination of the family, Li Peiyi, full of fog
At the beginning of 2025, TikTok experienced a dramatic shutdown and restart in the United States, and every move it made attracted global attention. This regulatory tug-of-war across the Pacific not only highlights the severe challenges TikTok faces in overseas markets, but also reveals its difficulty in surviving in the international environment.
Although regulatory pressure from Europe and the United States continues to increase, TikTok's global popularity continues to rise, and downloads have grown rapidly, demonstrating its strong market appeal and user base.
KJ123 learned that the latest data from AppFigures showed that in January 2025, TikTok took first place in the global application download rankings, ending Instagram’s dominance for more than a year. Among them, the explosive growth of the Southeast Asian market has become a key engine, especially Indonesia, which contributed the largest share of TikTok's new global downloads in a single month.
As the largest economy in Southeast Asia, the importance of the Indonesian market to TikTok is self-evident. Official data shows that by continuing to increase investment in localization, TikTok has provided total advertising credit to Indonesian government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and small, medium and micro enterprises in 2024. It has reached 15.3 billion Indonesian rupiah (approximately US$940,000), an increase of 6 times from the initial stage.
What is more critical is its layout in the e-commerce field. After experiencing policy fluctuations, TikTok invested in the acquisition of local e-commerce giant Tokopedia. It not only successfully resolved the regulatory crisis in Indonesia that prohibited direct transactions on social platforms, but also relied on Tokopedia's mature logistics network and user base to deeply integrate live streaming e-commerce with the traditional shelf model, further consolidating its market position.
In addition to Indonesia, TikTok e-commerce also performed well in the Thai market. Data shows that from January to August 2024, TikTok Shop's product purchase volume increased threefold, and the amount of cooperation between brands and creators increased fourfold, driving more than 3 million local users to earn income through content creation.
With the vigorous development of Southeast Asia's digital economy, the e-commerce industry is facing unprecedented opportunities for transformation and growth. According to the "2024 Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report" jointly released by Google, Temasek and Bain, the scale of Southeast Asia's digital economy is expected to reach US$263 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Among them, short videos and live broadcasts have become important driving forces for the growth of e-commerce. More than 40% of Southeast Asian online shoppers rely on video content when making purchasing decisions.
With the right time, place and people, TikTok Shop successfully seized the opportunity of social e-commerce and quickly emerged as a force that cannot be ignored in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market. Surveys show that TikTok Shop has become one of the most popular shopping channels in Southeast Asia, thanks to the strong appeal of short videos and live broadcasts. It is expected that TikTok Shop’s e-commerce market share in Southeast Asia will reach 15% by 2024, an increase of 5% from 2023.
According to KJ123, TikTok Shop’s global site layout has expanded to 6 regions, among which Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Southeast Asia have become the first key markets for TikTok e-commerce.
In order to take advantage of the e-commerce boom in Southeast Asia, TikTok is accelerating its e-commerce layout and launching a series of innovative measures. For example, the "refund without return" function has been effective since January 8, and the "Resumption of Work and Production Task Competition" launched last year for the Southeast Asian market.
According to the official announcement of TikTok Shop Southeast Asia, this "Resumption of Work and Production Task Competition" will cover the five major markets of Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore. In order to motivate platform merchants, TikTok Shop has launched a number of support policies, including a GMV growth incentive plan from January 1 to March 31, a Spring Festival resumption support plan, and advertising investment growth incentives, aiming to help merchants achieve business growth at the beginning of the new year.
However, it is worth noting that TikTok’s development in the e-commerce field in Southeast Asia has not been smooth sailing, and it still faces multiple challenges.
In order to protect local enterprises, Southeast Asian countries have strengthened their supervision of the e-commerce market, especially the supervision of cross-border enterprises. For example, the Vietnamese government has tightened regulations on taxation and counterfeit products. Recently, Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce has united 16 government agencies and major e-commerce platforms to jointly crack down on the online sales of substandard and illegal products. According to a statement from Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce, they have implemented a “removal from shelves at notice” policy. Once goods are deemed substandard, they will be removed immediately to ensure that consumers are protected from low-quality products.
