Russia-Ukraine conflict escalates! Global stock market crisis! The situation in Russia and Ukraine deteriorated rapidly, and the global stock market fluctuated sharply. Asia-Pacific stock markets fell across the board. The Hang Seng Index closed down 3.21%, and once fell 3.7% during the session, the largest drop since September; the Hang Seng Technology Index extended its intraday decline to 5% and finally closed down 4.33%. The Nikkei 225 fell by nearly 2%, the Korea Composite Index and Australia's S&P 200 fell by more than 2%, and the FTSE Singapore Straits Index fell by more than 4%.A股方面，上证指数跌1.70%, the Shenzhen Component Index fell 2.20%, and the ChiNext Index fell 2.11%. Precious metals soared, natural gas, electricity, oil and other energy stocks rose, the photovoltaic sector continued to be hot, and the large infrastructure, salt lake lithium extraction, and "east counts and west calculations" sectors pulled back.

In terms of European stocks, the pan-European stock index, which fell on Wednesday, accelerated its decline. The European Stoxx 600 index fell by more than 3% for the first time since November 26 last year, and hit a new low since May 19 last year. It fell 11% from the record high in January this year and fell into a technical adjustment range. The stock indexes of major European countries fell sharply across the board. The Italian stock index, which led the decline, fell by more than 4% and fell for six consecutive days. German stocks fell by nearly 4%, and French stocks fell by more than 3% for seven consecutive days. British stocks fell by more than 3%. With two consecutive gains, the Western stock market fell by more than 2% for two consecutive days.

Material panic! Global Semiconductor Materials Crisis!

The global chip shortage is gradually being transmitted upstream. First of all, the capacity of wafer fabs is overwhelmed, which leads to the growth trend of upstream semiconductor equipment also showing a growing trend of insufficiency. At the same time, the market demand for semiconductor materials is becoming more and more urgent, and the "material shortage" has begun. spread in the industry.

The supply and demand of the semiconductor material market is already very tight. To make matters worse, factors outside the market have also come to "join in the fun", further exacerbating the shortage of materials. Recently, electron gas is suffering from this kind of trouble. Ukraine is a supplier of electronic gas, and recently, the export of related gas materials has been hindered by Russia/Ukraine tensions. Ukraine accounts for 70% of global neon gas production. Ninety percent of U.S. chip-grade neon comes from Ukraine, and 35% of palladium comes from Russia. Neon is a key material for lasers required for chip manufacturing, and neon is a by-product of Russian steel manufacturing. It will then be sent to Ukraine for refining. Palladium is used in products such as sensors and memory. An escalation of Russia/Ukraine tensions could disrupt neon exports, push up wafer prices and exacerbate the chip shortage.

Excimer lasers used in ArF-Immersion equipment for semiconductor exposure processes are achieved by mixing specific gases such as neon, fluorine and argon, with neon making up more than 95% of such mixtures. During the 2015 conflict in Ukraine, excimer laser gas mixtures used in semiconductor manufacturing were traded for as much as $25,000 per 50 liters, a more than 20-fold increase from previous levels.

Food prices are soaring! Global food crisis!

Behind the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, mankind is approaching another bigger crisis. Affected by the epidemic, weather and other factors, international food prices have soared to new heights since 2021.

Wheat Price TrendCorn Price Trends More than a quarter of the world's wheat exports come from Russia and Ukraine, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The latter also supplies 16% of the world's corn。

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has made the already high international food prices even worse. Just the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a televised speech, Chicago wheat futures jumped 6.17%, showing Ukraine's impact on international food prices.

Oil prices hit 100! Commodities go up!

Affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine, in terms of commodities, the intraday gain of U.S. crude oil expanded to 8.5%, breaking through $100/barrel for the first time in seven years, continuing to hit a new high since July 2014. Brent crude oil futures exceeded $105/barrel. Prices of most other commodities also rose.