• US equity markets fell sharply as oil prices resumed their march higher after Iran claimed to have attacked a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz - Dow fell -785-points or -1.61%, having been down over >1,100 points or ~2.4% earlier in the session. Caterpillar Inc (-3.54%), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (-3.67%), Merck & Co (-3.5%), Sherwin-Williams Co (3.51%) and Walmart Inc (-3.52%) all fell 3.5%+. Salesforce Inc rallied +4.3% to be the leading performer in the 30-stock index as software stocks more broadly continued to rebound. Nvidia Corp edged +0.16% higher, recovering from an earlier decline that came Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. government is looking to add major restrictions to artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports. According to the report, U.S. officials have proposed regulations that would require U.S. companies to seek permission for all exports of AI accelerators, expanding restrictions that currently cover around 40 countries. The U.S. would only approve massive exports - such as more than 200,000 Nvidia GPUs owned by a single company - to allies that make strict security promises and “matching” investments in American AI, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. However, the proposal is not finalised and could see substantial changes.