Trump's late-week announcement that US forces would hit Iran "extremely hard" for the next two to three weeks — rather than exit — sent markets sharply lower, with crude oil spiking toward $106 and the NASDAQ futures falling nearly 2% by Thursday afternoon. Mark, JT, and Kai work through a volatile week where risk-on/risk-off sentiment flipped multiple times on Trump headlines, review the Bulls vs Bears scoreboard, and assess what Australia's diesel supply constraints could mean if the conflict extends beyond expectations.

Key Points

Trump reversed market expectations by pledging to intensify strikes on Iran rather than withdraw, with crude oil surging past $105 and pushing toward $106 during the recording.

All weekly equity gains — across US, European, and Australian markets — were effectively wiped out within hours of the announcement, illustrating how eight-hour windows are now defining market direction.

End-of-quarter window dressing fuelled a misleading Tuesday night NASDAQ rally of ~4%, partly driven by Western media cutting the Iranian president's peace comments short of their full conditional context.

US payrolls data is scheduled for release on Good Friday when markets are closed, creating an information gap that investors should account for before the long Easter weekend.

Australia's diesel supply situation is a growing concern, with the team noting it would take approximately 31 days to recover accumulated deficits if Hormuz disruption continues — and flagging the possibility of rationing measures within weeks.

MPC Markets' Prism Portfolio Guardian tool has received strong client feedback after six to eight reviews completed this week, with the team also highlighting the Mosaic platform's Iran War dashboard as a daily pre-market resource.