10 Stocks Worth Watching This Week: Iran Oil Shock, FOMC Minutes, and the Q1 Earnings Setup — April 6–10, 2026

The Setup: Last Week's Bounce, This Week's Test

Markets snapped a five-week losing streak last week, with the S&P 500 posting its best weekly gain in four months — up +3.36% to close at 6,582. But don't mistake relief for recovery. The index remains below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, still roughly 5.7% off its January all-time high. Year-to-date, the S&P is down around 4%.

The bounce came on genuine underlying strength — Tuesday's +2.91% session was the week's engine — but the structural headwinds haven't gone away. If anything, they've compounded. US-Israeli strikes on Iran have removed nearly 20% of global crude supply from the market, Brent is hovering near $82/barrel with IEA warnings of a worsening crunch, and Trump's tariff regime now includes pharma duties aimed squarely at Europe and Asia. Stagflation talk is no longer fringe — it's showing up in Q2 outlooks from BlackRock, AllianceBernstein, and S&P Global.

This week's macro calendar loads up midweek: FOMC minutes drop Wednesday (the March 17-18 meeting, when the Fed held but signaled caution) and CPI for March prints Friday morning. Both events could snap the post-Easter calm violently in either direction. Into that backdrop, Q1 earnings season formally begins — major banks (JPMorgan, Wells Fargo) report April 14, but this week sets the stage for what to expect.

Here's where we're focused.

1. NVIDIA (NVDA) — Long-Term Conviction

Price: ~$177 | Timeframe: Long-term conviction

NVIDIA remains the irreplaceable axis of the AI infrastructure buildout. Despite the S&P's rough Q1, NVDA has shown resilience — and for good reason. Data center revenue continues to compound at rates that defy gravity, with Blackwell GPU demand still running ahead of supply. The company's CUDA ecosystem means that even as AMD and Intel fight for scraps, NVIDIA's software moat deepens with every developer who writes for it.

This week's catalyst: No earnings this week, but NVIDIA is directly in the crosshairs of the Iran conflict narrative. The Middle East crisis is accelerating sovereign AI infrastructure spending — Gulf states, in particular, are fast-tracking national AI programs, with NVIDIA hardware at the center of every deal. Watch for any news on GCC AI partnerships or US export license developments.

Key risk: Export controls to China remain a live wire. Any escalation in US-China tensions — especially under the current tariff backdrop — could throttle a meaningful revenue stream.

2. RTX Corporation (RTX) — Long-Term Conviction

Price: ~$196 | Timeframe: Long-term conviction

RTX is the arms-of-choice play in a world that has definitively re-armed. The company's dual engine — Raytheon's missile and defense systems (Patriot, StormBreaker, AIM-9X) alongside Pratt & Whitney's jet engines — gives it exposure to both the near-term Iran conflict surge and the decade-long NATO rearmament cycle. Its backlog has grown to record levels, providing multi-year revenue visibility that most industrials can only dream of.

This week's catalyst: The Iran conflict is the dominant defense narrative this week. Any escalation — or even sustained tension — keeps Patriot missile systems, precision munitions, and F-135 engine orders front and center. Congressional defense supplemental discussions are ongoing, and RTX is the primary beneficiary.

Key risk: Supply chain constraints, particularly titanium dependency given Russia/Ukraine disruption, and the possibility of a rapid Iran ceasefire that deflates the premium.

3. Constellation Energy (CEG) — Long-Term Conviction

Price: ~$273 | Timeframe: Long-term conviction

Nuclear is no longer a fringe energy thesis — it's the consensus infrastructure bet for AI's power demands. Constellation operates the largest nuclear fleet in the US, and its power purchase agreements with hyperscalers (including a landmark Microsoft deal) represent a template being replicated across the industry. The Iran conflict adds a new dimension: oil price volatility makes the baseload reliability of nuclear even more attractive to CFOs planning 10-year data center energy costs.

This week's catalyst: Energy sector positioning ahead of Friday's CPI print. If March inflation surprises to the upside — which the Iran oil shock would support — baseload power plays like CEG become a natural inflation hedge. Watch for any grid capacity announcements from PJM interconnection.

Key risk: Regulatory delays on license renewals and the slow pace of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) deployment could temper enthusiasm. Political risk around nuclear waste policy is also perennial.

4. GE Vernova (GEV) — Long-Term Conviction

Price: ~$899 | Timeframe: Long-term conviction

GEV is the infrastructure picks-and-shovels play at the intersection of the AI power demand surge and the global energy transition. The company's gas turbines, wind technology, and grid electrification solutions are all in acute demand simultaneously — a rare triple tailwind. Its backlog of power equipment orders has surged, with utilities and hyperscalers both scrambling for the same hardware. GEV's recent spinout from GE has allowed markets to properly re-rate a business that was previously buried in a conglomerate discount.

This week's catalyst: CPI Friday — any signal that power inflation is embedded in the broader price level validates GEV's pricing power thesis. Utility sector rotation is likely if rate-cut expectations shift on the back of CPI data.

Key risk: Manufacturing execution risk on its turbine backlog. If GEV misses delivery timelines, the premium compresses fast. Also exposed to tariff costs on steel and aluminum components.

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