In addition to the challenges of government regulation, TikTok also needs to deal with fierce competition from established e-commerce giants such as Shopee and Lazada. These platforms not only have a huge user base and mature operating systems, but are also actively exploring new areas of social e-commerce to enhance their competitiveness. Taking the Shopee Malaysia site as an example, during the Spring Festival this year, Shopee live shopping experienced explosive growth. The number of buyers on Shopee Live surged 116% year-on-year, holiday food searches increased by more than 3,000%, and orders from local merchants increased by 240%.
In addition, TikTok also faces challenges from other platforms in the field of social e-commerce that TikTok is good at. For example, YouTube has partnered with Shopee to launch YouTube Shopping services in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Since YouTube has a deep user base in Southeast Asia, this will undoubtedly bring greater competitive pressure to TikTok.
Although the road ahead is full of challenges, TikTok has shown momentum to compete with e-commerce giant Shopee in the Southeast Asian market. Although its fate in the United States is still unresolved, in Southeast Asia, the future development of TikTok e-commerce is worth looking forward to. In the future, we will wait and see whether TikTok can further enhance its status in the Southeast Asian market.
-------- END --------
On March 14, "Lei Feng helps the elderly in Jia's home - 2026 Jia' Elderly Care Charity Week" was launched.
The "People's Livelihood List" of services for the elderly released on site in 2026 systematically integrates the Jiading District Civil Affairs Bureau's "Old My Elders" project to improve home care capabilities, the home bathing project for disabled and semi-disabled elderly people, and other ten community elderly care projects, the Jiading District Disabled Persons' Federation's free cognitive impairment prevention and rehabilitation testing and digital literacy training, and the Jiading District Veterans Personnel The "Bone Health" project of the Ministry of Health and Human Services, the "Medical and Nursing Home Linkage", "Two Cancer Screenings", "678 Silver Age Guardian Action" of the Jiading District Health Commission, and the "Yiqi Movement" and "Happy Sunset" projects of the charity foundation aim to build an all-round elderly security system from home safety to quality life, and from physical health to spiritual care.
The reporter learned that in response to outstanding problems such as difficulty in getting downstairs for the "hanging elderly" in old communities, difficulty in bathing for the disabled elderly, and lack of expertise in cognitive impairment care, the Jiading District Civil Affairs Department launched three exemplary service measures for the elderly, including stair climbing machines: allowing the "hanging elderly" to land steadily; bathing aids: providing "a pool of warmth" to the disabled elderly; and memory guardians: making cognitive impairment no longer helpless.
Among them, the elderly over the age of 80 can use the stair climbing machine for free 60 times a year, and the elderly from low-income families with minimum living allowances can enjoy up to 240 free services. The "Home Bathing Project for the Disabled and Semi-Disabled Elderly", through the model of "government subsidies, corporate profits, and personal responsibility", allows the elderly who have been bedridden for a long time to "take a decent bath". As of the end of 2025, relevant departments have served a total of approximately 4,800 people. In response to cognitive impairment, Jiading District will compile an "Operation Management Guidance Manual" in 2026, create a municipal demonstration institution, introduce AI technology to achieve "individual care + intelligent empowerment", and transform professional care from "bed availability" to "quality".
Improving the efficiency of services for the elderly requires coordinated efforts from the government and social forces. The "7×24-hour Video Doctor" free service launched by Shanghai Tonghe Orthopedic Hospital provides all-weather online medical support for the elderly. Residents can connect to professional doctors with just one click of a call, effectively breaking the time and space constraints of traditional medical care and providing "non-closing" health protection for elderly families with limited mobility.
