Econ #s

Spain Is Outpacing Europe In 2026 - 3 Stocks Set To Benefit

Mighty Wisdom — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:25:11 +0000

Spain is shaping up as one of Europe's strongest large market growth stories in 2026, and that could keep investor attention on names tied to utilities, consumer strength, and banking.

While much of the euro area is still expanding at a modest pace, Spain continues to outperform. The OECD expects 2.2% GDP growth in 2026 after 2.9% in 2025, while the European Commission sees 2.0% growth next year. The Bank of Spain also raised its 2026 GDP forecast to 2.3% in March.

That backdrop could keep Spanish equities in focus, especially companies with exposure to renewable energy, tourism-linked demand, global retail, and diversified banking.

Why It Matters?

Spain is not just growing faster than most of Europe. It is doing so with support from multiple drivers:

Resilient domestic demand
Strong labor market conditions
Tourism activity
Infrastructure investment
Continued EU recovery fund deployment

That matters because Spain is one of the few major European economies entering 2026 with real cyclical momentum rather than just stabilization.

For investors, the story is less about broad market exposure and more about which listed companies can convert that macro strength into stronger earnings, capital returns, and long-term positioning.

Spain's Macro Setup Still Looks Strong

Spain remains one of the euro area's strongest growth markets heading into 2026.

The growth story is being supported by a mix of consumption, employment gains, public and private investment, and continued services resilience. That makes Spain stand out versus slower-growing peers across the bloc.

Inflation is also expected to moderate, though the picture has become more mixed.

The OECD expects 2.3% inflation in 2026, while the European Commission sees 2.0%. However, the Bank of Spain revised its 2026 inflation forecast up to 3.0% in March, citing higher energy price assumptions tied to geopolitical risk.

That could make companies with pricing power, ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Trump Declares The Strait Is 'Permanently' Open – Tanker Traffic Says 'Not Yet'

Piero Cingari — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:06:18 +0000

Something is off with the math in Washington.

On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that the Strait of Hormuz is now “permanently” open — crediting US military superiority and a new understanding with China under which Beijing agreed not to ship weapons to Iran. He added that President Xi Jinping would give him “a big, fat hug” during an upcoming visit.

The day before, in an interview with Fox Business, Trump indicated the oil market had held up better than feared. With WTI – tracked by the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) – near $93 a barrel, far below the $200 some analysts warned was possible at the outset of the conflict, Trump said the price was manageable — and forecast much lower gas prices well ahead of the November midterm elections.

“If you told me at only $92 a barrel I would’ve been very surprised. And you know what, it is going to come dropping down,” he said.

But vessel-tracking data tells a different story — and the two narratives cannot both be true at the same time.

Hormuz Traffic Flow Still 10% Of Pre-War Levels

According to Kpler trade risk analyst Ana Subasic, commercial crossings through the strait fell to six on April 13 — down from 14 the session prior, and against a pre-conflict average closer ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Dow Jones Futures Gain As Trump Fuels De-Escalation Hopes—ASML, Gitlab, Broadcom In Focus (UPDATED)

Rishabh Mishra — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:43:53 +0000

(Editor’s note: The future prices of benchmark tracking ETFs, the lede, the economic data and the headline were updated in the story.)

U.S. stocks fluctuated on Wednesday, following Tuesday’s rally. Futures of the major benchmark indices were mixed.

U.S. import prices climbed 0.8% in March, marking a 2.1% year-over-year increase—the largest annual jump since late 2024. Despite these mounting cost pressures, New York's manufacturing sector showed unexpected resilience in April; the Empire State Manufacturing Survey's headline index surged eleven points to 11.0, signaling a moderate expansion in business activity fueled by significant gains in new orders and shipments.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump fueled the de-escalation narrative, saying that Iran talks "could be happening over the next two days" in Pakistan. The fresh Trump comments built on Vice President JD Vance‘s flagged "a lot of progress" in weekend talks with Iranian officials held in Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.25%, and the two-year bond was at 3.76%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 99.5% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged in its April meeting.

Index	Performance (+/-)
Dow Jones	0.02%
S&P 500	0.03%
Nasdaq 100	-0.09%
Russell 2000	-0.10%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were higher in premarket on Wednesday. The SPY was up 0.007% at $694.51, while the QQQ declined 0.099% to $627.98.

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Stocks In Focus

ASML Holding

ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML) rose 1.35% in premarket on Wednesday after the company announced its first-quarter earnings, beating expectations and raising its 2026 revenue outlook.

Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ASML maintains a strong price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a solid growth score.

AI, Data Centers Drive Utility Costs

The primary drivers for this spending growth are the boom in AI power and the construction of data centers. However, other factors such as aging infrastructure, climate change, increasing electrification, and population growth have contributed to a 40% increase in utility bills since 2021, “with no signs of slowing down,” as per PowerLines. In 2025 alone, utilities sought $31 billion in rate hikes, stated the report.

