Escalating tensions in the Middle East and a hawkish Federal Reserve stance weighed on global market sentiment, triggering a broad sell-off across capital markets.

On March 19, gold and silver prices plunged sharply in the afternoon session. As of 16:45 Beijing time, spot gold had tumbled over $117, falling below the $4700 mark to $4696.69 per ounce, a decline of 2.43%. Spot silver dropped below the $70 level, hitting its lowest point since February 6, with a daily loss of 7.14%. Spot platinum saw its losses widen to over 5%, trading at $1913.32 per ounce.

Simultaneously, international oil prices surged significantly. ICE Brent crude rose more than 5%, climbing above $108 per barrel, while WTI crude increased over 1% to $96.53 per barrel.

Major European stock markets opened substantially lower. By 16:45 Beijing time, the UK's FTSE 100 index was down nearly 2%, with Italy's MIB index, Germany's DAX index, and the Euro Stoxx 50 index all falling more than 2%.

US stock index futures also declined, with Nasdaq futures down 0.38%, S&P 500 futures falling 0.27%, and Dow Jones futures dropping 0.22%.

Influenced by silver prices hitting their lowest level in over a month, silver mining stocks declined in pre-market US trading. Endeavour Silver fell more than 6%, while Coeur Mining and Silvercorp Metals both dropped over 5%, and Hecla Mining declined nearly 5%.

In Hong Kong markets, a significant post-earnings decline in heavyweight Tencent directly dragged down the broader market. By the close, the Hang Seng Index had fallen 2.02%, losing over 500 points, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 1.58% and the Hang Seng Tech Index declined 2.19%.

Major cryptocurrencies also experienced substantial declines, with Bitcoin falling more than 5% during the day, briefly dropping below the $70,000 level. Over the past 24 hours, more than 157,000 traders globally faced liquidations totaling $576 million.