The past week was the absolute peak of geopolitical chaos, sending the $Cboe Volatility Index(VIX)$ skyrocketing past 25💥. The $Dow Jones(.DJI)$ shed over 1,000 points in a single session, triggering massive intraday swings.
U.S. stocks finished nearly unchanged on Monday after a turbulent session marked by early declines following weekend U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, though dip-buying throughout the day helped stabilize the market. The options market saw heavy activity with 59.4 million contracts traded, 55% of which were calls. Tech giants dominated volume, with Nvidia, Tesla, Netflix, Palantir, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, AMD, Ondas, and Meta ranking as the top 10 most-active names. Palantir stood out with an 8.1% surge on 810,580 option contracts—62% bullish calls—including a 246% gain on $145 strike calls expiring Friday, as investors rewarded its expanding government cloud contracts and recurring-revenue model.
In a “negative gamma” environment, this deviation means market makers cannot provide liquidity support — instead, they become accelerants to the decline. They must continuously sell positions to hedge their exposure to put options. The put/call ratio has reached 1.95. This mechanism acts like an amplifier, intensifying downside moves. That’s why once the key level breaks, the VIX can quickly surge toward 30. Unless the index reclaims 6,800, this self-reinforcing downside pressure will continue to hang over the market.
Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) opened 0.2% higher on Tuesday, with notable gains in ST Engineering (+2%), Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (+0.9%), and banking stocks OCBC (+0.6%) and UOB (+0.5%). However, aviation and financial sectors saw mixed performance as Singapore Airlines declined 0.4% and DBS slipped 0.2%. In corporate developments, Olam Group secured a $100 million financing facility for its agri-business unit ahead of a major stake sale to a Saudi investor, while Top Glove announced a leadership transition to the founder's son as joint managing director.
The Head and Shoulders formations rank among the most reliable trend reversal patterns. These are widely considered the most reliable reversal patterns in technical analysis. They describe a specific battle where the dominant trend tries—and fails—to make a new extreme, signaling a permanent power shift.
As of early March 2026, Mag 7 have faced a collective pullback, fueled by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and growing skepticism over the AI capex. However, this volatility has created a historic technical setup: $NVIDIA(NVDA)$ and $Microsoft(MSFT)$ have once again plunged into their most "undervalued" territory in five years.
February’s market narrative was largely reshaped by geopolitical turbulence, with Middle East tensions driving fears of global instability. This triggered a flight to safety into precious metals, bolstered by a softening dollar and steady central bank demand.
The KOSPI Index has seen a rare and sharp selloff since reaching a high near 6,300 in late February. It now stands at around 5,791, with a single-day drop exceeding 7%, marking the steepest correction since August 2024. The previously strong rally, which had repeatedly broken through record highs, has suddenly hit the brakes in a very short period of time.