Main by morning: IEA may open reserve, Microsoft defends Anthropic, Amazon's record

The International Energy Agency is discussing the largest-ever release of strategic oil reserves to curb rising prices amid war in Iran. The U.S. corporate bond market saw a record number of offerings in a day - thanks to Amazon. Nintendo shares soared more than 10% after the success of its new Pokémon Pokopia game. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of March 11.

The International Energy Agency has proposed to release a record volume of oil from strategic reserves to curb price increases amid the conflict in the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal wrote, citing sources. According to them, we may be talking about a larger volume than in 2022, when the agency's countries released 182 million barrels to the market after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The idea was discussed at an extraordinary meeting of IEA countries on Tuesday, March 10, and a final decision is expected on Wednesday and will require the support of all 32 members of the organization. Together, the agency's countries hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of strategic oil reserves and about 600 million barrels of state industrial reserves.

After the WSJ publication, Brent crude oil fell 0.8% to trade around $87 per barrel. Prices remain about 40% higher relative to the start of the war in Iran.

Gold rose nearly 2% above $5200 an ounce.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.4% Futures on major U.S. stock indexes added about 0.3% each.

The market of investment grade corporate bonds in the U.S. showed the largest daily volume of placements in history - companies issued debt securities for almost $66 billion, Bloomberg reports. The largest deal was made by Amazon, placing bonds for $37 billion to finance the expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Honeywell Aerospace raised $16 billion to finance a future spin-off, and Air Lease placed $4 billion in securities as part of a takeover deal.

The previous record for daily offerings was set in 2013, when Verizon raised $49 billion. That still remains the largest bond issue in history, the agency notes.

Microsoft supported Anthropic in a legal dispute with the Pentagon and urged the court to temporarily block the U.S. Department of Defense's decision to recognize the company as a supply chain risk, CNBC writes. According to Microsoft, such a ban could disrupt the use of advanced AI technologies by the U.S. military and force technology companies to urgently change existing contracts and products for the defense department.

Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump's administration after the Pentagon banned the use of its models in defense projects that could jeopardize contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The AI startup sought assurances that its products would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, while the military insisted on full access.

Nintendo shares jumped 10.5 percent - the biggest increase since April - following the success of the new Pokémon Pokopia game released March 5 exclusively for the Switch 2 console, Bloomberg writes. Physical copies of the game have already sold out at a number of major retailers in the U.S., and its price has risen to about $80 on Amazon.

The popularity of the game has supported the company's shares, which were previously under pressure due to rising memory prices driven by demand for AI chips, the agency noted. Despite the current rise, Nintendo's securities remain about 30% below their peak levels in November 2025.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.9 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was up 1.4 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was little changed, while mainland China's CSI 300 added 0.6 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index jumped 1.4%, while the Kosdaq fell slightly.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor