“We hold all the cards.”

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd. I’m writing to you from London, where I’m getting used to some mild jet lag after spending a week in Singapore.

This morning, it seems two things can be true at the same time.

The glass-half-empty view continues to push oil prices higher as investors worry about stalled negotiations between the US and Iran.

Investors are pushing Asian stocks higher on the tepid outlook, with Europe and the United States expected to follow suit as they take comfort that tensions have not escalated despite delays in negotiations.

With this week being the biggest earnings week in the US and here in Europe, market attention will most likely be on the results, and central banks will also be looking for attention as a number of policy meetings take place later this week.

It’s unusual for both oil prices and stock prices to rise, but the uncertainty in the U.S.-Iran talks has pushed both asset classes into the green in early trading.

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher on Monday as Japan’s Nikkei average and stocks rose as investors focused on avoiding a diplomatic setback between the US and Iran. KOPSI in Korea The highest price has been updated.

However, escalating tensions in the Middle East are also causing oil prices to continue to rise. brent and US crude oil both rose.

President Donald Trump on Saturday canceled plans to send U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad, Pakistan, to negotiate with Iran.

“Too much time wasted traveling and too much work! On top of that, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership’,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“No one knows who is in charge, including them,” the president said. “And we have all the cards and they have none! If they want to talk, they just call!!!”

But Axios reported earlier on Monday that Iran had presented the U.S. administration with a new proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, but said nuclear negotiations needed to be postponed to a later stage.

Meanwhile, Washington is still reeling from the shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. An armed man broke through a security checkpoint and engaged in a gunfight with police. Click here for more information on the incident.

In economic news, profits of Chinese industrial companies grew at the fastest pace in six months in March, despite the Middle East war disrupting the global oil market and soaring raw material prices. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday showed industrial profits rose 15.8% year-on-year in March, the strongest growth since September last year and an acceleration from the 15.2% rise in the first two months of this year.

This week will see policy meetings from the Federal Reserve (last Jerome Powell!), the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England, with further economic data expected to be released.

— Leonie Kidd

Earnings Forecast: Five members of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ to report during busiest week of season

It’s the busiest week of the earnings season, and the five members of the Magnificent Seven are likely to set the tone for the rest of the market.

The S&P 500 companies scheduled to be announced this week include Metaplatform, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and more than 160 companies. Non-Big Tech companies scheduled to report earnings include General Motors and Robinhood.

So far, the corporate reporting period has been strong. Of the roughly 140 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings, 82% beat expectations, according to FactSet data.

— Fred Imbert