Main things for the morning: Dubai hit, US brought RF oil back to the market, Mag7 on the verge of correction

Sirens and explosions were heard and smoke from a fire was seen in Dubai on the morning of Friday, March 13. The U.S. has temporarily allowed the purchase of Russian oil already at sea to stabilize energy markets amid a war with Iran. Ma has delayed the launch of its new Avocado AI model until May-June due to weaker performance compared to Google Gemini. About these and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of March 13.

Explosions were heard in Dubai on Friday morning, the Guardian reports , citing AFP correspondents. A fire broke out in the Al Quoz neighborhood in the western part of the emirate - one of the most densely populated - with smoke visible as far as the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab hotel. Dubai authorities said later that "debris from the successful interception caused a small incident on the facade of a building in central Dubai." They did not specify whether it was a missile or a drone that was intercepted. No one was injured.

The UAE intercepted 10 ballistic missiles and 26 drones on Thursday, with one drone falling in the upscale Al Badaa neighborhood and another hitting the front of a building on Sheikh Zayed Highway, the emirate's main thoroughfare.

The United States has temporarily allowed to buy Russian oil already at sea in order to stabilize energy markets amid the war with Iran, CNBC writes. The measure applies only to crude loaded on ships before March 12 and will remain in effect until April 11. It is estimated that about 124 million barrels of Russian oil are now at sea - about five to six days of global consumption.

The US Treasury Department emphasized that the move was short-term and would not bring Russia any significant benefit. Earlier, Washington also granted India a 30-day authorization to buy Russian oil already on its way, despite the current G7 and EU sanctions.

US technology giants were on the verge of correction: the index of shares of the "Magnificent Seven" came close to falling by 10% from the October peak amid the war with Iran and a jump in oil prices, Bloomberg writes. The rally in oil futures has heightened inflation fears and lowered expectations of a Fed rate cut, putting pressure on the Nasdaq and the broad market, the agency points out.

Investors fear a prolonged conflict. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg warn that further growth in oil prices could hit corporate margins and increase volatility in the markets.

China's ByteDance has gained access to Nvidia's latest AI chips and is deploying large-scale computing facilities outside of China, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company, along with Aolani Cloud, plans to deploy about 500 Nvidia Blackwell server systems in Malaysia - that's about 36,000 processors at a total cost of more than $2.5 billion. The infrastructure will be used to develop AI and serve international customers.

Ma has postponed the launch of its new Avocado AI model until at least May-June, The New York Times reports. According to sources, the current version is between Google's Gemini 2.5 and Gemini 3 models in terms of performance, which is the reason for the delayed release.

The postponement comes amid the company's large-scale investments in artificial intelligence: Meta plans to spend $115-135 billion on the development of infrastructure and "superintelligence" technologies. The company is also discussing the possibility of temporarily licensing the Gemini model for its AI products.

- Japan's broad Topix index fell 0.6 percent, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.5 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 index rose 0.1 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index lost 1.7%, while the Kosdaq added 0.3%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1 percent.

- S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 percent, Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.5 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts were up 0.2 percent.

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