What the Market Wanted to Hear

Promises of progress with Iran... A five-day break from strikes... Stocks get their relief rally... Oil hits a two-week low... A brief bear market in gold... This pullback was coming... The long-term case for gold...

Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999 Promises of progress with Iran... A five-day break from strikes... Stocks get their relief rally... Oil hits a two-week low... A brief bear market in gold... This pullback was coming... The long-term case for gold... This morning brought welcome news for investors... Just after daybreak, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. and Iran have had two days of "very good and productive" talks on resolving the ongoing conflict. As a result, he said he suspended all strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure for five days. Here's the president's full post... Following up on his written post, Trump made the rounds with financial media today. In one interview – with Fox Business – Trump added that it may take less than five days to resolve the conflict, if the next few days of negotiations go well. Talking to reporters, the president said the U.S. has secured agreements on some of its largest asks – like Iran "never" having a nuclear weapon. Iran denied the claims, insisting it had no "indirect or direct contact" with Trump. Even with the mixed messages, the chance of de-escalation in the Middle East was enough for investors today... Futures for all three major U.S. indexes jumped more than 2% immediately after Trump's post, and they finished the day up more than 1%. But the rally may not last long... The S&P 500 Index has continued to make a series of lower highs and lower lows over the past month – the hallmark pattern of a downtrend. And as Ten Stock Trader editor Greg Diamond shared in his Weekly Market Outlook this morning, a sustained rebound faces many challenges. From Greg... Simply put, the overall market has been struggling. Now, the continued war in Iran and potentially higher inflation are creating a more bearish environment. Only time will tell if stocks can recover from their pullback over the past few weeks. But one thing is a near-certainty to me (Nick Koziol)... plenty of volatility. The CBOE Volatility Index ("VIX"), the stock market's "fear gauge," is still above the key level of 20 – showing elevated levels of fear. While stocks jumped, oil pulled back... Resolving the conflict in Iran would likely reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That would let oil and gas begin flowing out of the Middle East again. Before the war, 20% of the world's oil supply passed through the strait. With this morning's encouraging news, West Texas Intermediate ("WTI") crude fell more than 10% to about $86 per barrel immediately after Trump's announcement. At its closing price of $90 per barrel, oil now sits at a two-week low (though it's still up more than 30% since the conflict started). But even if traffic starts passing through the strait again, energy production from the region won't be the same as before the conflict... According to International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol, the war has severely damaged at least 40 energy assets across the Middle East. That means things like pipelines, refineries, and production facilities. Those will take time to repair and get back up and running again. So while oil dropped sharply today, the factors that have pushed energy prices higher over the past month haven't gone away just yet. Still, facing the prospect of the worst of the energy disruption being behind us, investors bought stocks and sold oil. Precious metals have felt the pain lately, too... Overnight, gold fell to as low as $4,105 per ounce, before recovering slightly throughout the day. At its lows, gold was in "bear market" territory – down more than 20% from its all-time high above $5,300 per ounce in January. It's not about Iran in particular. Gold was due for a pullback... The precious metal soared more than 50% in 12 months. And it hadn't had a pullback of more than 9% until January during that window. As our colleague and Extreme Value editor Dan Ferris wrote in the October 24 Digest, "big drops" aren't unusual following strong bull runs for gold. From Dan... When any asset price goes ballistic the way gold's has over the past couple months, what follows is often not a sideways consolidation. That's what we've seen in recent weeks. Gold has had a couple of sharp pullbacks, and it now trades for its lowest price in more than two months. But that's not out of the ordinary. Just take a look at this chart that True Wealth editor Brett Eversole shared with his subscribers last month... In