Previously, Goldman Sachs projected global data center electricity use would rise 175% by 2030 from 2023 levels, revised up from 165%. U.S. electricity demand is projected to grow 2.6% annually through 2030, driven by data centers, marking a sharp acceleration compared to historical growth of under 2%.

PowerLines also pointed out that nearly half of all new spending is allocated for transmission and distribution, with another 30% directed towards new power generation.

“Investor-owned utilities are signaling a record-breaking wave of capital spending, and history shows that those plans are often a leading indicator of future utility rate increase requests,” said Charles Hua, Founder and ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Will S&P 500 Open Up Or Down On Wednesday? Potential Iran Deal Talks And Bank Earnings On Deck

Eva Mathew — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:45:06 +0000

The S&P 500 climbed 1.18% on Tuesday to close at 6,967.38, extending its recent rally as easing oil prices and renewed hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal lifted sentiment.

The Polygon-based (CRYPTO: POL) Polymarket crowd appears split heading into Wednesday. The April 15 market shows 51% traders betting "Up," with early trading activity building on whether the S&P 500 will open higher or lower.

Why That Number Matters

The benchmark index is now less than 1% below its all-time high of 7,002.28, reached in January, underscoring how sharply markets have rebounded from the volatility triggered by the Iran war.

Investors have been encouraged by signs that diplomacy could still gain traction. President Donald Trump said earlier this week that Tehran wants to strike a deal, and a White House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of talks is under discussion, though no formal meeting ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Stocks Rally Toward Record Highs, Oil Crashes 7% As Iran Talks Show Progress: What's Moving Markets Tuesday?

Piero Cingari — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:03:39 +0000

U.S. stocks pushed back toward pre-war highs Tuesday, with the S&P 500 reclaiming the 6,960 level and small caps leading a broad-based advance as investors cheered fresh signs of progress in U.S.-Iran negotiations that sent crude oil tumbling nearly 7%.

• What’s driving XLY shares up?

President Donald Trump fanned the de-escalation narrative in a midday interview with the New York Post, telling the paper that Iran talks “could be happening over the next two days” in Pakistan. The fresh Trump comments built on Vice President JD Vance‘s flagged “a lot of progress” in weekend talks with Iranian officials held in Islamabad.

On the macro front, producer inflation came in sharply below expectations in March, cooling inflationary concerns.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1% to 6,960, its highest level since late February, now trading at a striking distance from the 7,002-point all-time high reached in late January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 347 points, or 0.7%, to 48,565. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed, advancing 1.5% to 25,776, on pace for its 10th straight session of gains — the longest streak since 2021.

Within Magnificent Seven stocks, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) jumped 4.6%, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 3.9%, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 3.6% and NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) added 2.7%, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock initially slipped, but recovered slightly.

The Russell 2000 led the major benchmarks with a 1.4% pop to 2,708, extending its rebound off March lows to 12%.

Oil was the biggest casualty of the de-escalation trade. WTI crude collapsed 6.7% to roughly $92.46 a barrel, handing back most of the war premium built up over recent weeks, while ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

S&P 500 Just Erased Seven Weeks Of War Losses, Nasdaq 100 Heads For 10th Consecutive Gain

Piero Cingari — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:11:42 +0000

The S&P 500 has erased every point lost since the war in Iran began. The index rallied above 6,900 Tuesday, surpassing its Feb. 27 close and wiping out seven weeks of war-driven losses in a recovery as swift as the selloff itself.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) — on track for its ninth positive session in the last 10 — is up 0.40% to 6,913 at last check.

From a peak above 6,950 in late January, the index collapsed to a low near 6,350 as the Strait of Hormuz closure sent oil above $100 and repriced inflation, growth and Fed expectations all at once.

The recovery has been equally sharp: seven straight weeks of losses, erased in ten sessions. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 is heading for its tenth consecutive gain — the longest winning streak since 2021.

Chart: S&P 500 Fully Recovered From War-Related Losses

What The Rally Is Pricing In

David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said markets across the board — the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Russell 2000 and Dow — are now well ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Producer Inflation Fell Short In March – Is The Hormuz Shock Still Loading? (UPDATED)

Piero Cingari — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:09:54 +0000

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with additional content.

Wall Street braced for the Hormuz shock to hit wholesale prices in March. The data said not yet.

The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.5% month-over-month in March, matching February’s pace of 0.5% but landing below the 1.1% consensus estimate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On an annual basis, PPI came in at 4% — below expectations of 4.6% — but up from 3.4% in February and hitting the highest value since February 2023.

Core PPI told the same story. PPI excluding food and energy rose just 0.1% on the month, well below the 0.5% forecast, and decelerated to 3.8% year-over-year against a 4.1% consensus.