During the charity week, relevant activities will be carried out in the "Wojia Neighborhood Center" in 12 streets and towns, including Nanxiang, Zhenxin, Malu, and Jiangqiao. During the event, the senior citizen charity market will provide residents with convenient services such as health consultation, elderly care policy consultation and Q&A, assistive device experience and rental.
The costume suspense drama "The Strange Case of the Tang Palace: The Wind in the Blue Mist" is directed by Yin Tao, starring Bai Lu and Wang Xingyue, and is currently on the air!
Li Peiyi was once a well-fed and well-loved county head, but when she was nine years old, her entire family was suddenly exterminated. No one in her family was spared, but she had a chance to escape because she entered the palace. People all over the world said that her father suddenly became insane and committed suicide after massacring his family members. However, Li Peiyi knew that her father had been wronged and wronged, and the real culprit was still at large. For more than ten years, she has endured hardships and endured hibernation. With her extraordinary perseverance, she entered the inner circle, just to secretly investigate the truth and avenge her father.
Coincidentally, the bodies of unmarried women were frequently stolen in the capital, and strange things happened one after another. Li Peiyi made a decisive decision and used her own life to set up a trap. She unexpectedly uncovered the real culprit behind the scenes, the current Hong Lu Qing. A dignified official of the imperial court actually colluded with a young man and committed the dirty business of stealing corpses and engaging in secret marriages. This crime cannot be punished. Hongluqing immediately killed Li Peiyi in order to deceive others and kill people. Li Peiyi was originally a man of extraordinary skill and martial arts, but she took Xiuxi Pills as part of a fake-death scheme and forced her energy to run, which led to depletion of energy and blood, making her unable to achieve her goals. She was eventually captured by Hongluqing, who decided to bury her alive and nail her body with peach wood nails in an attempt to calm her soul.
Unexpectedly, things will take a turn for the worse, and all of this is due to Li Peiyi's trick. A secret marriage was not enough to bring down the powerful Hongluqing, so she deliberately surrendered to arrest her, just to upgrade her charge to murdering the Lord of Fuchang County, making it difficult for him to fly. Hongluqing was desperate and tried to threaten the marriage of the fifteenth princess. Little did he know that although Li Peiyi and the fifteenth princess were brothers and did not want her to marry far away, she could not allow the traitor to go unpunished and was eventually brought to justice.
The fifteenth princess has been neglected since she was a child due to her low status as a biological mother. Li Peiyi is her only close friend. On the day of the marriage, the whole capital was celebrating with loud gongs and drums, but only Li Peiyi stood at a high place, worried. The princess specially selected a pair of jade bracelets from the rewards as a token of friendship with Li Peiyi. But just as the fireworks filled the sky, an unknown fireball suddenly struck. The guards were caught off guard. The fifteenth princess at the top was unable to escape and was instantly swallowed by the fireball. When the fire was extinguished, the princess had been reduced to charred bones. Only the pair of jade bracelets fell into pieces, becoming the only clue at the scene. Li Peiyi was distraught and took the initiative to ask Ying to accept the imperial edict, vowing to find out the real murderer and avenge her friends.
At the beginning of the investigation, Taishi Cheng Xiao Huaijin was full of doubts and became the primary suspect. Xiao Huaijin repeatedly reminded the exploration direction in good faith, but was ignored by the anxious Li Peiyi. Later, Li Peiyi peeled off the cocoon and discovered that the murderer used wax oil and silk threads to pretend to be a ghost. His committing methods were meticulous, and he must be someone who could freely come and go in the palace and was familiar with the banquet process. Following the traces of gunpowder left at the scene, Li Peiyi discovered that the palace lantern fuse was hidden in the dark room under the stage, which was the source of the explosion. The secret of the secret door was already hidden in the paintings provided by Xiao Huaijin.
