Mark Lister

Started last week with some of the big banks, Netflix, PepsiCo, a couple of others.

Pretty good so far, but it's early days.

Analysts are still expecting fairly healthy earnings growth for the quarter, to the tune of about 13% per annum.

for the aggregate S&P 500.

So those estimates have actually increased from three months ago.

So people are still upbeat despite everything that is going on.

We'll hear from some of the defence companies this week.

There's RTX, there's Lockheed Martin, a couple of materials businesses, Newmont.

Freeport McMorrin, a couple of technology exposures, Tesla, IBM, Intel, SAP, and lots of others too.

3M, L'Oreal, Thermo Fisher, Procter & Gamble.

So really something for everyone on the earnings front.

But I think the highlight will be some of those geopolitical issues.

We'll be focusing on the US and Iran.

Obviously that ceasefire, which is due to expire on Tuesday.

So will we see a resolution before then?

Maybe we'll see an extension to the ceasefire to allow both sides more time to negotiate.

Whatever happens, it is a pretty fragile situation as you can see from some of the conflicting news reports just over the last three or four days.

Is the straight open or is the straight not open?

We might see markets give back some of those Friday night gains as well if it turns out that it's not reopening as quickly as we were all hoping for.

Something else to watch this week as well is that on Tuesday, the US Banking Senate Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Kevin Walsh.