Stocks closed higher yesterday, building on Tuesday's soaring gains.

Optimism for an end to hostilities in the Middle East saw markets rally sharply on Tuesday. And more yesterday.

Last night, President Trump addressed the nation, and the world, and said, the U.S. is "on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly." And that "we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2-3 weeks." "In the meantime, discussions are ongoing." But he reiterated that if there's no deal (the deadline is Monday, 4/6), the military will target Iran's power plants.

There's still plenty of hope that a deal can be reached to end the conflict sooner rather than later. But whether it's thru a peace agreement, or a cessation of attacks after the U.S. meets all of its objectives, the conflict does appear to be closer to the end.

In other news, yesterday's MBA Mortgage Applications showed the composite index down -10.4% w/w with purchases off -2.6%, and refi's down -17.3%.

Retail Sales were up 0.6% m/m vs. last month's -0.1% and views for 0.4%. Ex-Vehicles it was up 0.5% vs. last month's 0.0% change and estimates for 0.3%. Ex-Vehicles & Gas it was up 0.4% vs. last month's 0.2% and the consensus for the same.

PMI Manufacturing rose to 52.3 vs. last month's 51.6 and forecast for 52.4.

The ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 52.7 vs. last month's 52.4 and outlook for 52.3.

And the ADP Employment Report for March came in at 62,000 private payroll jobs vs. last month's 66,000 and the consensus for 40,000.

But the employment report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In February, nonfarm payrolls shed -92,000. In March, the headline number is forecast at 51,000 new jobs being created (56,000 in the private sector, and -5,000 in the public sector). The unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.4%.

Note: the markets are closed on Friday for Good Friday. But the BLS report is still coming out. That means, the market won't be able to react to it until Monday, 4/6. Let's hope it's a good one.

But first, we've got reports to get through today. We'll get the Motor Vehicles Sales report, the International Trade in Goods and Services report, Weekly Jobless Claims, and the Challenger Job-Cut report.

With one more day to go, all of the indexes are up for the week. If all goes well, it will finish that way too. If so, that'll be the first up week for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq after 5 down weeks. Although, it would be the second up week in row for the Russell 2000 and S&P 400.

Regardless of the finish, I'm expecting big gains this year. That's because there are too many bullish catalysts to support the market right now. That includes a resilient economy, relatively tame inflation (still too high, but the Fed still sees it on a path towards its target rate of 2%), expectation for another rate cut this year and next, increased productivity, strong corporate profits with double-digit EPS growth forecasts for each of the next four quarters, and, of course, the ongoing AI boom.

So, once the Middle East conflict comes to a close, and oil starts to head lower, the market can get back to trading on the fundamentals, which point to not only higher prices, but another double-digit gain.

Have a great 3-day long holiday weekend,

Best,