Summary

Despite continued conflicts in the Middle East, stocks on Monday cheered a muted Iranian attack on Qatar and an apparent developing truce this morning. The big story on Monday was the obliteration in the oil markets, which certainly helped the overall stock market but led to big losses in energy stocks (which have been hot of late). Stocks also benefited from surprise comments dropped by a couple of Federal Reserve governors about possible rate cuts. Governor Bowman said she favors a cut to the fed funds rate at the next meeting in July, and this stance aligns with Governor Waller, who also suggested a July cut. Treasury rates across the curve fell six to eight basis points on the day. Crude oil (WTI) plummeted almost 7% to $68.80/barrel after hitting $78.40 Sunday night. Brent oil fell over 7% to $71.30 after reaching 481.40 Sunday night. Even though oil is historically volatile, those are still big losses. Interestingly, WTI fell right back to its 200-day average and filled a price gap created on June 13. While the oil rally looks DOA, the uptrend is still intact as long as the breakout in the mid-$60s holds. Most of the major indices rose about 1%, with the S&P SmallCap 600 popping 1.2%. All the majors appear to be tracing out bull flags since their intrad