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Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Market, Hormuz heat rises as Cook exits
Wall Street rewrote its highs on a ceasefire extension that Iran's navy promptly tested with two container ship seizures, Tim Cook's successor was named at Apple, and more than US$5 billion of Western capital landed on Australian critical minerals projects. All the top moves, shakes and cooked market takes from Azzet's editorial team, every Friday (24 April 2026). Hold on tight.MondayThe week opened with a reminder that the Iran war's supply shock has barely started to feed through, after analysts warned markets were still under-pricing the risk of prolonged Hormuz disruption. Tehran spent the day dismissing Washington's overtures, with state broadcaster IRNA confirming Iran had rejected the latest U.S. peace talks proposal before shuttering the Strait again in response to the ongoing American naval blockade. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney added another fissure to the Western bloc, stating publicly that Canada's ties to the U.S. had become a structural weakness - an unusually blunt framing from the head of a G7 ally. Base metals managed to hold their ground against a firmer greenback, while Australia and Japan signed a deal to deliver joint warship construction that deepens Indo-Pacific defence-industrial ties
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Earnings, energy excite your business week
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.MondayThe 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 broad
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Shaky truce a blinder for business this week
A fragile Iran ceasefire crashed oil 16% in a single session, the IMF downgraded global growth, AI deals kept flowing through the wreckage, and private credit reminded everyone it can, in fact, lose money. All the top moves, shakes, and Hormuz Strait's from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (10 April 2026). Oil markets spent the first half of the week grinding higher on war premium and Hormuz anxiety, only to surrender the lot - and then some - when Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday night. West Texas Intermediate cratered more than 16% to US$94.41 a barrel, its steepest single-day drop since April 2020, and Brent followed with a 14% plunge. Yet by Thursday morning, Iran was already accusing the U.S. of breaching the terms. Markets that had priced in months of supply dislocation were forced to reprice in hours, and the whiplash left commodity desks, airlines, and bond strategists all scrambling to recalibrate. Away from the barrel, the IMF formally abandoned its growth upgrade and replaced it with a downgrade, U.S. Q4 GDP was revised down to a limp 0.5%, and Carlyle joined Blackstone in reminding investors that private credit can gate yo
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Good Friday ahead after crude business week
Ahead of the Easter break, investors were handed an escalating Iran conflict, a US$122 billion AI mega-round, aluminium prices at four-year highs, a $29 billion food distribution deal the market hated, and a reminder that the Strait of Hormuz has no single off-switch. All the top moves, shakes, and chocolate bunny flakes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (4 April 2026). The Strait of Hormuz has been shut for five weeks now, and the best idea anyone in Washington can come up with is threatening to seize an Iranian oil island while simultaneously granting Moscow a sanctions waiver to sell more crude. Subsequently, Brent Crude posted its steepest monthly gain on record during March.Source: AzzetThe IEA logged an 8-million-barrel-per-day supply loss - worse, by its own assessment, than anything the oil market has previously recorded. Gulf aluminium smelters took direct hits from Iranian strikes, and U.S. consumer sentiment slid to a three-month low. None of which stopped OpenAI from raising $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation without ever having turned a profit, or SpaceX from filing for what looks like the decade's biggest IPO, or Oracle from sacking staff so it
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US earnings wrap: Winners, losers and sector themes
The latest United States corporate reporting period closed out with company earnings broadly respectable, but the season lacked a sustained string of blockbuster surprises. Aggregate profitability for the S&P 500 finished the quarter stronger than analysts feared at the start of the cycle, yet the pattern beneath the surface was mixed - heavy beats in technology and select industrial names contrasted with softer results in healthcare, energy and real estate. Here we review the winners and losers, the sector-level stories that dominated conference calls, and what investors should be watching as companies move from results to guidance and buybacks.The headline numbersFactSet’s end-of-season review shows that, while aggregate earnings growth remained positive for the quarter, companies and analysts trimmed certain expectations during the reporting window - with meaningful downward revisions in Health Care, Energy and Consumer Discretionary. FactSet’s data-backed scorecards point to a pattern of smaller-than-usual earnings and revenue surprises versus the recent five- and ten-year averages. Meanwhile, U.S. Bank’s market commentary underlined how those corporate results fed into the outlook for 2026: Earnings estimates for

Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Trump, wages, war, this week in business
The week that gave investors an Iran strike pause, a SpaceX IPO filing, bonds and stocks falling in tandem, and a reminder that private credit is not nearly as boring as its name suggests. All the top moves, shakes, and red-hot takes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (28 March 2026).MondayThe week opened under the shadow of the Middle East conflict and the growing economic fallout from the Strait of Hormuz disruption. Iran remained unfazed by Trump's 48-hour ultimatum, rejecting the President's demand to halt military operations and signalling no intention to back down from its closure of the strait. Tehran declared the Strait of Hormuz open to non-enemy ships - meaning anyone not flying the U.S. or Israeli flag - but warned the waterway would be fully sealed if Washington followed through on threats to destroy Iranian energy facilities. A generous definition of "open", by any measure. Iraq declared force majeure on all its foreign-operated oilfields, with storage capacity at its limits and international partners unable to nominate tankers. Production at Iraq's Basra Oil Company was cut by around 70% to just 900,000 barrels per day. Brent crude surged past US$
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Azzet Unpacked: Iran strikes across the Gulf in business
Iran launched missiles at Qatar's largest LNG hub and UAE energy infrastructure, Brent crude surged past US$111 a barrel, the RBA hiked rates, the Fed held firm, BHP named its next CEO, Meta prepared to axe 16,000 jobs, and Nvidia projected $1 trillion in revenue by 2027. Normal week, right? All the top moves, shakes, and castrates from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (20 March 2026).MondayThe week opened with a familiar cocktail: A weakening United States consumer, an escalating Gulf conflict, and the largest miner on the ASX getting ready to shuffle the C-suite. The latest GDP read showed U.S. growth slumping amid a government shutdown that took a measurable bite out of activity - a result that reinforced the growing evidence the American economy was cooling before the oil shock even arrived. A separate release showed job openings coming in sluggish while consumer sentiment fell further, a pairing that usually gets the attention of Fed watchers and duly did. On the geopolitical front, Washington moved to secure allied naval escorts for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz - a request that would be tested repeatedly later in the week. The Pentagon signalled it was
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: US$100 oil spooks the week in business
Brent crude crossed the century mark for the first time in years, Iran's new Supreme Leader made clear Hormuz was staying closed, United States payrolls fell off a cliff, and the AI industry spent most of the week negotiating who was actually allowed to work for the Pentagon. Bonkers. Move over Jason Vorhees, this Friday the 13th could be the scariest one yet… All the top moves, shakes, and drone strike wakes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (13 March 2026).MondayThe week arrived carrying the weight of a war now entering its second week and a labour market update that made uncomfortable reading for the Fed. U.S. payrolls fell by 92,000 in February, with unemployment climbing to 4.4% - the softest jobs number in some time and a sharp contrast to the resilience the labour market had been showing through most of 2025. Whether the conflict in the Gulf was already feeding through to hiring decisions or whether the result reflects deeper pre-existing softness in the U.S. economy is a question nobody can answer cleanly yet. American consumers pulled back in February as well, with retail sales falling 0.2% - a result that, alongside the payrolls print, suggests the pre-war
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Oil spills across the week in business
The week the Middle East changed shape, a closed strait rattled every commodity desk on the planet, and Kevin Warsh got the Fed job - if he can actually get through the door. All the top moves, shakes, and shipping lane straits from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (6 March 2026).MondayThe week opened under the shadow of events that had already unfolded over the weekend. U.S. and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, striking Iranian nuclear and military sites and killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the process. The 86-year-old had led Iran since 1989, and his death - confirmed by state media on Sunday - plunged the country into its deepest crisis since the 1979 revolution. Iran's Revolutionary Guard declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, missile strikes hit U.S. military assets across the Gulf, and Tehran responded with attacks on Israel. Russia and China condemned the operation, Turkey called it a clear violation of international law, and Trump posted on Truth Social that the bombing would continue until he achieved, in his words, "peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world" - which is one way to frame it. Energy markets moved imme