Public Markets 3d Briefing
×Last updated: March 13, 2026, 12:30 PM ET
Energy & Commodities
Oil futures slipped 1.3% nytimes.com in early Asian trade as OPEC+ signaled potential output increases, while gold held steady nytimes.com near $2,340/oz despite a weakening dollar. In fixed income, Japanese government bonds extended their rally bloomberg.com tracking overnight gains in U.S. Treasurys as traders priced in a September Fed rate cut. A surge in aluminum prices bloomberg.com catapulted China Hongqiao's Zhang Bo to a $48 billion fortune, making him one of Asia's wealthiest industrialists.
Corporate & IPO Activity
Madison Air filed for a Nasdaq IPO wsj.com targeting a $500 million valuation, buoyed by three consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth in the private aviation charter market. Blackstone arranged a $1.2 billion credit facility bloomberg.com for Air Trunk's expansion into Japanese data centers, part of a broader push by private equity into AI infrastructure assets across Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Danish drugmaker Leo Pharma invited investment banks to pitch bloomberg.com for roles in a potential IPO, as the more-than-a-century-old company edges toward a public listing.
Geopolitical & Middle East Impact
The war in Iran sent oil prices surging bloomberg.com toward $100/barrel, with Brent crude briefly touching $99.50 as Saudi Arabia boosted production bloomberg.com amid rising regional tensions. Indian stocks suffered their worst weekly performance bloomberg.com since June 2022, with the MSCI India gauge hitting its cheapest valuation since late 2023 as energy costs rattled investor sentiment. India's foreign exchange reserves fell by the most bloomberg.com since November 2024 as the central bank intervened to support the rupee amid volatility from the conflict.
Fixed Income & Credit Markets
U.S. investment-grade bond sales came close to record levels bloomberg.com despite Middle East turmoil, with companies like Amazon and Airbnb testing investor appetite for corporate debt. The spike in oil prices and growing concerns around private credit caused market activity to resemble bloomberg.com the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis, according to Bank of America's Michael Hartnett. Meanwhile, investors are hanging onto Additional Tier 1 bonds bloomberg.com for fear of missing out again, enabling this risky bank debt to dodge the worst of the selloff seen across financial markets.
Technology & AI
Elon Musk pushed out more xAI founders ft.com as the AI coding effort faltered, with Tesla and SpaceX managers sent in to review work as the billionaire's startup struggles to keep pace with rivals. Oracle rallied after reassuring investors ft.com about its AI data centers bet, posting better-than-expected earnings and raising its revenue forecast. Hims & Hers Health shares were on pace for their best week bloomberg.com on record as a new partnership with Novo Nordisk fueled fresh optimism about the company's future in weight-loss drugs.
Defense & Aerospace
Rheinmetall expects sales to jump by as much as 45% wsj.com this year as Europe continues to rearm and the German arms maker broadens its air-defense portfolio to meet growing demand for systems to counter drones. Leonardo targets higher revenue and earnings wsj.com as the defense order boom continues, with orders this year expected to rise to about €25 billion from €23.8 billion reached last year.
Emerging Markets & Currency
Hungary's forint is the worst performing emerging-market currency bloomberg.com during the Iran war, as a jump in energy prices amplifies existing risks to its economy ahead of next month's elections. Nigeria's central bank has prepared contingency measures bloomberg.com to stabilize the naira if it comes under pressure, as investors dump riskier emerging-market assets because of the crisis in the Middle East.
Real Estate & Infrastructure
Pepkor is seeking a banking chief bloomberg.com as Africa's biggest seller of clothing and mobile phones plans to open branches using its store network in South Africa to reach millions of lower-income customers. India Highway Authority Infra Trust's 60 billion rupee IPO was subscribed 13.94 times bloomberg.com on the final day of bidding, signaling resilient demand for yield-focused assets amid market uncertainty.
Mining & Resources
South Africa's investment in mineral exploration dropped for a seventh consecutive year bloomberg.com despite the government's ambitions to arrest the decline. Rio Tinto will slow down construction bloomberg.com of the Nemaska Lithium processing plant in Quebec just weeks after taking majority control of the project, as costs surge. Northern Star Resources sank the most in six years bloomberg.com after the gold miner cut output guidance due to problems at a processing mill.
