Wall Street's biggest banks posted blowout quarters, TSMC kept minting money from AI chips, and consumer sentiment cratered to a 70-year low - all while the Iran war tightened its chokehold on global energy markets and Europe counted down the weeks before the jet fuel ran out.
All the top moves, shakes, and petrodollar takes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (18 April 2026).
Hold on tight.
Monday
The week opened with a dose of grim arithmetic for U.S. households, as the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment reading collapsed to 47.6 - the weakest print in the survey's seven-decade history and a 10.7% decline from March.
One-year inflation expectations surged to 4.8% from 3.8%, the largest monthly jump since April 2025, as respondents overwhelmingly blamed the Iran conflict for eroding their economic outlook.
The data landed alongside a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing consumer prices rose 0.9% in March, pushing the annual rate to 3.3% and sending the Fed further from its inflation target.
Gasoline prices drove most of the headline damage, surging 21.2% in the month - the steepest monthly increase since records began in 1967 - while the broader energy index leapt 10.9%, its sharpest gain since 2005.
Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, rose just 0.2% monthly and 2.6% annually, both a tenth below consensus, offering the Federal Reserve a narrow lane to argue the inflationary pulse remains transitory.
The real-world translation was less forgiving: real average hourly earnings fell 0.6% for the month, meaning American workers effectively took a pay cut.
TSMC reported record first-quarter revenue, climbing 35.1% year-on-year as AI-driven demand for leading-edge chips showed no sign of slowing, and the Taiwanese foundry reportedly began notifying clients of price increases through to 2029.
Japan's government announced a fresh ¥631.5 billion (US$4 billion) injection into national champion chipmaker Rapidus, bringing total state support for the venture to ¥2.354 trillion as Tokyo seeks to reclaim its former dominance in semiconductor manufacturing.
The U.S. began enforcing its blockade of Iranian ports, while separately, the White House moved to automate Selective Service registration for all males aged 18 to 26 - the most significant change to draft enrolment since 1980, and a development that drew heightened scrutiny amid rising geopolitical tensions.
A United Nations Development Programme report warned the Iran conflict could push an additional 32 million people into poverty across 162 countries, with Gulf states, sub-Saharan Africa and small island developing nations bearing the heaviest burden.
Iraq elected Nizar Amidi as president amid the broader regional upheaval, while OpenAI disclosed it had tightened security after a supply-chain attack linked to North Korean actors compromised the widely used Axios developer library.
The Melbourne Motor Show opened its doors to 100,000 attendees, with Chinese automaker Denza showcasing ultra-fast EV charging technology and MG unveiling five new models as part of a broader push into the Australian market.
Tuesday
The world's largest asset manager fired the starting gun on a contrarian call, with BlackRock upgrading U.S. equities to overweight on the grounds that resilient corporate earnings - particularly in technology - would limit the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.
The BlackRock Investment Institute argued that the expected damage to global growth remained contained, pointing to early signs of energy market stabilisation and resumed flows through the Strait of Hormuz as evidence that the worst-case scenario was off the table.
The S&P 500 had already recovered 8% from its late-March seven-month low when the note landed, and BlackRock forecast 43% earnings growth for the technology sector in 2026, with semiconductor profits expected to surge 80% on AI infrastructure demand.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley echoed the constructive tone, with JPMorgan's Mislav Matejka arguing that geopolitically-driven selloffs were buying opportunities and Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson characterising the recent drawdown as a correction rather than the beginning of something worse.
Goldman Sachs reported a 19% jump in net earnings to US$5.63 billion for the first quarter, comfortably clearing consensus estimates, but the stock fell 1.87% after its fixed income, currencies and commodities division posted a 10% revenue decline on weaker interest rate and mortgage trading activity.
Investment banking fees surged 48%, however, and CEO David Solomon told analysts the pipeline for M&A activity remained robust despite the volatility thrown up by the Iran war.
