Free Trade Ideas

Welcome to Week 2, 2026! It’s going to be an interesting five days on the markets, headlined by Tuesday’s US Consumer Price Index (CPI). At press time, US stocks have opened trade in the red. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is up by more than 10% as global geopolitics takes center stage. Over the weekend, the number one story was the protests in Iran. Calls for regime change are growing louder, as the citizens of Iran have taken to the streets in mass. Will the situation boil over, forcing the sitting regime to vacate the country’s leadership? Possibly. In a weekend Truth Social post, US POTUS Trump alluded to American support for the movement:
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Today’s market angst is largely due to potential US intervention in Iran. What would this look like? It’s a difficult question. One thing is for sure: the markets are noticing, and Wall Street’s “Fear Gauge,” also known as the VIX, is on the rise. We’ll cover the Iran situation on The Week Ahead at 1:00 PM EST over at Switch Markets on YouTube. Join all the action here: https://www.youtube.com/@switchmarkets/featured Tuesday at 8:20 AM EST, we will bring live coverage of the latest US CPI report. The markets are expecting CPI for December to come in at 0.3% monthly and 2.7% yearly. Both are unchanged from the previous release. Remember the government shutdown of last fall that impacted CPI, NFP, and so much more? When the reports resumed, many in the financial world questioned their validity. On Tuesday, we’ll begin to find out the true state of inflation as it stands in 2026.
That’s all for now; trade well, and we’ll see you in the markets!