Metric	Actual	Consensus	Previous
PPI MoM	0.5%	1.1%	0.5%
PPI YoY	4.0%	4.6%	3.4%
Core PPI MoM	0.1%	0.5%	0.3% (revised from 0.5%)
Core PPI YoY	3.8%	4.1%	3.8% (revised from 3.9%)

Energy Did The Lifting, Services Did The Dampening

The headline softness masked a stark split inside the report. Final demand goods surged 1.6% on the month — the largest rise since August 2023 — driven almost entirely by an 8.5% jump in energy prices.

That energy spike is the direct fingerprint of the Hormuz closure: gasoline prices alone rose 15.7%, accounting for nearly half of ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Republicans Launch Tax Cut Ad Campaign In 14 Swing Districts, Betting 'No Tax On Tips' Wins Back Working-Class Voters

Tanya Rawat — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:58:53 +0000

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday, April 14, launched a digital ad campaign across 14 competitive congressional districts in 11 states, touting GOP-led tax breaks enacted under the 2025 tax and spending bill.

Working Families Front And Center

The ads highlight provisions including no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, framing them as direct relief for working Americans. “After years of Democrats squeezing working Americans dry, House Republicans stepped in and delivered real relief,” said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella. The cost of the campaign was described only as a “modest ad buy.”

President Trump has called the One Big, Beautiful Bill’s provisions “the largest tax cuts in American history.” The legislation passed narrowly in the Senate, with estimates ...

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US Targets Lending Reforms As Housing Shortfall Tops 10 Million

Tanya Rawat — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:12:50 +0000

The United States is facing a housing shortfall of at least 10 million single-family homes, according to the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in the White House's latest Economic Report of the President, published on Monday.

The estimate is based on the long-term slowdown in homebuilding following the 2008 financial crisis. The report argues that if construction had continued at pre-2008 trends, the U.S. housing stock would be significantly larger today.

The CEA also notes that this gap reflects a structural supply failure rather than short-term demand fluctuations, driven by regulatory constraints, permitting delays, and elevated construction costs across many states.

Regulatory Constraints And Rising Costs

The CEA attributes the shortfall largely to binding supply constraints, including zoning restrictions, permitting delays, building code expansions, and rising compliance costs. Residential construction rules ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Harvard Professor Slams 'Terribly Flawed' Trade Deficit Views, Says Blaming It On Dollar Is 'Dead Wrong'

Rishabh Mishra — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:30:15 +0000

Harvard Professor and former IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath has strongly rebuked the enduring economic narrative that the U.S. dollar’s status as a global reserve currency is to blame for America’s persistent current account deficits.

A ‘Terribly Flawed’ View

In a recent post on X, Gopinath threw her weight behind a Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) article by Maurice Obstfeld titled “Don’t blame America’s current account deficit on the dollar.”

Reiterating her previous stance, Gopinath wrote, “The view that the dollar’s reserve currency status is responsible for its deficits is a terribly flawed view.”

Expressing clear frustration at the theory’s mainstream persistence despite evidence to the contrary, she added, “Yet, like a zombie, this view will not die even if, as Maury says This notion is dead wrong.”

Totally agree with this excellent article by Maury Obstfeld: "Don't blame America's current account deficit on the dollar." Not so long ago I tweeted "The view that the dollar's reserve currency status is responsible for its deficits is a terribly flawed view." Yet, like a…

— Gita Gopinath (@GitaGopinath) April 13, 2026

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Trump's Hormuz Blockade Sends Oil Past $100, Oracle Jumps 8%: What's Moving Markets Monday?

Piero Cingari — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:44:52 +0000

U.S. equities recovered from a sharp opening decline by midday Monday, staging a tentative rebound despite President Donald Trump‘s announcement of a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz sending oil prices above $100 per barrel.

The U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance left Pakistan on Sunday without a deal after Iran refused to abandon its nuclear ambitions, prompting Trump to announce that the United States Navy would begin blockading all ships entering or exiting Iranian ports effective Monday at 10:00 AM ET.

Yet a midday report from the New York Post that Iranian officials were internally studying whether to accept a U.S. condition to abandon uranium enrichment offered equity markets a partial lifeline, pulling indices sharply off their intraday lows.

West Texas Intermediate crude surged to $103.16 per barrel, up 6.8% on the session. Brent crude topped $101.96 per barrel, up 7.1%.

Across U.S. equity markets by midday Monday, the picture was split: technology and energy names advanced while consumer staples, utilities, and financials lagged.

The S&P 500 edged up 11 points, or 0.2%, to 6,827, recovering from an opening dip that had briefly pushed the index down more than 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 201 points, or 0.4%, to 47,715, weighed heavily by a steep drop in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), which slid 3.9% after first-quarter fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading revenues missed Wall Street estimates.

