If you have ever had a garden and tried to grow a specific plant, you know that weeds are a scourge. According to Wild Pollinator Partners, weeds aggressively compete for critical resources like sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. In Canada, where the growing season is short, getting gardens to grow the plants we want is a never-ending battle against weeds.

You can think of global economies as gardens; they have their own economic weed – inflation.

Just because we’ve seen something before doesn’t mean we can accurately predict how things will end. History doesn’t always repeat.

The surge in oil prices that we have experienced since the start of the Iran war proves this point. Historically, sudden oil price surges are a significant drag on stock markets, that frequently cause short-term volatility and contribute to bear markets or recessions by driving inflation up and reducing consumer spending power.

According to Brett J. Goldstein, a professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, your passwords have already been compromised.

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) company headquartered in San Francisco, recently sent a shock wave through the cybersecurity world when it said its new artificial intelligence model, Claude Mythos, had exhibited an extraordinary ability to find previously unknown vulnerabilities in software.

With emerging AI tools making our digital lives less secure, we have to take our cybersecurity practices a lot more seriously now. (1)

When it comes to riding roller coasters, Wayne and I have differing opinions. I do not ride roller coasters anymore. I think I was concussed on the “Great Canadian Minebuster” at Canada’s Wonderland. Wayne, however, is still willing to ride a roller coaster.

The reason for mentioning roller coasters here is that the whole Strait of Hormuz situation feels like that. Up, down, left, right, right, open, closed, open. One day the news is up and positive, but the next, it is down and negative to the beat of boom, gloom, repeat. It is enough to give anyone a migraine.

Back in 2008, the U.S. housing market collapsed, triggering a massive financial crisis due to the bursting of an unsustainable, nation-wide bubble that was fueled by subprime mortgage lending and risky financial practices.

Lenders packaged thousands of loans into a single mortgage-backed securities and sold them to investors. When homeowners defaulted, it triggered a collapse in these securities that led to global bank failures and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

We are revisiting the impact of global events on stock markets. Why? Global events usually play a significant role in shaping stock market performance because stock markets are by nature forward-looking and extremely sensitive to uncertainty. Just look at the impact of Iran war on energy prices and stock markets not too mention the disruption in shipping, fertilizer, and food supplies.

The Iran war continues and, as of the time of writing, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most commercial traffic. Consumers are being impacted, and not just at the pump. As energy costs increase, companies who ship goods are forced to pass along higher costs. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Higher energy prices are inflationary and make living in a modern economy more expensive.

So, it should come as no surprise that the economic impact of the conflict continues to dominate both traditional as well as social media. It’s even pushed the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) – the dominant new story of 2025 that was poised to define equity markets in 2026 – to the back pages.

Global stock markets have dealt with a lot this year. By now, we are all acutely aware of the conflict in Iran and the impact on oil prices as a result of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Just look at the prices at the pump. But, while these events may have been the spark that ignited higher market volatility, there is something else that has been fanning the flames.

Years ago, we thought we were living in the information age. Today, though, it feels like we are firmly living in the social media age. And sometimes, social media provides us with news. At other times, it provides us with noise.

Right now, there is a high-speed race taking place. It’s a battle between technology companies, national governments, and academics to build the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system. Having the most advanced technology certainly may have benefits for businesses and economies. Unfortunately, this technology also makes it easier for criminals, too, who leverage the technology to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers.

Call it a war, an incursion, or something else, missiles and drones have been flying in the Middle East for almost two weeks now. The global impact of this remains to be seen, but at home, the evidence of disruption to global supply changes is the price of oil.

At the time of writing this weekly update, oil prices were rising again after dropping to below US$80. Where they will be at the time you read this is anybody’s guess.