April 10, 2026

Investor sentiment remained much improved heading into trading this past week, despite the high-stakes brinkmanship between President Trump and Iran’s leadership. Thankfully, Trump’s post calling for the destruction of an entire civilization never came to fruition. Instead he opted to postpone his self-imposed Tuesday night deadline by suspending operations in Iran for two weeks on the basis of Iran allowing Strait of Hormuz traffic to pick up appreciably. The ceasefire agreement was shaky at best, however, with reported breeches in Saudi Arabia and southern Iran on day one. Strait ship traffic remained at a trickle largely in response to Israel continuing its campaign in south Lebanon. Both sides begrudgingly worked towards a face to face meeting in Pakistan this weekend. Nevertheless, the S&P punched back above its 200-day and ultimately the 50-day moving averages getting just few percentage points away from the all-time highs. WTI crude’s spread above Brent oil climbed to $6/barrel as energy prices surged before falling back after the cease-fire announcement. Treasury yields were largely flat while the U.S. dollar moved lower. For the week, the S&P gained 3.6%, the DJIA added 3%, and the Nasdaq was up 4.7%. European bourses rallied; the German DAX advanced 2.7% and the French CAC 40 gained 3.7%. Asia Pacific stock markets joined in the risk-on sentiment with mainland China exchanges and the Hong Kong Hang Seng climbing 3%, and Japan surging 7%. Your BSD Global Tech Hedge Fund gained 7.3% this past week. On the corporate front this week, inflation effects were clearly afoot in the airline industry, while new achievements in AI led to some soul searching about the real implications of the rapidly developing technology. Delta confirmed airline traffic remains strong despite the energy shock, as Q1 beat top and bottom line forecasts. Delta did note it expects a $2B increase in fuel costs, and accordingly raised baggage fees by $10, largely in lockstep with its domestic peers. Shares of Meta gained ground as it debuted its first AI model from its Superintelligence Labs, called Muse Spark. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s new frontier model – Mythos – sent a chill across the technology world as the company revealed the powerful AI has essentially exceeded human capabilities in finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities. This caught the eye of top U.S. financial officials who called a hasty meeting of Wall Street executives to discuss the potential risks. It also led Anthropic itself to establish the ‘Project Glasswing’ cybersecurity initiative, which aims to ensure critical software worldwide does not become vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated AI models. Coreweave shareholders had a good week, gaining on a big new cloud contract with Anthropic as well as a large chunk of business from Meta, while also easily raising billions of dollars in new funding to support their infrastructure build out. Apple stock was troubled early in the week on a report that its upcoming foldable iPhone was experiencing engineering issues, though subsequent reports said the product is still on track for a September launch. Intel was a big winner, trading up more than 20% as it joined Elon Musk’s Terafab project for construction of massive, vertically integrated semiconductor facilities in Texas, and also deepened its collaboration with Google on AI infrastructure.

Financial markets head into a busy week dominated by major bank earnings. There will also be inflation data and a heavy slate of Federal Reserve commentary. Earnings season kicks off with Goldman Sachs on Monday, followed by a wave of financial heavyweights on Tuesday, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and BlackRock. Later in the week, results from Taiwan Semiconductor, Netflix, and PepsiCo will offer insight into global demand, tech spending, and consumer trends. On the macro front, the March Producer Price Index on Tuesday will be closely watched for signs of pass-through from recent oil volatility, while the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book on Wednesday will provide a snapshot of economic conditions across regions. A steady stream of Fed speakers throughout the week, including John Williams and Neel Kashkari, could also shape rate expectations. Elsewhere in the world, the week will feature the release of Q1 GDP in China. In the eurozone, we will receive February data on industrial production and the trade balance. Energy markets remain in focus with OPEC’s monthly report due Monday, while geopolitical developments continue to influence sentiment.

Our BSD Global Tech Hedge Fund holds a 5% cash position and a stock portfolio that is 95% invested across two dozen tech vendors and tech end users. This portfolio is hedged with a 26% short equity index against the notional value of the invested stock portfolio. This hedge will incrementally grow (from the laddered Nasdaq put options strategy) if the stock market comes under pressure.