Gillian Bowen

Well, it was a big week of corporate earnings in the US, and it'll be the same again this week, actually.

The S&P 500 and NASDAQ pushed through fresh record highs on Friday.

Tech stocks the big helping hand there.

Both indexes have now lodged their sixth consecutive weekly advances.

It's the longest run of weekly gains since October 2024.

So we'll try to cover as much as we can in the podcast that we have for this week.

We also can't ignore the Middle East war.

The latest developments are reports that Iran has submitted a fresh proposal for negotiations with Washington.

And a short time ago, Reuters was reporting that Iran has now indicated negotiations

that it has received a US response.

It's unclear, though, what that response says.

On Saturday, the US president wrote on social media that Iran, quote, "...has not paid a big enough price for what they have done to humanity."

The two countries suspended their bombing campaign four weeks ago.

The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz also remains.

And last week, Brent crude futures topped $120 a barrel.

So that was a four-year high before pulling back a bit.

So it'll be interesting to see what investors make of these further developments and any more that may come this week.

So James, how is the Australian share market looking when it opens up?

Okay.

And a reminder on Friday, the ASX 200 closed up.