The Weekender

In this weekend’s update:

And more!

For lack of a better term, it was another week of an endless loop of back-and-forth bulls***, culminating Friday as the Strait of Hormuz was declared open by the United States, only to be deemed closed by Iran hours later.

I was recently telling a friend how challenging the past seven weeks have been — not only because of war in the Middle East roiling markets and the unprecedented uncertainty ahead, but because this is real war layered on top of an existing trade war.

Both are unlike any other “war” we have experienced in modern history — moving at a breakneck pace and largely playing out on social media in a constant stream of headlines that drag all markets along for the stomach-churning ride.

Rewind a year, and it was all but impossible to keep up with Trump’s rapid-fire trade war with nearly every trading partner around the globe. In fact, at this point last year, we were entering the tit-for-tat mess that eventually left the U.S. hitting China with 145% tariffs, while China finally said not uncle, but enough is enough — signaling they would no longer respond to further hikes as U.S. exports had already lost all market viability at those levels. It was pointless.

Today, while the tit-for-tat may have cooled on trade, we are in a heated battle in the Middle East.

The week before last, we thought, okay, this is finally coming to an end.

It didn’t.

Then we were fooled again Friday, as the Strait was declared open — only to be deemed closed by Iranian officials hours later.

In my mind, the bigger issue is time.