LVMH's first-quarter organic sales grew just 1%, falling short of the 1.5% analysts had pencilled in, as the luxury conglomerate blamed the Middle East conflict for clipping roughly one percentage point off the headline growth figure - with fashion and leather goods, the group's largest division, declining 2% in constant currencies.
Qantas warned the Iran war had added roughly A$1 billion to its second-half fuel bill and cut domestic capacity by around five percentage points after jet refining margins spiked from US$20 per barrel in February to a peak of US$120, lifting estimated fuel costs for the half to A$3.1-3.3 billion against an earlier forecast of A$2.2 billion.
Westpac flagged a A$75 million profit hit from its RAMS sale, Meta was tipped to overtake Google in digital ad spending, and U.S. existing home sales dropped in March as affordability deteriorated further.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer made clear that Britain would not participate in the U.S. naval blockade, while Australian consumer confidence fell heavily in April, according to the latest Westpac survey.
Hollywood actors came out against a proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, and Geely launched its i-HEV intelligent hybrid platform.
Wednesday
The U.S. and Iran weighed fresh diplomatic talks as the ceasefire neared its expiry, with Washington signalling openness to negotiations even as its naval blockade remained firmly in place - a combination that drew sharp condemnation from Beijing, which branded the operation dangerous and irresponsible.
The geopolitical backdrop fed into a provocative question explored at length by Azzet's editorial team: whether the Iran war was accelerating the petrodollar's structural decline, as Tehran's decision to demand Strait of Hormuz transit fees in Chinese yuan and stablecoins exposed vulnerabilities in the dollar-denominated oil trade that has underpinned U.S. financial hegemony for seven decades.
A US$166 billion tariff refund system - dubbed CAPE - was confirmed to begin rolling out from 20 April, following a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a key pillar of Trump's trade policy, with more than 56,000 importers already registered to reclaim levies covering roughly US$127 billion in deposits.
JPMorgan Chase posted a 13% rise in first-quarter net income to US$16.49 billion, beating consensus on the back of a 21% jump in fixed income revenue and a 28% leap in investment banking fees, but CEO Jamie Dimon struck a notably cautious tone, warning of geopolitical tensions, energy price volatility, trade uncertainty and elevated asset prices.
Citigroup beat expectations with broad-based growth, and Wells Fargo's net interest income missed estimates, adding a wrinkle to the otherwise upbeat bank earnings season.
Johnson & Johnson exceeded forecasts despite a decline in Stelara revenue, while the producer price index rose but remained below expectations, offering another data point suggesting core inflationary pressures were manageable even as energy costs ran hot.
The IMF warned that the UK economy would suffer most among advanced economies from the Iran war, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to tackle housing affordability and suspend the federal fuel tax.
United Airlines began exploring whether an American Airlines merger could win regulatory approval under the current administration, and the Australian government's superannuation reform package drew fire for what critics called an unfair plan embedded in a broader policy blitz.
Thursday
President Trump declared the Iran war "very close to over" - a statement that drew scepticism from European allies, with the UK Finance Minister slamming Washington's conduct of the campaign in unusually blunt terms for a traditional U.S. ally.
Hermès shares tumbled 8.2% after the French luxury house reported Q1 revenue of €4.07 billion, missing analysts' €4.15 billion estimate as Middle East sales dropped 13.4% year-on-year - adding to the pain already felt across the sector after LVMH's disappointing update earlier in the week and a 6% revenue decline at Kering.
The luxury rout tells a layered story: the Iran war is visibly choking off tourist flows through Gulf hub airports and dampening high-end spending, but the industry was already nursing a hangover from post-pandemic price hikes that alienated aspirational buyers.
ASML beat earnings and revenue estimates - net sales climbing to €8.77 billion and net income reaching €2.76 billion - but shares fell 4.2% after newly-proposed U.S. legislation threatened to further restrict chip equipment sales to China, where the Dutch company's exposure had already dropped from 36% to 19% of lithography system sales in a single quarter.
The semiconductor equipment maker lifted its full-year revenue guidance to €36-40 billion from a prior range of €34-39 billion, underpinned by AI-driven demand that its CEO described as outpacing supply.
