April 2026

Delta Strategy Lab -   Market Update 

The American Dream Takes Time

On April 1, 1976 Apple Computer Company was incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The founders started with a few hundred dollars of capital each and operated out of a garage. What’s followed this launch in the last 50 years? Only a $3.7 trillion dollar market cap, 2.5 billion active devices and 166,000 full time employees. That doesn't begin to count the down stream effects where countless workers are employed by electronic stores selling Apple products, shipping companies handling Apple logistics, accessory production creating headphones or chargers or cases, phone and internet providers connecting Apple devices on their networks, the list could go on and on. How about productivity as well? The amount of workers using Apple products to complete their day to day jobs is probably uncountable. According to Delta Wealth Solutions email delivery data, we know the majority of Delta Wealth Solutions clients view these newsletters on a mobile phone too.

What’s fascinating in the Apple story is the last 20 years. The iPhone was launched in the mid 2000’s, and in 2006 Apple had a market cap of approx. $73 billion. Fast forward to today and that market cap is approx. $3.7 trillion. Apple has weathered many ups and downs over the years and had to fight off bankruptcy as recently as 1997. With that being said, the test of time has rewarded Apple, and its investors, more than any company in recent memory. The wealth created has been staggering, and investors with index based exposure (i.e. S&P 500 index, or S&P 500 growth index) have benefited greatly from this growth. Time, patience, and strategy tends to reward investors just as it has Apple Computer Company over the past 50 years. 

Where do I stand with my financial plan? 

Despite a tumultuous period around the tariff roll out, investors saw capital appreciation in most equity and fixed income segments throughout 2025, with the S&P 500 and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index both notching significantly positive returns. The question becomes, “Now what?” Let’s look at these two asset classes further. In the fixed income market, the Federal Reserve has entered a rate cutting cycle and come May 2026 a new chairman will likely continue that trend. In this case, as rates move lower investors could see price appreciation. Second, for equities, Phil Rosen recently noted, “The recent push to new highs has been broad based, with small cap stocks and the equal weighted S&P 500 rallying along side the usual suspects across big tech. That breadth implies healthy participation, not narrow and exhausted leadership.”¹ The impetus of this statement is to show how equity markets appear healthy and not exhausted. Indeed, just as an investors goal doesn't reset at the beginning of the year, the process of portfolio management and financial planning continues without end. Delta Wealth Solutions will rebalance as needed and execute portfolio updates if and when market conditions make it prudent to do so.

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia." Charles Schulz

Known Unknowns

As investors, there are often a number of fears (both rational and irrational) we must overcome to achieve long-term financial success. Sometimes it’s political, sometimes it’s geopolitical, sometimes it’s economics. No ones crystal ball is 100% clear. This quarter the derivative of the market’s current volatility was War in Iran. While the conflict is just officially rearing it’s head now, this has been what we a call a “known unknown” for five decades. The US and Iran haven’t been philosophically aligned in over 50 years, the conflict was always going to come to an inflection point, but it was unknown exactly when and what would occur. This “known unknown” concept can be extrapolated to a number of potential investor worries. Mid-term elections, tariffs, the war in Ukraine just to name a few. This time it’s war with Iran, next time it will be something else. Investors would be wise to remember the toll we pay to invest is volatility, and the first quarter was just part of paying the toll.

Even with War in Iran and oil over $100 per barrel, the market has remained relatively orderly. At the trough of the recent pullback, the S&P 500 was only down 9.8%. Before the Iranian conflict started Large-Cap growth stocks were already experiencing a re-rating with some of the more notable names, Microsoft, META, and Amazon all down 36%, 34%, 21% respectively. On the flip side for the first time in a number of years, Delta’s holdings for small-caps and real estate were significantly outperforming the broad indices, up 9% and 4.33% respectively year to date. Times like these highlight the importance of diversification for non-speculative investors. Amid all the turmoil, 60/40 diversified portfolios are roughly unchanged on the year. Finally, even though investors have already experienced some volatility in the 1st quarter, mid-term election years are no stranger to larger than average drawdowns. 2022 saw a 27% drawdown in the S&P 500, while 2018 saw a 19% decline. While we think a drawdown of either magnitude would be larger than current fundamentals would justify, we aren’t quite ready to signal the all clear on the current bit of volatility.

Geopolitics - Major Human, Minor Market Consequences

Geopolitical events are always good for tugging investors emotions. The events we see on TV and online are often violent, impactful and unfair. However, a main key to successful investing is removing emotions from decision making. Recently the talking heads on TV keep ping ponging back and forth between oil analysts saying energy is going to $200/barrel and a boots on the ground conflict is inevitable. Unfortunately, no one knows what comes next, but using history as a guide—typically investors don’t have to know exactly what the future holds. In writing this newsletter we came across a quote that rings true in today’s environment, “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” This is an attempt to lighten the mood of the current situation, and encourage investors that this too shall pass.

Putting some data behind what is intuitively already known, Carson Investment Research (not affiliated with Delta Wealth Solutions) did a deep dive on geopolitical events, and their impact on S&P 500 performance over 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month periods. The team reviewed 43 geopolitical events going back to 1940 including the Cuban Missile Crisis, 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine among others. The average S&P 500 return one month after the onset of the event was –1%. However, the average S&P return was +1%, +3%, and +3%, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months out respectively¹. It is extremely common for markets to be unnerved in the short term, but over the longer-term conflicts get resolved and the markets recover in anticipation.

It's Still About the Oil

Oil may well be on its way to making new nominal historical highs during the ongoing War in Iran, but dare we say this time is different? At least for the United States. Most of us are no stranger to oil shocks the last two decades. In 2008 the US saw WTI (US Benchmark for oil) rise to $147/b in July before later cratering to $40/b in December as the financial crisis raged on. In 2022 WTI rose to $120/b after War in Ukraine began and the world started sanctioning Russian energy exports. As of this writing, WTI sits at $115/b, near 2022 levels, but still below the highs seen in 2008. In our view there are two primary reasons why short-term elevated energy prices aren’t the Achilles heel for the United States it used to be. First, the US is generally a net energy exporter in 2026. According to the Energy Information Administration, the US is a net exporter of 2.6 million barrels per day as of January 2026². In 2008 the US was a net energy importer, importing approximately 11 million barrels per day at the peak. This swing at its core means pockets of the US economy receive a windfall from higher energy prices, where 15 years ago higher energy prices had much larger negative impacts on consumer spending. Second, According to the department of commerce, US households are spending less on energy as a percentage of after-tax income in comparison to previous decades. In 2008 US households were spending ~6% of after-tax income on energy spending, as of 2026 that sits around 3%³. US households overall are spending less on energy than in previous decades due to energy alternatives. This doesn’t mean elevated energy prices will have no impact on the US economy, we simply expect higher prices to do less damage than during previous episodes.