This weekly recap covers 30 March to 5 April 2026. Last week ended with the S&P 500 at 6,368.85, the Dow at 45,166.64 and the Nasdaq at 20,948.36, with Brent at $112.57 and the VIX at 31.05 as investors closed out a brutal stretch dominated by war risk, oil and inflation fear. This week opened with another wave of geopolitical anxiety, but by Thursday's close the tone had improved enough for Wall Street to post its first weekly gain since the Iran war began. The S&P 500 finished the week at 6,582.69, the Dow at 46,504.67 and the Nasdaq at 21,879.18. Brent settled Thursday at $109.03, WTI at $111.54, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was around 4.34% after a stronger-than-expected March jobs report. Markets were closed Friday for Good Friday, while the weekend kept attention fixed on the still-unresolved Strait of Hormuz crisis and the next U.S. deadline for Iran.
Quick highlights
- Monday fear still dominated: the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7% as the war widened, oil stayed above $100 and investors weighed Jerome Powell's comment that longer-term inflation expectations remained anchored.
- Tuesday relief rally: Wall Street delivered its strongest session since spring 2025 after investors latched onto signs that Washington might accept an off-ramp even before the Strait of Hormuz fully reopened. The S&P 500 rose 2.9%, the Dow jumped 1,125 points and the Nasdaq gained 3.8%.
- Wednesday risk-on continued: the S&P 500 rose another 0.7% as markets kept buying de-escalation hopes, even while euro area inflation jumped back above the ECB's target and central bankers turned more cautious.
- Thursday volatility returned, but not a breakdown: Trump promised to hit Iran "extremely hard" if needed, oil surged again, Tesla fell after weak deliveries, yet stocks recovered into the close. The S&P 500 still finished up 0.1% and the Nasdaq gained 0.2%.
- Friday macro took over even with markets shut: the March jobs report beat expectations with 178,000 payrolls added and unemployment at 4.3%, reinforcing the view that the Fed may stay on hold longer despite war-related growth risks.
- Weekend setup: the market entered the new week with cautious optimism, but no real resolution. By Monday and Tuesday, diplomacy was still fragile, oil was back above $110 and traders were waiting for Trump's new deadline on reopening Hormuz.
Numbers snapshot (30 Mar–5 Apr 2026)
- Mar 30 — S&P 500: 6,343.72 (-0.4%). Dow: 45,216.14 (+0.1%). Nasdaq: 20,794.64 (-0.7%). Investors sold risk as the Iran war widened, oil stayed elevated and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit seven-month lows.
- Mar 31 — S&P 500: 6,528.52 (+2.9%). Dow: 46,341.51 (+2.5%). Nasdaq: 21,590.63 (+3.8%). Best day in nearly a year for major U.S. indexes as markets bet on a possible geopolitical off-ramp. Biogen also announced a roughly $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis, while CoreWeave secured $8.5 billion in financing to expand AI infrastructure.
- Apr 1 — S&P 500: 6,575.32 (+0.7%). Dow: 46,565.74 (+0.5%). Nasdaq: 21,840.95 (+1.2%). Euro area inflation accelerated to 2.5% in March. Reuters also reported first-quarter global M&A topped $1.2 trillion, helped by a rebound in megadeals and AI-related equity activity. SpaceX lined up 21 banks for a possible June IPO and Estée Lauder advanced talks with Puig on a stock-based combination.
- Apr 2 — S&P 500: 6,582.69 (+0.1%). Dow: 46,504.67 (-0.1%). Nasdaq: 21,879.18 (+0.2%). Trump's harder line on Iran sent WTI up 11.4% to $111.54 and Brent up 7.8% to $109.03, but equities recovered by the close. Tesla dropped 5.4% after reporting first-quarter deliveries of 358,023, below expectations. Amazon was reported to be in talks to buy Globalstar in a deal valued around $9 billion.
- Apr 3 — U.S. markets closed for Good Friday. March payrolls: +178,000. Unemployment: 4.3%. 10-year Treasury yield: around 4.34%. Strong labor data complicated the case for near-term Fed easing.
