Pre-Markets Feast on Latest 2-Week Ceasefire

Wednesday, April 8th, 2026

What a difference a day makes! Instead of destroying a civilization more than 3000 years old, another two-week ceasefire was granted that allows for oil tankers to once again move through the Strait of Hormuz. Both President Trump and the Prime Minister of Iran call this a “win”… at least until two weeks from now.

We’ll refrain from making any “TACO Tuesday” jokes here, because the fact of the matter is, we’re seeing our best pre-market trading in recent memory: the Dow is +1260 points at this hour, +2.69%, while the S&P 500 is +183, +2.76%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is +865 points currently, +3.55%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 is +96, +3.76%.

Oil prices have seen their biggest (non-Covid-related) drop in 35 years. The WTI is -18% ahead of today’s opening bell to $92 per barrel (/bbl), and the Brent crude price is -16% to $91/bbl. Of course, a longer-term agreement is going to have to be achieved at some point, or this relief rally will eventually lead to just another rollercoaster ride.

Delta Beats on Q1 Top & Bottom Lines

This is also the perfect day to unseal the cap on Q1 earnings season, as Delta Air Lines DAL outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines. Earnings of +$0.64 per share surpassed the Zacks consensus by 3 cents, while revenues of $14.2 billion outpaced estimates by +0.86%. Shares, which had fallen -5.5% year to date, are shooting up +12% in today’s pre-market.

Customer demand remained high in the quarter, which helped Delta increase ticket prices to relieve a deeper cut from third-party refinery sales. Corporate travel is expected to at least stay at current levels, if not improve, in the ongoing Q2. For more on DAL’s earnings, click here.

What to Expect from the Stock Market Today

With the Iran crisis behind us for the moment, we can now focus on other aspects of economic growth. Later this afternoon, we’ll receive the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last month, when the Fed voted 11-1 to keep interest rates steady at 3.50-3.75% (with Stephen Miran once again the sole voter advocating a rate cut).

This report feels like ancient history, however. Even though the March FOMC meeting brought us the latest “dot-plot” projections, developments in the Middle East may change Fed members’ outlook going forward. As of now, the collective expectation is for one 25 basis-point (bps) interest rate cut through all of 2026, with 14 of the 19 members looking toward one or zero cuts for the year.
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