the gold boom that began in the early 2000s, prices ran from a little more than $200 per ounce to $1,700 per ounce. But over that same period, we saw two "bear market" drawdowns, like the one gold briefly hit this morning. Also, this has already happened during the current gold bull run. As Brett noted, gold fell more than 20% from its 2020 high to its low in 2022. So today was the second "bear market" of gold's current yearslong move higher. Block out the noise... Even though gold may head lower in the short term, that doesn't mean it's time to rush out and sell. Times like this may shake out leverage and speculators, leaving a healthier landscape for long-term gold investors. According to data from Bank of America, retail investors have already poured nearly $150 billion into gold ETFs so far this year. That's nearly a 50% jump from 2025's record-setting $101 billion. A lot of this cash is coming from folks trying to chase gold's run to record highs. More from Dan... Plenty of short-term speculators have jumped into gold lately. But you want to hold gold for the long term, not as a quick trade. Gold is wealth protection. And as I've outlined before, many factors will protect and increase its value. Brett agrees. At our annual conference, he predicted that gold could eventually hit $8,000 an ounce. And he reiterated this prediction last month. More from True Wealth... First, this boom is a full three years shorter than what we saw in the 2000s. So the enthusiasm could go on much longer. And as for returns, gold needs to rise about 70% more to reach the overall return we saw during the last great boom. That's where my $8,000-an-ounce prediction comes from. Brett's stance hasn't changed with the recent volatility in gold prices. It reinforces his bullish stance. Not only are pullbacks and bear markets a healthy part of the stock market, but they're common in hard assets like gold. The ongoing volatility may push gold's price lower in the short term. As Brett's chart showed, it took more than a year to get to new highs after the 20% declines during gold's last bull run. So the speculators may have given up. But if history is any indication, this isn't the end of gold's bull market. And after many folks have thrown in the towel... this next run higher would be under the radar. Recommended Links: 'Slowly, Then Suddenly... Bull Market Gains Disappear' Legendary market analyst Marc Chaikin called the 2020 crash and the 2022 bear market weeks before stocks collapsed. And he's issuing his biggest warning yet. The recent sell-off is likely just the start... which is why he's urging you to make ONE critical move with your money. Find the full details here. War + Regime Change = $10 Trillion Market Shock As Silicon Valley power players battle to achieve artificial general intelligence, a more powerful force threatens to stop AI's progress dead in its tracks. As this critical bottleneck comes to light, investors will witness a market-wide regime change that violently ejects today's winners and replaces them with a brand-new class of unexpected companies. Futurist Eric Fry has the full list of companies he says to buy and sell as this $10 trillion market shock plays out. New 52-week highs (as of 3/20/26): Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box Fund (BOXX), Chord Energy (CHRD), Coterra Energy (CTRA), Chevron (CVX), Equinor (EQNR), Helmerich & Payne (HP), Magnolia Oil & Gas (MGY), Matador Resources (MTDR), Pembina Pipeline (PBA), USCF SummerHaven Dynamic Commodity Strategy No K-1 Fund (SDCI), Viper Energy (VNOM), and ExxonMobil (XOM). In today's mailbag, feedback on Dan Ferris' Friday Digest... and Saturday's Masters Series essay from Chaikin Analytics chief market strategist Pete Carmasino... Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com. "We, being the superior modern nation of the great Western Alliance, do forget that Iran (Persia) is a 3,000-year-old empire. It has been at the top, and it has been at the bottom. It has seen thousands of its people die, or murdered them. They are accustomed to privation and to untold wealth. And do we expect that Turkey will stand idly by as the Kurds mount an army to overthrow the Iranian government?... To think a few thousand bombs and missiles will bring Iran to heel is the folly of dying empires." – Subscriber Neil B. "I very much enjoyed [Saturday's essay] about Michael Jordan and the lessons from the toughest game. I played golf for many years, and while I certainly never mastered the game, I learned a lot about myself in the attempt. One of the important lessons that I learned was that even though I could visualize the perfect shot, I was not necessarily going to be able to execute that shot. It