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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
Wraps & Blogs
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$
Wraps & Blogs
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

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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
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Tariffs rip into the week in business
The week that gave investors a Supreme Court ruling, Nvidia's biggest quarter on record, and a global debt figure that would make even the most bullish bond manager check the exits. 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 February 2026).MondayThe week opened with the biggest political and economic story of 2026 so far. The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 ruling finding the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise import tariffs, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the statute cannot bear the weight the White House placed on it. Before Trump, no president had ever tried. The court's conservative majority splintered on the question - Roberts was joined by all three liberal justices and two colleagues, with Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh and Alito dissenting. Markets rallied on the news. They then watched Trump respond within hours: invoking a separate 1970s statute, a new 10% global tariff was signed effective from 24 February, running for 150 days through to late July. The refund question on duties already collected under IEEPA - potentially more than $160 billion - was referred to the low
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Business gongs to copper, Iran this week
A seismic shift in mining economics, a nuclear standoff that briefly shut one of the world's busiest oil arteries, and an AI spending cycle that continues to defy gravity were the flavours of the week in business. All the top moves, shakes, and mounting stakes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (13 February, 2026). Check out the rest of the week's circus below:MondayThe European Central Bank extended its euro liquidity backstop globally, widening swap lines as a buffer against dollar funding stress - a procedural move, but a telling one for anyone tracking central bank risk appetite. U.S. consumer prices came in at 2.4%, below forecasts, handing the Fed a touch more room to manoeuvre heading into a data-heavy week. Australia locked in A$3.9 billion for the AUKUS submarine shipyard - one of the heftiest single defence infrastructure commitments in the country's history. Baidu folded OpenClaw into its 700 million-user search platform, handing the tool distribution that most Western AI products can only dream about. Iran put energy and mining concessions on the table ahead of nuclear talks in Geneva - an early read on what Tehran's opening position might look like if
Wraps & Blogs
Azzet Unpacked: Credit where it's due this week in business
As credit markets absorbed the largest tech bond sale in a generation, BYD took a legal sledgehammer to United States tariff law, the SaaS sector's bleeding showed no signs of clotting, and Anthropic became the world's third most valuable private company at US$380 billion. The throughline this week was capital - who has it, who's borrowing it, who's burning it, and who's about to lose it to an AI agent. All the top moves, shakes, and loan payment breaks from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (13 February, 2026). Get your wallets ready.MondayU.S. consumer sentiment edged up to a six-month high of 57.3, beating forecasts of 55.0, though the improvement was driven by wealthy portfolios rather than any broad-based optimism, with the index still down from 64.7 year-over-year. The long-running Glencore-Rio Tinto combination continued to haunt the mining sector, with the deal looking as dead as ever, SpaceX IPO speculation around timing and valuation heated up, and Anthropic took aim at OpenAI as the AI ads war intensified. American Airlines' turnaround isn't taking off, Hims & Hers pulled its copycat pill on threats of legal action, and the U.S. and India reached an interim tr