Bank of America exceeded expectations, buoyed by strong trading revenue, rounding out a week in which every major Wall Street bank cleared consensus on profit - even if the tone from boardrooms was markedly more guarded than the headline numbers.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent conceded that economic growth may slow, while Australian unemployment held steady with full-time employment continuing to grow.
A federal court found Live Nation guilty of holding a harmful monopoly over the U.S. live events industry, and a mining rights court case delivered an outcome where almost everyone walked away a winner.
Friday
The International Energy Agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, warned that Europe had roughly six weeks of jet fuel reserves remaining and predicted flight cancellations would begin shortly if Middle East oil supplies were not restored - a warning that Dutch carrier KLM promptly validated by cutting 160 flights over the coming month.
Birol characterised the potential fallout as the largest energy crisis the world has ever confronted, noting that developing economies would absorb the worst of the damage and warning that a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could tip weaker economies into recession.
TSMC reported a 58% surge in first-quarter profit, with earnings per share climbing to NT$22.08 and revenue beating LSEG estimates, but flagged that rising chemical and gas costs linked to the Hormuz disruption could weigh on future profitability - though the chipmaker stressed it had built safety stock inventories and did not expect near-term supply chain disruption.
Gross margins expanded to 66.2% from 58.8% a year earlier, advanced technologies represented 74% of total wafer revenue, and 3-nanometre chips accounted for a quarter of shipments - a set of numbers that underscored why AI infrastructure spending continues to flow to TSMC regardless of what is happening in the Strait.
Netflix shares dropped 8.9% in after-hours trading despite beating on both revenue and earnings, after co-founder Reed Hastings announced he would leave the board in June - the final step in a succession process that handed full operational control to co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos.
Revenue grew 16% to US$12.25 billion and net income nearly doubled to US$5.28 billion, though the latter was inflated by a US$2.8 billion termination fee from the collapsed Warner Bros. transaction, and full-year guidance remained unchanged at US$50.7-51.7 billion.
The U.S. job market remained steady even as global tensions persisted, PepsiCo beat estimates as its North American foods arm returned to volume growth, and Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire on the conflict's northern front.
The week's big read
Wall Street's banks are having the time of their lives - and they know it cannot last.
Every major U.S. bank cleared first-quarter profit expectations this week, powered by a volatility-fuelled trading bonanza and a surge in investment banking fees that suggested corporate America's appetite for dealmaking has not been meaningfully dented by the Iran conflict.
Goldman Sachs posted a 19% earnings jump and a 48% surge in IB fees, JPMorgan delivered 13% net income growth with fixed income revenue up 21%, Bank of America rode trading revenue higher, and Citigroup grew across all its major divisions.
The pattern was remarkably consistent: trading desks profited handsomely from the violent swings in energy, rates and currencies triggered by the Hormuz disruption, while M&A and capital markets activity held up far better than the macro headlines would have suggested.
Yet the tone from executive suites was strikingly more sober than the numbers warranted.
Jamie Dimon warned of an "increasingly complex set of risks" spanning geopolitics, energy volatility and elevated asset prices, Goldman's David Solomon stressed the need for disciplined risk management, and Treasury Secretary Bessent conceded publicly that growth may slow.
Read between the lines, and the message is clear: Q1 earnings reflect conditions before the full weight of the energy shock, consumer spending contraction and potential credit deterioration feed through to the real economy.
Consumer sentiment at a 70-year low, gasoline prices posting their largest monthly surge on record, real wages falling, and Europe staring down a jet fuel countdown measured in weeks - these are not inputs that sustain a durable earnings expansion.
BlackRock may be right that the selloff created a buying opportunity, and the core CPI print did offer the Fed some breathing room, but the gap between the earnings season narrative and the consumer economy data grew wider with each passing day this week.
The question for the second quarter is whether the trading desks can keep harvesting volatility premiums fast enough to offset the drag from a consumer sector that is visibly buckling under the weight of war-driven inflation.
