Zaid Admani

The markets are coming off their best week of the year.

The S&P 500 was up 3% last week, while the Nasdaq jumped more than 4% thanks to the ceasefire announced between Iran and the U.S.

Oil prices also saw their biggest weekly drop since 2020, dropping over 12% to $95 a barrel.

Investors were breathing a sigh of relief at the end of last week and optimistic about a potential long-term resolution regarding the Iran war.

Well, some of that optimism faded over the weekend.

The U.S.

and Iran met in Islamabad, Pakistan over the weekend, and there was no deal struck between the two sides.

And then to add on top of that, President Trump just announced that the U.S.

Navy will do a full blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iranian ships from passing through.

So we got more Hormuz drama, and that news is sending oil prices back up again.

It's trading over $100 a barrel as of this morning.

So to me, this seems like a classic two steps forward, one step back situation.

Now keep in mind, overall, the stock market has actually held up pretty well, all things considered.

I had to double check this, but the S&P is less than 3% from all time highs, which is pretty crazy.

And we're now about to kick off earnings season.

And I'm really interested to see what happens now because strong corporate earnings have been the main reason the market has held up.

And analysts are expecting another strong quarter with S&P 500 companies projected to post about a 12.6% earnings growth, which would be the sixth straight quarter of double digit growth.

So it's going to be interesting to see which storyline ends up dominating the markets over the next few weeks.

Will the uncertainty with Iran overshadow the earnings season or will investors look past the geopolitical stuff and focus on earnings?

We are about to find out.