{"id":2792,"date":"2026-04-16T16:43:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/iran-conflict-rattles-energy-infra-but-cant-shake-americas-bull-run\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:43:42","slug":"iran-conflict-rattles-energy-infra-but-cant-shake-americas-bull-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/iran-conflict-rattles-energy-infra-but-cant-shake-americas-bull-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran conflict rattles energy infra but can’t shake America’s bull run"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Can anything stop the bull market in US equities? Apparently not. <\/p>\n

And certainly nothing as minor as a war in the Persian Gulf, even if it has led to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

This, as everybody now knows, is the chokepoint for roughly 20% of the world\u2019s requirement of crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), the fertilisers needed to help grow our food, along with the helium so vital for the manufacture of semiconductors. <\/p>\n

Yet this week, both the S&P 500 and tech-heavy NASDAQ hit all-time highs<\/a>, both on a closing basis and intra-day.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks ago, in late March, the S&P was close to 6,300, dropping to lows last seen in early August. <\/p>\n

That represented a fall of around 8% from the end of February, just before the US and Israel launched their attacks against Iran. <\/p>\n

So, a drop of 8% in little over a month, followed by an 11% rally in just over a fortnight. <\/p>\n

Surely, this bull market is a wondrous thing.<\/p>\n

Why should anyone be surprised? Since October 2022, every significant market dip has been bought, and the result has always been the same. <\/p>\n

New highs get recorded as short sellers get carried out. Forget caveat emptor. <\/p>\n

The only lesson learnt was to lever up and buy everything, especially tech. <\/p>\n

Markets are always forward-looking, we\u2019re told, and prices are a response to all the information currently available to the millions of stock market players. <\/p>\n

So, investors are simply reacting to a straightforward fact that wars, at least hot ones, always come to an end. <\/p>\n

In this case, a ceasefire was declared during the sixth week of the war. <\/p>\n

Despite accusations by both sides that the ceasefire terms had been broken, the US and Iran entered negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senior figures on both sides met officially for the first time in forty seven years. <\/p>\n

While inconclusive, it sounds as if more talks are about to take place, and the consensus view in the markets is that these will prove successful, whatever that may mean. <\/p>\n

After all, the Trump administration\u2019s idea of a victory could look quite different from anything the rest of the world may find acceptable. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the fact that the Gulf States have been scarred. <\/p>\n

It could take years to build back the energy infrastructure damaged during this war, particularly in Qatar, where its LNG production has been disrupted and destabilised. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other countries around the Gulf don\u2019t look quite so attractive anymore, whether for investors in Riyadh or influencers in Dubai. <\/p>\n

In addition, Europe and Asian Pacific countries remain dangerously exposed not just to higher energy prices, but to the real danger of energy shortages.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the rally in equities continues. Technically, all the US majors are looking overbought at current levels. <\/p>\n

They have risen too far too fast, suggesting that a pullback may be on the cards. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also possible that stock indices push higher from here, as FOMO plays its role in driving fresh buying from investors who feel they need greater exposure to record-breaking markets. <\/p>\n

We saw something very similar with gold and silver back in January. And we all know how that ended.<\/p>\n

(This is a fortnightly column by David Morrison. He is a Senior Market Analyst at Trade Nation. Views are his own.)<\/p>\n

The post Iran conflict rattles energy infra but can't shake America's bull run<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

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Can anything stop the bull market in US equities? Apparently not. And certainly nothing as minor as a war in the Persian Gulf, even if it has led to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. This, as everybody now knows, is the chokepoint for roughly 20% of the world\u2019s requirement of crude oil, liquefied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retrotradingreport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}