The week opens with a tension unwinding: the strike on Iran called off over the weekend deflates the geopolitical premium on crude, oil sheds more than 5% in a single session and equity markets celebrate the way you celebrate a tax being lifted. Amazon becomes the first company past $3 trillion in market value. Then the market stops moving as one. From midweek the rotation into healthcare and materials lasts exactly one day, and Friday delivers the signature of these five sessions: the indices sit still within a whisker of their highs — under half a point for six of the seven we track — while individual stocks swing 20% in both directions. What moves them is earnings, not sectors: Newmont gains 20.6% and Barrick Mining 18.9% riding gold, Unity Software rockets 35.6%, while Dutch Bros drops 19.5% on results, SolarEdge 22.9% and Cipher Digital 23%. Technology takes the lead again on both sides of the Atlantic; energy is the only sector in the red in America and in Europe alike. This is a week where the index says little and the name says everything: the single cases are worth reading one by one.

Six of the seven indices we track remain on the buy side and close the week higher, all within half a point of their own highs — the lone exception is the FTSE 100, still the furthest away. The Nasdaq 100 is the only one still on the sell side, and it gained 5.1% on the week: a signal the market has been contradicting session after session. Under the surface, though, conviction is thin: signal strength is low across the board, and the FTSE MIB — the most profitable of the group at +15.8% since entry — has it down at zero.

In the US, technology owns the week at 7.2%, followed by materials (+4.8%) and consumer discretionary (+3.25%); at the bottom sit utilities (-1.67%) and above all energy, down 3.44% and the worst American sector. Europe repeats the picture almost line for line: technology gains 6.28% and basic resources 5.15%, while oil and gas gives up 2.15%. Energy is the only sector in the red on both sides of the Atlantic, and it is there while crude still holds a 6% gain on the month: a divergence confirmed across two independent markets, and one worth watching.

Ten buys that started last week cleared their confirmation week by closing higher — five in the United States and five across Europe and the UK — and that check matters, because a trade's second week is its first real test: it separates the signal that holds from the one that fades. The collective signature is sharp and speaks a single language, that of software and digital services. In the US, confirmation reaches Pulmonx (strength 87), Zscaler (86), Accenture (74), Intuit (74) and Autodesk (70). In Europe the group is tighter still: SAP (87), Capgemini (83), BAE Systems (83), Thales (83) and Kering (83). Alongside the technology names sits European defense, which carries a longer story, and French luxury, moving to its own rhythm. From the rest of the world, no confirmations this week. These are ten names that have already passed one test: their cards are worth reading.