Monday Win. It a pattern that’s become all too familiar, stocks rose to start the week, but the question is whether they can stay there as the war in Iran remains a flashpoint.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both added 0.4% Monday, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5%.

Those gains come despite the fact that President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is looming, and the U.S. and Iran are no closer to a cease-fire agreement. That may mean that some investors are hoping that TACO Tuesday is back on the menu, to use the acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out.

“The real issue is that even if there’s a climbdown, or TACO, the risk environment has already shifted in a way that leaves markets exposed to sharp, disorderly moves,” warns deVere Group Chief Executive Nigel Green.

Still, investors seemed blasé about the war, perhaps also potentially taking heart from the better-than-expected March jobs report, delivered while the market was closed on Friday.

Others might just be in wait-and-see mode on a relatively quiet day. Tomorrow may bring fireworks, second-quarter earnings reports begin to trickle in Wednesday with Delta Air Lines, and then Friday’s consumer price index reading will be the first to fully capture the impact of the war on inflation, with the biggest expected jump since 2022.

“For now, the market holds its breath, hoping for cooler heads to prevail in the Middle East,” writes Navellier Chief Investment Officer Louis Navellier. “The trend is guardedly optimistic.”

These days, on guard feels like the default mode.

The Hot Stock: AppLovin Corp Class A +6.8%
The Biggest Loser: Lumentum Holdings -6.6%

Best Sector: Consumer Discretionary +0.8%
Worst Sector: Utilities -0.4%

The Latin phrase ad astra per aspera translates as “to the stars through difficulties.” At trying times like these, many people still look up for hope, and on Monday at least they got some.

NASA’s Artemis II mission, which is sending four astronauts around the moon on a rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty, broke a more than 50-year old record this afternoon, as my colleague Al Root reports. Its four occupants, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, have now been farther from Earth than any other humans in history, at 253,000 miles away, eclipsing Apollo 13’s distance in 1970.

If that seems too esoteric a milestone for a financial newsletter, it’s worth noting that investors have some reason to cheer too. Per Al’s article:

They weren’t the only beneficiaries however. Virgin Galactic Holdings got a boost too, as Barron’s Nate Wolf writes. Some are hopeful that Artemis’s success bodes well for the space-travel company founded by English billionaire Richard Branson, leading to a nearly 25% rally in the stock.

This comes after last week’s news that SpaceX is seeking an initial public offering valuation of $2 trillion.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” wrote Oscar Wilde. And some see dollar signs.

Levi Strauss reports first-quarter fiscal-2026 earnings on Tuesday.

The Census Bureau releases the durable goods report for February. The consensus call is for a 1% month-over-month decline for new orders for durable manufactured goods to $318 billion.

—Dan Lam

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