Transportation & Logistics
Saudi Arabia's race to bypass the Strait of Hormuz has led to a buildup of oil supertankers bloomberg.com waiting off the kingdom's Red Sea coast to collect cargoes, as Riyadh tries to overcome unprecedented disruptions. Commercial maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormum remains effectively at a standstill bloomberg.com with no confirmed transits in either direction over the past 24 hours, according to vessel-tracking data.
Private Credit & Alternative Assets
Private credit has half the ingredients of a financial crisis ft.com, with worries arising that valuations shown on balance sheets don't match reality. Tikehau Capital private debt head Cécile Mayer-Lévi compared the current turmoil on the private credit market bloomberg.com to getting stuck at an event you want to leave but can't. Private credit lenders provided a more than $400 million delayed draw term loan bloomberg.com for Blackstone's Enverus after supplying roughly $3 billion in December.
Market Sentiment & Trading
U.S. retail investors are taking a step back bloomberg.com from their typically strong support for stocks, as the escalation in the Middle East and inflation concerns weigh on the group's risk appetite. Wall Street traders are poring over charts bloomberg.com to determine how much further the S&P 500 Index might fall as war in the Middle East rages on, with technical analysts noting early signs of bearish momentum. A 60-40 portfolio is no help as war drives stagflation threat bloomberg.com, with stocks and bonds falling in tandem on the risk of inflation and slowing growth.
European Markets
European rates markets experienced a burst of volatility bloomberg.com unleashed by war in the Middle East, reviving discussions about the role hedge funds play in amplifying swings. The euro fell against the dollar wsj.com as concerns about the economic fallout from oil prices outweigh bets the European Central Bank could raise interest rates. Eurozone bond yields rose to multimonth highs bloomberg.com as Brent crude surpassed $100 again, with uncertainty over developments in the Middle East suggesting investors should avoid buying Bunds.
Asia-Pacific Markets
Asia's LNG buyers are preparing for the war in the Middle East to disrupt deliveries bloomberg.com for months, as a prolonged outage at the world's largest export plant threatens tighter supply. China's credit expansion surprisingly picked up bloomberg.com from a year ago in February, helped by improved corporate lending despite slower government bond sales. Tesla's China sales recovered in February bloomberg.com from a low base last year, as the electric-vehicle maker weathered challenges from a nine-day Lunar New Year lull and gradual phase-out of subsidies.
Latin American Markets
Brazil's state-controlled oil giant Petrobras raised domestic diesel prices bloomberg.com just a day after the Brazilian government announced federal tax breaks on fuels to shield consumers from surging costs. Mexico's subsidy bill will increase because of higher oil prices bloomberg.com caused by the war in the Middle East, said Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan. Venezuela's oil exports have collapsed bloomberg.com to their lowest levels in decades as U.S. sanctions and infrastructure decay continue to cripple the once-mighty OPEC producer.
Regulatory & Policy Changes
The European Commission is set to suspend some duty-free sugar imports bloomberg.com for "at least a year" to help stabilize prices within the bloc. The EPA moved to weaken limits on ethylene oxide nytimes.com, a gas that plays a crucial role in sterilizing medical devices but is linked to several types of cancer with long-term exposure. The U.S. is investigating an attack on an Iranian girls' school bloomberg.com that killed about 180 people, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying Central Command has assigned investigators to look into the incident.
Market Structure & Indices
S&P Dow Jones Indices is considering changes to rules governing how companies join the S&P 500 Index bloomberg.com, a move that would potentially fast-track SpaceX's entry after its IPO. Nasdaq is considering a rules change wsj.com that goes too far regarding special treatment for hot IPOs, with offerings from SpaceX and OpenAI on the horizon. Charles Schwab expects revenue growth of around 16% bloomberg.com for the first quarter as retail investors remain engaged despite uncertainty about the direction of the economy and the war in the Middle East.
Alternative Investments
A startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz plans to revive an abandoned copper mine bloomberg.com in Utah to test new technology aimed at automating operations. The world's biggest liquefied natural gas export plant in Qatar hasn't exported a shipment for five days bloomberg.com — the longest streak in data going back to 2008 — threatening to further boost prices for the fuel. Vietnam's property market shows signs of stabilization bloomberg.com as the government implements new stimulus measures, though analysts warn that recovery remains fragile amid high interest rates and weak consumer confidence.