Seeing that Xiao Huaijin was thoughtful and knowledgeable, Li Peiyi immediately invited him to join forces to investigate the case. Xiao Huaijin wanted to refuse, but suddenly received an imperial decree ordering him to assist Li Peiyi in solving the case, and was full of doubts. It turns out that Li Peiyi had already understood that the Holy Father was worried about the evil aspects of the astrology and the instability of the court, so she used the astrological theory to convince the Holy One. The two men were divided into two groups. Xiao Huaijin traced the source of the gunpowder, while Li Peiyi followed the tung oil on the bucket to trace clues. Unexpectedly, she accidentally inhaled the drug on the way. When she woke up, she discovered that the key witness had been silenced. The worker in charge of the bucket had been brutally silenced. The clues were interrupted again. The shadow of the mastermind behind the scenes became more and more intense, and suspense and crisis were everywhere.
The follow-up story will be more exciting, so stay tuned! Don’t forget to like and follow!
https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
In order to allow developers to use "human language" to work with AI, Gemini CLI reduces the complexity of traditional programming interfaces and is very easy to use:
You can ask questions, edit files, or run commands directly.
For best results, it's best to describe your needs as specifically as possible.
Enter "/help". More information is also available.
In addition to Gemini CLI, in the field of programming, Google has also deployed tools such as Gemini Code Assist and asynchronous AI assistant Jules.
At the press conference, Google senior software engineer Taylor Mullen said: "Using Gemini CLI, you can use natural language to talk to computers, solve problems, and integrate complex workflows to accomplish things that were impossible in the past."
This is seen as a head-to-head confrontation with OpenAI and Anthropic.
OpenAI and Anthropic have already joined the terminal AI tool track:
OpenAI launches open source Codex CLI;
Anthropic launched Claude Code, etc., which are favored by developers for their lightweight, easy integration, and fast response.
Technically, Gemini CLI has the same origin as the Google AI coding assistant plug-in Gemini Code Assist.
In VS Code, just enable agent mode in the chat window to enter your requirements, and Code Assist will work tirelessly:
Write test cases, fix bugs, develop new features, and even complete code migration...
This means that whether developers are users of the free version, standard version or enterprise version, they can enjoy AI-driven coding functions in VS Code and the terminal environment.
This kind of cross-platform thinking allows developers to avoid the "difficulty of choice".
This time Google has made such a big move that Ai2 scientist Nathan Lambert began to long for: the free premium version of Gemini is just around the corner!
More than just writing code
The functionality of Gemini CLI goes far beyond writing code and supports more common task scenarios.
It is designed to be very versatile and can perform tasks such as generating content, solving problems, and conducting research.
While most users will use Gemini CLI for programming, Google says the tool supports a variety of other uses as well. For example:
Ryan J. Salva, senior director of product at Google, thinks this is how work will be done in the next 10 years.
At the press conference, he said:
We believe that over the next decade these tools will dominate the way developers and creators of all kinds work.
Whether you're a student, hobbyist, freelancer or developer, you should have the same tools.
It seems that this time Google is really here: from programming to video shooting, AI is used to inspire all kinds of creativity!
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-25/google-debuts-gemini-ai-coding-tool-in-bid-to-entice-developers
https://x.com/googleaidevs/status/1937861646082515205
https://blog.google/technology/developers/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/
https://www.developer-tech.com/news/gemini-cli-google-brings-ai-smarts-terminal/
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/google-unveils-gemini-cli-an-open-source-ai-tool-for-terminals/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7343640552640344069/
With the advancement of financial technology and the development of society, financial products and services have become increasingly diversified. Financial chaos such as illegal agent surrender and claim settlement, overseas bank card fraud, and professional debtors have occurred frequently, which has brought many challenges to the protection of financial consumers' rights and interests. On the occasion of the 44th "March 15" International Consumer Rights Day, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch launched the 2026 "March 15" financial consumer rights protection education and publicity campaign to help the public improve financial literacy and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; integrate consumer rights protection into services and scenarios, and use original intentions and actions to paint a warm picture of "finance for the people".
