Where Markets Go From Here After Israel Strikes Iran

As the saying goes: “history doesn’t repeat itself – but it does rhyme.”

While the situation in the Middle East is fresh in the news, investors are feeling a dose of deja vu fear following Israel’s strike on Iran last night.

The U.S. officially stepped aside. And markets haven’t reacted too strongly. But it’s worth asking the question. What can we expect going forward? Prior similar events provide a clue:

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The real question is not “what happens next”?

Rather, the one we should be asking is ”what was the market trend before” the conflict got heated?

The U.S.’s invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 occurred during the midst of the dotcom bust. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine occurred in 2022, when the Fed started raising interest rates and the market was already trending lower.

Likewise, during Russia’s 2014 Crimea incursion, markets were in an uptrend.

Ditto early 2003, when the U.S. started its misadventure in Iraq.

With stocks in an uptrend before Israel’s latest attack, markets may still have a bit more room to run over the summer.

But from our perspective, the more fundamental issues – like out-of-control spending, endless deficits, and failing bond auctions – pose the real danger.

Those issues are only taking a back seat to the headlines for now.

~ Addison

June 15: Denmark’s Last Gasp…

The Arctic’s vast abundance of riches — shipping lanes, resources, and space ports — makes it an economic and geopolitical Holy Grail, which is why Denmark’s stewardship of Greenland must end.

Greenland needs real protection. American protection.

Investors, take notice…

As President Trump attends the G7 Summit (on June 15), the potential exists for a bombshell announcement regarding Greenland. We mapped Greenland’s five major profit zones, which could boom any minute.

Click here to view our presentation, ASAP >>

P.S.: Paid readers who didn’t get the chance to sit in on Grey Swan Live! with John Robb yesterday, we urge you to check out the recorded version right here. John takes us behind the scenes of asymmetric warfare and the impact of AI, drones and pinpoint missile accuracy in today’s most alarming conflicts.

And, with the hard asset story getting stronger by the minute, so is our research. Andrew will be at the Rule Investment Symposium in Boca Raton on July 7-11, 2025.

The Symposium is a five-day affair featuring in-depth research from dozens of small-cap resource companies, including gold and silver mining companies – but also copper, uranium, and other critical commodities we’ve explored in-depth in our research over the past year. Click here to attend and meet your future cutting-edge resource investments face-to-face.

As always, your reader feedback is welcome: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com (We read all emails. Thanks in advance for your contribution.)

As the saying goes: “history doesn’t repeat itself – but it does rhyme.”

While the situation in the Middle East is fresh in the news, investors are feeling a dose of deja vu fear following Israel’s strike on Iran last night.

The U.S. officially stepped aside. And markets haven’t reacted too strongly. But it’s worth asking the question. What can we expect going forward? Prior similar events provide a clue:

Turn Your Images On

The real question is not “what happens next”?

Rather, the one we should be asking is ”what was the market trend before” the conflict got heated?

Likewise, during Russia’s 2014 Crimea incursion, markets were in an uptrend.

Ditto early 2003, when the U.S. started its misadventure in Iraq.

With stocks in an uptrend before Israel’s latest attack, markets may still have a bit more room to run over the summer.

But from our perspective, the more fundamental issues – like out-of-control spending, endless deficits, and failing bond auctions – pose the real danger.

Those issues are only taking a back seat to the headlines for now.

~ Addison

June 15: Denmark’s Last Gasp…

Greenland needs real protection. American protection.

Investors, take notice…

Click here to view our presentation, ASAP >>

And, with the hard asset story getting stronger by the minute, so is our research. Andrew will be at the Rule Investment Symposium in Boca Raton on July 7-11, 2025.

As always, your reader feedback is welcome: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com (We read all emails. Thanks in advance for your contribution.)

By then the receipts on my desk had arranged themselves into a sort of chorus. I heard, faintly, another refrain—one from Kentucky. In the first days of the shutdown, Senator Rand Paul stood alone among Republicans and voted against his party’s stopgap, telling interviewers that the numbers “don’t add up” and that he would not sign on to another year that piles $2 trillion onto the debt.

That, I realized, is what the tariff story shares with the broader budget theater: the habit of calling a tax something else, of shifting burdens into the fog and then celebrating the silhouette as victory. Even the vote tally made the point: he was the only Republican “no,” a lonely arithmetic lesson in a crowded room.

Senator Rand Paul, (R. KY), who was the sole Republican to vote against a continuing resolution, seems to care about the actual finances of the government. “I would never vote for a bill that added $2 trillion in national debt,” Paul said in various interviews over the weekend.

The $2 trillion he’s referring to is the lesser of two proposals made by the national parties… and would accrue during this next fiscal year.

Oy.

We liked what Liz Wolfe at Reason wrote on Friday, so we’ll repeat it here: “One of the dirty little secrets of every shutdown is that everything remains mostly fine. Private markets could easily replace many federal functions.”

It’s a strange kind of confidence — one where Wall Street soars while Washington goes dark.

The Liberal Democratic Party victory has sent Japanese stocks soaring, as party President Sanae Takaichi – now set to become Japan’s first female Prime Minister – is a proponent of stimulus spending, and a China hawk. The electoral win is a vote to keep the yen carry trade alive… and well.

The “yen carry trade” is a currency trading strategy. By borrowing Japanese yen at low interest rates and investing in higher-yielding assets, investors have profited from the interest rate differential. Yen carry trades have played a huge role in global liquidity for decades.

Frankly, we’re disappointed — not because of the carry trade but because the crowd got this one so wrong!

Back in the Global Financial Crisis (2008), we recall mass layoffs were driving desperation.

Today, unemployment is relatively low, if climbing.

Affordability is much more of an issue. Food, rent, healthcare, and childcare are all rising faster than wages. Households aren’t jobless; they’re stretched. Job “quits” are at crisis-level lows.

In addition to the top 10% of earners, consumer spending is still strong. Not necessarily because of prosperity, but because households are taking extra shifts, hustling gigs, working late into the night, and using credit cards. The trends hold up demand but hollow out savings.

It’s the quiet form of financial repression. In an era of fiscal dominance, savers see easy returns clipped, workers stretch hours just to stay even, and wealth slips upward into assets while daily life grows harder to afford.

The $2 trillion he’s referring to is the lesser of two proposals made by the national parties… and would accrue during this next fiscal year.

Oy.

It’s a strange kind of confidence — one where Wall Street soars while Washington goes dark.

Frankly, we’re disappointed — not because of the carry trade but because the crowd got this one so wrong!

Back in the Global Financial Crisis (2008), we recall mass layoffs were driving desperation.

Today, unemployment is relatively low, if climbing.