The Nasdaq 100 added 84 points, or 0.3%, to 25,201, buoyed by software and cloud computing names.

Shares of Oracle Corp.

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Oil Just Had Its Worst Week Since 2020 — But Trump's Hormuz Blockade Could Make It The Buy Of The Year

Piero Cingari — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:33:27 +0000

Last week was the worst for crude oil since the first COVID lockdowns shook the world in March 2020.

WTI fell 13.42% in five sessions as ceasefire hopes briefly convinced traders that the U.S.-Iran conflict was winding down and the Strait of Hormuz would reopen.

It was the kind of move that, in the moment, looked like the market pricing in resolution.

It was also, if history is any guide, precisely the kind of move that precedes the largest recoveries in crude’s modern trading record.

The ceasefire trade lasted five days. The blockade trade may last months.

The Blockade That Erased the Ceasefire Trade

Sunday evening changed everything.

President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Navy would begin blockading all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports, effective April 13 at 10 a.m. ET.

The announcement followed the collapse of US-Iran negotiations in Islamabad, where Tehran refused to relinquish its nuclear enrichment program — Washington’s core demand.

WTI crude – as tracked by the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) ...

Full story available on Benzinga.com

Could The Return of High Inflation Dampen Investor Spirits In 2026?

Dmytro Spilka — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:19:18 +0000

Many global markets have enjoyed multiple years of double-digit growth as innovations in artificial intelligence have sent high-tech stocks soaring, but has the recent return of geopolitical uncertainty created a significant headwind in 2026?

Between the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022 and the end of 2025, the S&P 500 rallied 70%, helping investors significantly grow their portfolios. Global markets have also soared in recent years, with the FTSE 100 growing 21% in 2025 and China's Hang Seng index recording growth of 27.8%.

However, much of this growth occurred after widespread investor sell-offs in a high-inflation environment caused by the post-pandemic recovery and the economic shock of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now, as geopolitical headwinds continue to grow in the Middle East, could investors be set for a return of high inflation and weaker growth?

Geopolitical Uncertainty and Inflation

The conflict in Iran has created significant challenges in the Federal Reserve's ambitions to bring inflation back towards its 2% target. Following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a busy shipping lane that accounts for around 20% of global oil flows, the soaring cost of oil, which has reached highs of $167 per barrel, has created significant energy pricing pressures.

While a tentative ceasefire appears to have been reached, the impact of the closure and lingering geopolitical pressures is likely to place inflation under the microscope for the months ahead.

As escalations in Iran continued, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasted all-items inflation in the US to reach 4.2% for 2026, a level that could inspire a hawkish reversion for the Fed's monetary outlook.

The impact of high inflation on markets is strong because it can not only cause widespread fear among investors but is more likely to lead to interest rate hikes that can harm the growth prospects of companies.

"When inflation gets out of control, things can get ...

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Trump Throws A Lifeline To Palantir, Nasdaq 100 Targets 8th Green Day: What's Moving Markets Friday?

Piero Cingari — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:26:28 +0000

Wall Street is climbing a wall of worry on the last day of the week.

The Nasdaq 100 is on track to log its eighth consecutive session of gains — the longest winning streak since September 2025 — even as the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index crashed to an all-time record low in April and the March monthly inflation rate printed at 0.9%, the highest monthly increase since June 2022.

Iran’s compliance with the terms of the two-week ceasefire remains tenuous. President Donald Trump posted Thursday evening that Iran was doing “a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz — that is not the agreement we have!”

The New York Post reported that the president is actively preparing military options if weekend negotiations in Islamabad fail.

Trump threw an unexpected lifeline to Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), praising the firm's "great war fighting capabilities and equipment" — adding, "Just ask our enemies!!!" — precisely as the stock was wrapping up its worst weekly performance since February 2021.

The remark sparked a swift reversal: shares jumped 3.6%, adding roughly $10.5 billion in market value and pulling the company back from the brink of a deeper sell-off.

Crude prices bounced after a brutal week.

WTI crude rose 1.6% to trade near $99.44 per barrel, while Brent added 1.5% to around $97.33, though both benchmarks remained down more than 11% on the week after Trump’s two-week ceasefire announcement unwound much of the Hormuz risk premium.

The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% to 6,829, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.4% to 48,016. Tech stocks showed relative strength with the Nasdaq 100 up 0.3%.

Within Magnificent Seven stocks, NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) added 2.5%, powered by a record revenue beat from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE:TSM), whose first-quarter 2026 revenue reached NT$1.134 trillion ($35.7 billion), up 35% year over year. TSM ADR shares rose over 2%.

The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.4% to 2,626, unable to extend its hot week, which saw the index jump more than 3%.

On the macro front, headline CPI jumped to 3.3% year-over-year in March, just shy of the 3.4% consensus but the highest reading in nearly two years, with a 0.9% monthly gain — ...

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