Oil is back near $100 a barrel as the conflict around Iran is widening. The Strait of Hormuz remains badly disrupted. And the market's old faith that every shock will somehow resolve itself by Monday morning is starting to fray. Yet stocks are set to open higher, at least for now, even if the reason is not especially convincing: investors may be taking some comfort from inflation data that came in as expected, or simply buying after a bruising selloff, despite the same ugly backdrop of expensive energy, fragile supply chains, uncertain geopolitics, and a Federal Reserve that is still being asked to fight inflation without crushing a softening economy.