Traveling through the streets to protect financial rights and interests
From March 5 to March 18, 2026, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch carried out the 2026 "3·15" financial consumer rights protection education and publicity campaign. With the slogan "A clear financial network protects safe consumption", the event closely follows the theme of protecting financial rights and interests, uses positive publicity to establish guidance, builds a line of defense with risk warnings, and strives to create a clear and orderly financial market environment through public welfare publicity. On the one hand, we vigorously promote the financial culture with Chinese characteristics, highlight the positive energy of finance, and demonstrate the Postal Savings Bank's practical examples and highlight measures to solve people's worries, benefit people's livelihood, and warm people's hearts by using digital and technological means to accurately meet the diverse needs of the people; on the other hand, we strengthen consumer protection reminders against financial network chaos to help consumers build a strong defense line for property security.
When arriving at the Beijing Yizhuang Business Department of the Postal Savings Bank of China, the red banner of "Yizhuang Branch Launches 3.15 Financial Consumer Rights Protection Education and Publicity Campaign" came into view. In the business hall, electronic screens and self-service machines are playing grass-green "3·15" event posters, special foldouts are placed in the public education service area, and LCD TVs are playing public service announcements on preventing illegal fund-raising... During the event, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch organized more than 500 business outlets within its jurisdiction to layout the halls, hang banners at the outlets, display posters, slogans, foldouts, and play public service announcements. The staff took advantage of the time when customers were waiting for business to carry out financial knowledge lectures, and set up interactive Q&A sessions based on Women's Day characteristics to answer questions about deposit insurance, personal information protection and other aspects, so that consumers could learn financial knowledge during the festival. There is a public education service area in the branch all year round, and the complaint hotline and complaint flow chart are publicized to facilitate consumers to enjoy financial services and effectively protect their right to know and claim for compensation in accordance with the law.
Taking advantage of its extensive business network in urban and rural areas, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch deeply integrates professional financial knowledge with traditional culture, daily travel, etc., and takes advantage of festivals such as the Lantern Festival and Women's Day to organize various, rich, and distinctive "Five Entry" outdoor promotional activities, entering communities, campuses, villages, enterprises, and business districts to integrate financial knowledge into consumers' daily lives.
Promote inclusive services to solve people’s livelihood problems
The warmth of inclusive services is often reflected in the corners that are harder to reach. Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch continues to promote financial services to move downwards, move forward, and extend, helping key groups such as the "old, young, and disabled" to cross the "digital divide" and let the warmth of finance truly enter thousands of households.
In the field of aging-friendly and barrier-free services, the Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch has been responsible for Beijing’s pension distribution for many years. Its business outlets have not only set up barrier-free passages, installed emergency call bells, equipped with reading glasses, magnifying glasses, wheelchairs and other facilities to assist the elderly and disabled, set up green love windows exclusive for the elderly and disabled people, and also provided rest and rest for the elderly through the "Postal Love Station". Convenient services such as drinking water and charging make it more convenient for the elderly to withdraw pensions from branches every month; for customers with special circumstances such as mobility difficulties and unable to visit branches in person, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch supports telephone appointment extension services, and two staff members will come to customers to handle account opening, password reset, information update and other services, turning the "last mile" into "zero distance". Financial services are no longer about waiting across the counter, but about the protection that comes into your home and your heart.
In terms of serving parent-child families, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch is equally attentive and affectionate. "Little Banker" experience activities are carried out from time to time in the branches, and children learn to identify RMB and manage pocket money in the game; while in the hall, the staff patiently teach the elderly to adjust the mobile banking to the large-character version to facilitate the elderly's subsequent operations. At the Postal Savings Bank Beijing Wangjing Street Branch, an example of applying for three-generation social security cards for a multinational family has become a vivid footnote of heart-warming service. At the beginning of 2026, an old man brought his granddaughter to the Wangjing Street branch to apply for a third-generation social security card. Because his granddaughter was born abroad and was actually a foreigner, he could not apply for a third-generation social security card online and could only make the card on-site. Faced with this situation, the staff opened a green channel for extended services for customers, remotely connected with the mother whose child was working overseas, and successfully handled the extended service (video verification) business. After verifying that the relevant documents and authorization letter of the child's guardian were correct, the third-generation social security card printing machine produced the card on site and successfully applied for the third-generation social security card for the child to facilitate his subsequent medical treatment.
