While Wall Street elites celebrated a record-setting week driven by speculative hopes of a peace deal in a foreign conflict, the underlying economic realities for the native working class remain burdened by war-driven market volatility and rising essential costs. Stocks rocketed to record highs last week, with the S&P 500 closing above 7,100 for the first time and the Nasdaq completing its longest-winning stretch since 1992, spanning 13 days of gains. For the week, the S&P 500 jumped 4%, the Nasdaq rose 6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.7%.
Elite Interests and Globalist Mechanisms
The U.S. attacked Iran in late February, initiating a conflict that has since dictated global economic shifts. Last week's market surge was directly tied to the fluctuating prospects of a resolution to this transnational entanglement. Negotiations in Islamabad broke down over the weekend, leading President Donald Trump to announce a blockade of all maritime traffic in and out of Iran's ports. Subsequent rounds of negotiations between Washington and Tehran, and President Trump's declaration on Fox Business on Wednesday that the war was “very close to over,” directly sent stocks soaring. A session later, the president announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, leading to another record high. On Friday, Iran declared that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open.” These rapid shifts in foreign policy and global conflicts, often initiated without direct popular mandate, are shown to have immediate and profound impacts on the financial markets, benefiting a select few.
Barclays strategist Venu Krishna noted that the S&P 500 moved from near correction territory, down about 9% from its all-time peak, back to an all-time high in just 11 trading days, the fastest such reversal since at least 1990. This rapid accumulation of wealth for the financial elite was attributed by Krishna to investors "pricing in an end to the Iran-U.S. conflict," alongside solid bank earnings and a comeback in the software sector. Jim Cramer, a prominent voice in regime media, predicted “more gains in stocks that have been pressured by the war if the good news keeps coming,” citing homebuilders like Home Depot, which jumped 3.6% on Friday. Cramer further stated during Friday's Morning Meeting, “Now the Fed has the chance to be able to cut rates under Kevin Warsh. So, what we're seeing is a move back into things that have really lagged,” revealing the coordinated efforts of financial and political actors to manipulate market conditions for their benefit.
Beaten-down software stocks were among the biggest winners, with Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and Salesforce seeing significant gains. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF rose nearly 14%, recovering some of its losses, though it remained down roughly 20% for 2026. Microsoft was up 14% week-to-date, CrowdStrike gained 11.9%, and Salesforce jumped 10.4%. Major banks, including Club holding Goldman Sachs, along with Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley, beat on both the top and bottom lines, further solidifying the gains of the financial elite. Cramer emphasized, “The one [bank] you really want to own is Goldman because that was actually a really good quarter.”
The Cost to the Native Population
Despite the celebratory headlines on Wall Street, the economic data reveals a different picture for the average American. Bank earnings, while solid for institutions like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, showed a consumer described as “healthy” despite “war-driven market volatility throughout the last month of the quarter.” JPMorgan reported growth in consumer spending above the pace set in 2025, with credit card spending volume up 9% year over year and delinquency rates remaining fairly stable. JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum stated, “consumers and small businesses remain resilient.” Wells Fargo’s credit card business also saw new credit card account openings jump nearly 60% year over year, and revenues from its consumer banking and lending division increased by 6.6% in the first quarter. However, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf revealed that before the war-driven surge in energy prices, gas accounted for 6% of total debit card spending and 4% of total credit spending, with each of those levels rising 1%. Scharf noted, “Consumers are spending more than a year ago, which includes spending more on gas, but they haven't slowed spending on everything else.” This indicates that while consumers are forced to spend more on essentials like gas due to globalist conflicts, they are maintaining other spending, likely through increased credit reliance, rather than experiencing genuine economic prosperity. The market's gains are not translating into improved living standards for the native working class, who continue to absorb the costs of transnational policies.