- Weekly — S&P 500: +3.4%. Nasdaq: +4.4%. Dow: roughly +3.0%. First weekly gain for the main U.S. indexes since the Iran war began, even though oil remained near crisis levels and policy visibility stayed poor.
1) A rebound week, but not a clean one
Monday still looked like the previous week, with investors focused on war expansion, stubbornly high oil and the possibility that inflation would become embedded again. By Tuesday, however, the market decided that even an imperfect diplomatic off-ramp was worth buying. Reuters described it as Wall Street's best day in almost a year, powered by the idea that Washington might accept a partial exit rather than demand an immediate full reset of the conflict.
That rally did not mean confidence had returned. It meant investors were trading probability. Wednesday extended the rebound, but Thursday exposed how unstable the whole setup still was. Trump's tougher rhetoric toward Iran pushed oil sharply higher again, and the market had to absorb the combination of renewed war risk, a fresh energy spike and company-specific misses such as Tesla's delivery report. What changed versus the prior week was not the geopolitical picture. It was the market's ability to avoid collapsing again under it.
The simplest read is that equities were no longer pricing a straight-line deterioration. They were pricing a messy middle, where conflict risk remains high but investors still see room for selective rallies if escalation stops short of something worse.
2) Inflation and central banks moved back to the center
The macro backdrop became more uncomfortable, not less. In the euro zone, March inflation rose to 2.5% from 1.9%, pushed up by the energy shock, taking it back above the ECB's target. Reuters also reported growing concern from ECB officials that the region may already be drifting into the central bank's adverse scenario, where higher energy prices start feeding into expectations and broader price-setting behavior.
In the United States, the week ended with a strong labor-market surprise. March nonfarm payrolls rose by 178,000 and unemployment fell to 4.3%, but the details were less clean than the headline. Reuters noted a drop in labor-force participation, slower wage growth and a large number of people leaving the workforce. Markets still took the report as one more reason the Fed can wait. Citi and Wells Fargo both pushed back their expected timeline for rate cuts after the stronger jobs data and renewed inflation pressure tied to the war.
That is the real macro shift of the week. The market finally got a positive payroll print, but it did not translate into a clean risk-on message. Stronger jobs in a normal environment help stocks. Stronger jobs with oil near crisis levels and headline inflation moving up can simply mean rates stay high for longer.
3) Equities finally bounced, but the quarter still looked ugly
Tuesday's rally was dramatic enough to change the feel of the tape. It did not change the quarter that had just ended. Reuters reported that the S&P 500 was coming off its worst quarter since 2022, with investor sentiment damaged by the war, oil, higher yields and a deep selloff in megacap technology. Even after the rebound, the main indexes were still down year to date, with the Nasdaq hit hardest.
What mattered this week was the sequence. Monday was weak. Tuesday was explosive higher. Wednesday confirmed. Thursday almost broke, but did not. That is a healthier pattern than the one seen in the prior two weeks, when every bounce failed immediately. The market was still fragile, but less one-directional.
There was also a notable shift in leadership worth paying attention to. Smaller companies outperformed on several days, and the Russell 2000 stood out as the only major U.S. index with positive year-to-date performance by early April. That distinction matters more than it might look at first. Small caps carry less exposure to megacap technology and are less sensitive to multiple compression from rising rates, so they tend to be the first cohort investors revisit when sentiment has bottomed and positioning in large-cap names has become too crowded. The move also reflects a search for value: after weeks of indiscriminate selling, buyers started shopping among sectors and sizes that had fallen far enough to look cheap on a relative basis. It is not a full signal that the risk cycle has turned, but it is the kind of rotation that typically shows up in the early stages of a recovery rather than in the middle of a breakdown.
4) Tech, AI and single-stock stories were back in play
The broader market story was still geopolitics, but company-specific moves had more room this week. CoreWeave raised another $8.5 billion to expand AI infrastructure, a reminder that AI capex has not paused just because macro has become noisier. Reuters also reported that first-quarter global M&A topped $1.2 trillion, with equity stake deals and AI-driven transactions playing a large role.
