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Jun 16, 2026 12:00 PM

Gold Miners, Nuclear, Homebuilders: 3 Trades That Could Bounce After Trump's Hormuz Deal

Crude began unwinding months of conflict premium after the Trump administration claimed that the Strait of Hormuz has reopened as part of an agreement reached with Iran on Sunday.

Yet three corners of the market that the war hammered have still not climbed back to where they traded the day it began.

West Texas Intermediate slid to around $80 a barrel on Tuesday, its lowest since early March, after President Donald Trump said on social media that the deal with Iran was complete and the U.S. naval blockade would be lifted.

But financial markets are sending a different signal beneath the rally.

The Laggards The Rally Left Behind

Wall Street has continued to hit record highs since the U.S. attacked Iran in February. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) rose 10% throughout that time.

But not all sectors have shared in the rally, with some of the market’s biggest laggards posting steep losses.

Data from CountryETFTracker, which measures performance against the Feb. 27 starting point of the conflict, shows three U.S. industry funds still in negative territory nearly four months later. They are the laggards the recovery left behind:

The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) is the worst of the group, down 26.39% since Feb. 27.

The VanEck Uranium and Nuclear Energy ETF (NYSE:NLR) has lost 15.01%, ranking as the second-worst industry over the same stretch.

And the third-worst ...