In the wave of digital transformation, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch insists on paralleling traditional services with smart innovation: the mobile banking APP continues to iterate and optimize, launches a large-font interface, increases font icons, and simplifies operation procedures; it also supports voice assistance functions. When the user turns on the narration mode on the phone, key operations such as face recognition, function icons, return and delete can all implement voice prompts, helping the visually impaired to complete online business processing independently. The integration of online and offline services allows different consumers to find a service method that suits them.
From aging-friendly renovations to barrier-free services, from door-to-door financial services to face-to-face promotion of financial knowledge, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch has used "micro-initiatives" to meet the "big needs" of the masses. In the future, Postal Savings Bank Beijing Branch will continue to improve the financial consumer rights protection system, promote the in-depth integration of traditional services and intelligent innovation, and let the sunshine of finance illuminate every corner.
At one o'clock in the morning London time, the madness of the market woke Michael Brown from his sleep. His mobile phone is placed beside the bed, and it is buzzing almost constantly with constant news reminders: Brent crude oil exceeded US$100 per barrel; it exceeded US$110; Nasdaq futures fell 2%; the Nikkei index plummeted 5%.
So Brown, a senior strategist at the brokerage firm Pepperstone, got out of bed, turned on his computer and started answering a flood of calls from Asian clients. "There was already some panic going on," he said.
It was Monday, the 10th day of the war with Iran, that investors suddenly realized the extent of the disruption to oil production in the Middle East. Panic once pushed crude oil prices up by more than 30%, and Gerald Gan, chief investment officer of Reed Capital Partners, was also woken up at home in Singapore. Some of Reed's clients had suffered huge stock losses, and company employees were desperate for guidance, calling him again and again before dawn, saying, "We need to protect our portfolio."
An oil tanker caught fire after being attacked in Iraqi waters.
In America's oil fields, veteran commodities trader Dennis Keesler is busy dealing with an entirely different problem. Many of his clients at BOK Financial Securities are executives from shale oil producers who, as they watched crude prices soar in overnight trading, became increasingly eager to lock in those high prices. From the moment he walked into the Oklahoma City office at 6 a.m. Monday, deal orders came pouring in, and Keesler found himself having to answer three phones at once. By noon, his voice was hoarse.
The war in the past two weeks has triggered violent market fluctuations. The South Korean stock market crashed at a record high, European natural gas futures soared 68% in two days, the Indian rupee and the Egyptian pound fell to historical lows, and investors around the world are on edge. Some made fortunes, others suffered heavy losses, and even some of the biggest names in the financial world were left unscathed, including PIMCO, The Castle and ExodusPoint Capital Management.
"Someone's always going to get hurt," Kiesler said. "In a moment like this, if you don't pay attention and do it the wrong way, you can lose a million dollars in two seconds."
It wasn't just the speed of the moves that shocked traders, but also the dramatic "whiplash effect." Markets can be thrown into turmoil by just one piece of news, even if it's wrong, such as when U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright posted on Tuesday that the Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.
Just the day before, U.S. WTI crude oil futures gave up almost all of their 31% gains after Trump suggested that the war may be nearing an end. This was the largest intraday reversal in at least four decades. The S&P 500 surged in the final hour, notching its biggest gain in a month.
Things have eased slightly over the past few days, however, unlike the brief crash triggered by Trump's reciprocal tariff announcement a year ago, many in the market expect this extraordinary volatility to continue for weeks, if not months. They point out that a real war would be more unpredictable and harder to cool down than a trade war. "I tell all the stakeholders, be careful," Gerald Gan said.
