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| This week's gainers and losers |
| Up: AVIS Budget +48.6%: What better way to avoid ongoing airport disruptions than renting a car? That's at least how investors see it, sending Avis and Hertz (+20%) sharply higher. ARM +8.9%: The company has initiated a strategic shift welcomed by the market. ARM is launching a new AI chip and expects billions of dollars in additional annual revenue. Chewy +11.77%: The pet products specialist reported results slightly below consensus. However, ambitious guidance helped offset the shortfall. Margins are expected to continue expanding steadily, according to Wedbush. Dell Technologies +8.97% : The market is applauding the company's strategic positioning after unveiling new solutions and positioning itself as one of the winners in the AI arms race. The collapse of Super Micro Computer is further boosting the stock's appeal.
Estée Lauder -21.75%: While Puig shares are soaring on takeover discussions with the U.S. group, the market fears a costly deal that could distract Estée Lauder from its restructuring efforts. Micron Technology -15.53% : The memory chip sector is hit after Google announced a technology that could reduce the amount of memory required for AI models. Sandisk drops 15%, while Western Digital, less exposed, falls 6%. |
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| Commodities |
Energy: Donald Trump has postponed the deadline for a potential military strike on Iranian energy infrastructure. The U.S. president has granted an additional ten-day window and set a new ultimatum for April 6. However, the decision is doing little to curb the rise in crude prices. Brent is trading around $105 per barrel, while WTI is near $97. Prices continue to include a significant risk premium, likely to persist given the diplomatic deadlock: the U.S. proposed a 15-point peace plan rejected by Iran, which is imposing its own conditions (security guarantees and recognition of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz). The risk of military escalation remains high. As evidence, Washington is currently deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East. Donald Trump is also considering the use of ground forces to take control of Kharg Island, a major Iranian oil terminal. Since the start of the conflict, Brent is up 50%. Metals: Despite geopolitical tensions, gold is under pressure. The ounce has fallen back below $4,500. High oil prices are fueling concerns about persistent inflation. As a result, markets believe the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates anytime soon. Higher rates make gold less attractive, as it generates no yield. A similar trend is seen in copper, which has dropped about 7% since the start of the month. Investors fear that expensive energy and high interest rates will slow global economic growth and reduce demand for industrial metals. Copper is trading at $12,174 per ton (spot price) in London. Agricultural products: Grain prices ended the week broadly higher. Wheat rose to 607 cents per bushel, while corn and soybeans reached 469 and 1,176 cents respectively (May 2026 contracts). Corn and soybeans are used to produce biofuels, so their prices closely track the oil market. |
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| Macroeconomics |
Macro: Tweets are not enough to make peace. Progress between the United States and Iran remains insufficient at this stage to reach an agreement, and further bloodshed may be needed to force negotiations. Control of the Strait of Hormuz remains highly contested, while Iran's ballistic and nuclear programs also weigh heavily. In the absence of real progress, uncertainty continues to fuel current market volatility, even as low trading volumes in equities suggest a wait-and-see approach from investors. Gold is attempting to stabilize after erasing all its yearly gains, while yields on French and German bonds have just exceeded their 2023 highs, limiting these governments' room for maneuver. The problems are only beginning. Crypto: Bitcoin continues the downward trend that began last week. It is down 2% to around $66,500, after already falling 7% the previous week. Beyond the tense geopolitical backdrop, the U.S. crypto sector suffered another setback this week. The CLARITY Act, a bill aimed at clarifying the regulatory framework for digital assets, has been revised. In its new version, it prohibits crypto players from offering yields on stablecoins, even indirectly. In other words, the sector could gain regulatory clarity but lose a key element of the commercial appeal of stablecoins compared to bank deposits. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, fell 20% this week. The company generates most of its revenue from reserves backing the stablecoin, largely invested in U.S. Treasuries, so its core business is not directly targeted. However, one of its main growth ambitions: offering yield on stablecoin balances, similar to an interest-bearing checking account, now appears to be fading. Following Bitcoin, other major cryptocurrencies also declined: Ether (ETH) fell 3.31% below $2,000, Solana (SOL) dropped 3.67% to around $83, and XRP (XRP) lost 3.39%, now trading around $1.33. |
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| Things to read this week | ||||||
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*The weekly movements of indexes and stocks displayed on the dashboard are related to the period ranging from the open on Monday to the sending time of this newsletter on Friday. The weekly movements of commodities, precious metals and currencies displayed on the dashboard are related to a 7-day rolling period from Friday to Friday, until the sending time of this newsletter. These assets continue to quote on weekends. |
