Hormuz Strait Fuly Opens, Oil Crashes 11%, GPT-6 Imminent: April 18 Global News
Date: April 18, 2026 | Update Time: 07:07
π― Today's Major Event
Middle East Situation Historic Turn: Hormuz Strait Fuly Opens
Beijing time April 18 early morning β Global geopolitics welcomes major breakthrough:
- Iran Announces: During Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, Hormuz Strait fully open to all commercial ships until April 27, guaranteeing navigation safety throughout
- Israel Responds: Nationwide lifts 48-day wartime controls, schools reopen, workplaces resume, gathering activities fully reopen
- US President Trump: Confirms Hormuz Strait has been "fully opened," but states US maritime blockade on Iran will continue
- Impact: International crude oil prices crash over 11%, Brent crude falls below $90/barrel
Importance: Hormuz Strait carries 1/5 of global oil trade. Previously affected by Middle East conflict, shipping traffic once plummeted 95%. This easing signal will directly affect global oil prices and inflation expectations.
π International Politics
US-Iran Negotiations Make Breakthrough Progress
- Negotiation Process: US and Iran are consulting on plans to end the war. Next round of face-to-face negotiations may resume as early as the 20th
- Agreement Framework: Both sides are drafting a memorandum of understanding, setting the overall framework for a final permanent peace agreement
- Enriched Uranium Dispute: Trump says Iran will hand over enriched uranium, but Iran refuses to ship enriched uranium abroad
- Statement: Iranian Parliamentary Speaker emphasizes Hormuz Strait control belongs to Iran, will never abandon it
China Diplomatic Dynamics
- China-Vietnam Joint Statement: Released on 17th, deepening comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries
- China-Russia FM Talks: Wang Yi holds talks with Lavrov, signing 2026 MFA consultation plan
- China Represents Speech: China vetoes Hormuz Strait resolution draft, avoiding situation escalation, creating conditions for ceasefire negotiations
- China-Namibia Cooperation: Two countries deepen comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, standing shoulder to shoulder against unilateral sanctions on international stage
Regional Situation
- Lebanon: President states today is the first time in nearly half a century that the country makes its own decisions
- Myanmar: Grants amnesty to over 4,500 prisoners, including former President Win Myint and 179 foreigners
- Thailand: During Songkran Festival, 1,242 traffic accidents occurred, causing 242 deaths
π° Economics & Finance
Crude Oil Market Violent Volatility
- Price Crash: International crude oil futures drop over 11%, European and American crude oil futures main contracts drop over 11%
- Reason: Iran opens Hormuz Strait, easing global energy supply concerns
- Outlook: Domestic refined oil prices expected to stabilize and fall, reducing freight and logistics costs
US Stock Market Performance
- Three Major Indexes Close Higher: Nasdaq and S&P 500 index hit record highs again
- Nasdaq Record: Sets longest consecutive rise record since 1992
- Weekly Gains: Dow up 3.19%, S&P 500 up 4.54%, Nasdaq up 6.84%
- Chinese Stocks: Mixed, Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index closes up 0.53%
Bonds and Precious Metals
- US Treasury Yields: 10-year Treasury yield falls to 4.24%, lowest in a month
- Rate Cut Expectation: Traders increase policy easing expectations, year-end rate cut probability about 60%
- Precious Metals: All close up, spot gold at $4,814.05/oz, silver up 6.74% this week
IMF Downgrades Global Growth Forecast
- Global Growth Rate: IMF downgrades 2026 global economic growth forecast to 3.1%, 0.2 percentage points lower than January prediction
- Major Economies: US grows 2.3%, Eurozone grows 1.1%
- Reason: Middle East war disrupts global economy's originally steady growth trajectory
π Tech Frontiers
AI Field Major Breakthroughs
GPT-6 About to Launch
- Performance Boost: Code and reasoning capabilities 40% stronger than previous generation
- Context Window: 2 million Tokens, can process long texts at once
- Multimodal Evolution: Text, image, video, 3D understanding and generation seamlessly connected
OpenAI Enters Drug R&D
- Goal: Shorten new drug R&D cycle from 10-15 years to within a few years
- Applications: Rapid molecular compound screening, protein structure prediction, drug reaction simulation
China AI Strength Gets "Official Certification"
- Stanford Report: China leads in key indicators such as AI paper quantity, patent application quantity, industrial robot installation quantity
- Domestic Model Explosion: Over 12 new large models densely released in early April
- Ecosystem Improvement: Tencent Hunyuan 3D world model 2.0 open-sourced, MiniMax launches cloud sandbox platform
Quantum AI Breakthrough
- Nvidia Open Source: Releases world's first open-source quantum AI model family ISING
- Performance Boost: Quantum error correction accuracy improved 3x, quantum processor calibration time shortened from days to hours
Embodied Intelligence Scale Landing
- Mass Production First Year: Humanoid robots, industrial robotic arms, service robots enter scale stage
- China Progress: Zhiyuan "Spirit G2" robot completes 2,283 tasks in 8 hours in 3C factory with zero errors
- World's First: AI table tennis matches achieve high-speed dynamic, full-body coordination, precision exceeding humans
AI Agent Era
- Enterprise Penetration: About 40% of large enterprises have deployed AI agents
- Open-Source Ecosystem: OpenClaw gets 340K+ stars on GitHub, Hermes Agent gets 70K+ stars in two months
- Collaboration Capability: Multi-agent communication protocol standardized, supports 100+ agents collaborating simultaneously
π Domestic Livelihood
Important Policy Dynamics
- Free Trade Pilot Zone: State Council executive meeting hears construction situation report, makes important deployments
- Fund Performance Assessment: Compensation "hard-linked" to investor gains and losses, fund manager mandatory co-investment ratio raised to 40%
- Electronic Documents Application: Ten departments jointly regulate to improve goods trade digitalization level, effective September 1
Social Hotspots
- E-commerce Platform Penalties: 7 platforms involved in "ghost takeout" fined and confiscated 3.597 billion yuan
- Education Reform: Encourage qualified localities to explore primary and secondary school spring and autumn holidays
- Aerospace Achievement: Shenzhou-21 astronauts complete third extravehicular activity
- Xinjiang New Establishment: Approved to establish county-level Caohu City
Tech Innovation
- Nuclear Power Capacity: China already has capacity to simultaneously build 50 nuclear power units
- New Materials: Successfully developed new copper foil material with both ultra-high strength and high conductivity
- Computing Power Breakthrough: Zhengzhou launches domestic largest-scale scientific intelligence computing cluster, composed of 60,000 domestic AI acceleration chips
Humanitarian Aid
- Aid to Iran: China provides 58 tons of emergency humanitarian medicine aid to Iran
π Today's News Overview
| Category | Key News | |----------|----------| | π₯ Most Major | Middle East situation eases, Hormuz Strait fully open until April 27 | | π International | US-Iran negotiations expected to reach agreement, Israel lifts wartime controls | | π° Economy | International oil prices crash over 11%, US stocks Nasdaq hits record high | | π Tech | GPT-6 about to launch, OpenAI enters drug R&D | | π¨π³ Domestic | Shenzhou-21 completes third extravehicular activity, China provides medicine aid to Iran |