One of the most puzzling features of the sell-off is that traditional safe havens, with the exception of the U.S. dollar, appear to be failing. From gold to the yen, the Swiss franc and U.S. Treasuries, assets typically seen as safe havens in times of crisis are falling as soaring energy prices reignite inflation fears and push interest rates higher.
The trading floor in Seoul this week.
Raymond Lee, chief investment officer of Torica Capital in Sydney, had originally hoped to hedge risks by investing in U.S. Treasury bonds. When he saw oil surge early Monday and Treasuries fall again, he decided to cut his losses, ordering traders to sell their holdings of two-year Treasury futures contracts.
He concluded that the U.S. Treasury market had become almost an extension of the oil market, with yields rising and falling with crude prices, and he wanted no part of it until things stabilized. "Trading interest rates is like trading oil, and I'm not an oil expert," Lee said.
But Keesler knew oil.
As BOK's head of energy trading, he spent decades in the trading pool of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He had experienced the surge in oil prices caused by the Gulf War in 1990 and the Iraq War ten years later, and the market shock waves at that time are still fresh in his mind.
Keesler has traded through all the oil shocks over the years: the 2008 financial crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict. No time has produced such a steady flow of customer orders as Monday morning, he said.
Oil prices rose about 30% in the first week after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, but investor anxiety quickly built ahead of Monday's opening as reports over the weekend began to show more fully the decline in crude production in the region. In just a few minutes after the market opened, WTI rose by more than 10%.
With the Strait of Hormuz all but closed, the International Energy Agency estimates that about 8 million barrels of oil per day will disappear from the market this month. The agency called it the "largest supply disruption" the market has ever seen.
Kiesler reminded his traders that for now, they must always be fully staffed. One of his tips for moments like this: drink less coffee and water, which will reduce the number of trips to the bathroom. "You can never take your eyes off the screen."
Back in Singapore, Gerald Gan followed a similar rhythm at Reed Capital. He went online at 6 a.m. and stared at the screen until about 2 a.m. the next morning.
The region relies heavily on oil and gas imports from the Middle East to drive its economy, and many of the worst market crashes have occurred in Asia. Every surge in crude oil prices will quickly push up inflation expectations, lower economic growth prospects, squeeze the finances of various countries, and put the market under greater pressure.
Along with India, currencies in Indonesia and the Philippines have fallen to record lows. Five of the 10 worst-performing stock markets in the world this month are from Asia. Few fell more sharply than the KOSPI. The index fell more than 7% on March 3 and hit a record loss of 12% the next day before recouping some of its losses in several rounds of wildly volatile trading.
The rout in South Korea's stock market took a "hard hit" to Gan's portfolio, but he said he made a fortune for his clients by buying large amounts of oil at around $60 a barrel a few weeks ago.
Gan said it was like riding a "roller coaster." He was ready for the coming weeks. "This is not over yet."
Brown, a strategist at Pepperstone in London, shares the same concerns. "One minute you think, 'Maybe we're out of this, maybe there's progress,'" he said. "Then the next minute the news completely reverses and you lose money on all your positions. You're back to square one."
13F Document Reveals Duan Yongping’s Latest Position Trends, AI Stocks Become New Favorites2026-02-24Comments(0)
Newly Collected New Books By Hu Hongxia And Yao Zhenghua, Reading Experience Of Shenzhen Virtuous Couples’ Calligraphy Collection2026-03-11Comments(0)
During The 2026 Winter Vacation, The Shanghai Military Closed Customs Working Committee And The Youth Working Committee Created A Red Inheritance Practice Class2026-02-16Comments(0)
Guide To Filling Out College Entrance Examination Applications: Must-see Employment Prospects And Red And Green Card Majors When Choosing A Major2026-02-21Comments(0)