therefore would be important to think about what might go wrong and minimize the consequences of a miss. I think that this sort of thinking has helped me in many other aspects of life, including investments. "At my age, capital preservation is important. I went through a period where I was taking profits too soon and doubling down on losers. When I realized what I was doing, I called it 'cutting the flowers and watering the weeds'. Not a good practice in gardening or investing. This has been an extraordinarily difficult few weeks and I am finding it hard to sell losers, even though I understand how important it is in the long run. Booking a loss is painful. "Thanks for your commentary." – Subscriber Deborah F. All the best, Nick Koziol Baltimore, Maryland March 23, 2026 Stansberry Research Top 10 Open Recommendations Top 10 highest-returning open stock positions across all Stansberry Research portfolios. Returns represent the total return from the initial recommendation. Investment Buy Date Return Publication Analyst MSFT Microsoft 11/11/10 1,312.5% Retirement Millionaire Doc MSFT Microsoft 02/10/12 1,232.1% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter ADP Automatic Data Processing 10/09/08 808.6% Extreme Value Ferris BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway 04/01/09 772.9% Retirement Millionaire Doc CIEN Ciena 10/20/22 664.4% Stansberry Innovations Report Engel GOOGL Alphabet 12/15/16 642.3% Retirement Millionaire Doc SII Sprott 01/11/18 624.0% Extreme Value Ferris WRB W.R. Berkley 03/15/12 610.8% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter HSY Hershey 12/07/07 543.2% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter ALS-T Altius Minerals 03/26/09 527.4% Extreme Value Ferris Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any Stansberry Research publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio. Top 10 Totals 3 Extreme Value Ferris 3 Retirement Millionaire Doc 3 Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter 1 Stansberry Innovations Report Engel Top 5 Crypto Capital Open Recommendations Top 5 highest-returning open positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolio Investment Buy Date Return Publication Analyst WSTETH/USD Wrapped Staked Ethereum 12/07/18 1,708.9% Crypto Capital Wade BTC/USD Bitcoin 11/27/18 1,705.3% Crypto Capital Wade ONE/USD Harmony 12/16/19 1,008.3% Crypto Capital Wade POL/USD Polygon 02/26/21 641.2% Crypto Capital Wade QRL/USD Quantum Resistant Ledger 01/19/21 542.2% Crypto Capital Wade Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 5 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the Crypto Capital model portfolio. The buy date reflects when the recommendation was made, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if it's still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber and refer to the most recent portfolio. Stansberry Research Hall of Fame Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all Stansberry portfolios Investment Duration Gain Publication Analyst Nvidia (NVDA)^* 5.96 years 1,466% Venture Tech. Lashmet Microsoft (MSFT)^ 12.74 years 1,185% Retirement Millionaire Doc Inovio Pharma. (INO)^ 1.01 years 1,139% Venture Tech. Lashmet Rocket Lab (RKLB)^ 2.35 years 1,034% Venture Tech. Lashmet Seabridge Gold (SA)^ 4.20 years 995% Sjug Conf. Sjuggerud Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B)^ 16.13 years 800% Retirement Millionaire Doc Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) 1.95 years 775% Amer. Moonshots Root Rite Aid 8.5% bond 4.97 years 773% True Income Williams PNC Warrants (PNC-WS) 6.16 years 706% True Wealth Systems Sjuggerud Maxar Technologies (MAXR)^ 1.90 years 691% Venture Tech. Lashmet ^ These gains occurred with a partial position in the respective stocks. * Editor Dave Lashmet closed the first leg of this Nvidia position in November 2016 for a gain of about 108%. Then, he closed the second leg in July 2020 for a 777% return. And finally, in May 2022, he booked a 1,466% return on the final leg. Subscribers who followed his advice on Nvidia could've recorded a total weighted average gain of more than 600%. Stansberry Research Crypto Hall of Fame Top 5 highest-returning closed positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolio Investment Duration Gain Publication Analyst Band Protocol (BAND) 0.31 years 1,169% Crypto Capital Wade Terra (LUNA) 0.41 years 1,166% Crypto Capital Wade Polymesh (POLYX) 3.84 years 1,157% Crypto Capital Wade Frontier (FRONT) 0.09 years 979% Crypto Capital Wade Binance Coin (BNB) 1.78 years 963% Crypto Capital Wade You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to Stansberry Digest. 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