SpaceX became part of the week's market conversation in a serious way. Reuters reported on April 1 that the company had lined up 21 banks for a possible June IPO, code-named Project Apex. Subsequent reporting pointed to a potential raise of around $75 billion and a valuation as high as $1.75 trillion. That is technically beyond the week's close, but the story became too large to ignore during the week of March 30 to April 5, and it is already shaping how investors think about the next wave of mega-cap listings.
Tesla moved for the opposite reason. Its first-quarter deliveries came in at 358,023, below expectations, and the stock fell 5.4% on Thursday. The market read the report as another sign that Tesla still has not solved its demand problem, even as investors continue valuing it partly as an AI and robotics company rather than a pure automaker.
5) M&A and deal gossip were not quiet at all
This was a surprisingly busy week for deals, especially considering the macro backdrop. Biogen agreed to buy Apellis for roughly $5.6 billion, giving healthcare another reminder that strategic buyers are still willing to pay up for assets with clear pipeline logic. Reuters also highlighted that Q1 global M&A volumes exceeded $1.2 trillion, with the U.S. and UK leading multinational deal activity.
The more speculative side of the week was just as interesting. Reuters reported that Estée Lauder and Puig had advanced talks on a mainly stock-based deal that could create a luxury beauty group worth roughly $40 billion. Amazon was also reported to be in talks to buy Globalstar for about $9 billion, a move that would sharpen its competition with SpaceX's Starlink. Those are very different transactions, but they point in the same direction: boards are still willing to think offensively, even when the macro tape is unstable.
The quarter-end backdrop helps explain that. If financing markets stay open and equity prices stabilize even a little, dealmakers will test the window. This week was the first real sign that the window may not be shut after all.
6) What the week tells you
The first conclusion is that markets wanted a reason to stop selling. They did not get peace, or lower oil, or central-bank relief. They got a less-bad path. That was enough for a weekly rebound, but not enough to restore trust.
The second is that inflation risk is now broad enough to matter again. Euro area CPI is back above target. U.S. oil prices surged again late in the week. And the stronger U.S. jobs report makes it harder for the Fed to justify easing into an energy shock. That is not a friendly combination for valuation multiples.
The third is that capital markets are still alive underneath the macro mess. CoreWeave financing, the Apellis takeover, Amazon-Globalstar talks, Estée Lauder-Puig negotiations and the re-emergence of the SpaceX IPO all point to the same thing. Strategic ambition has not disappeared. It has just become more selective.
The final point is that next week was always going to matter more than this one. This week ended with a relief bounce. The following week begins with a fresh U.S. deadline for Iran, oil back above $110 and inflation data coming into focus. That is not closure. It is a test.
Sources (primary / checkable)
- Reuters, Wall Street rallies as investors bet on Iran war de-escalation; indexes still set for monthly losses (Mar 31, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, Wall Street slips as Trump signals tougher stance on Iran; oil jumps sharply (Apr 2, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, U.S. employment growth rebounds in March; unemployment rate falls to 4.3% (Apr 3, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, Euro zone inflation jumps above ECB target as oil shock feeds prices (Mar 31, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, S&P 500 heads for worst quarter since 2022 as Iran war and rate fears hit markets (Mar 31, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, CoreWeave secures $8.5 billion loan to expand AI infrastructure capacity (Mar 31, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, Biogen to buy Apellis Pharmaceuticals for about $5.6 billion in rare disease push (Mar 31, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, SpaceX lines up 21 banks for potential mega IPO, code-named project Apex (Apr 1, 2026): reuters.com
- Reuters, Estée Lauder and Puig advance talks on stock-based deal, Bloomberg reports (Apr 1, 2026): reuters.com
- Associated Press, Wall Street jumps as hopes rise that Iran conflict may not worsen immediately (Mar 31, 2026): apnews.com
- Associated Press, Stocks close mixed as oil surges again and Tesla slides after weak deliveries (Apr 2, 2026): apnews.com
- The Wall Street Journal, Global Stocks Rise as Investors Weigh Iran Tensions and Oil Prices (Apr 6, 2026): wsj.com
- MarketWatch, Oil holds above $110 as Iran tensions persist and Trump deadline looms (Apr 6, 2026): marketwatch.com