Wall St ends higher on chip stocks recovery; earnings draw focus

Wall St ends higher on chip stocks recovery; earnings draw focus

By Sinéad Carew and Ragini Mathur

Tue July 21, 2026  

With the recent beating that chip stocks have taken in recent days, today appeared to be the day for all the bargain hunters to come out of the woodwork, pushing all three indexes straight up and way up into significant 3-digit gains. The escalating war took very much a backseat as investors await more AI Q2 earnings, pushing the stocks way up ahead of the actual reporting on the fears that they might miss out.  

Wall Street indexes fall, with Iran and earnings season in focus

Wall Street indexes fall, with Iran and earnings season in focus

By Sinéad Carew and Ragini Mathur

Mon July 20, 2026  

The war rages on and now Yemen is threatening to open still another major front in the conflict which could add even more impact to global oil supplies. All three indexes thus took another dive with the Nasdaq and S&P spending most of the day in the black before closing very modestly down, all on the hope that an overture today from Iran to bring about de-escalation and another cease fire could well work out.  

Wall St ends lower for the day and week as chip selloff broadens

Wall St ends lower for the day and week as chip selloff broadens

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Fri July 17, 2026  

Another severe down day for tech, which is probably a healthy thing as it is cooling down a market that was widely feared to be way overheated. As today’s expert put it, “The market has chip fatigue. Those stocks got way ahead of themselves and now they’re coming back to Earth.” Tech was down from open but the Dow actually started the day about 60 points in the black around 45 minutes after open, but was almost 600 points down at open but zoomed up to break-even within half an hour before falling off the cliff again with a gradual decline all afternoon that still led to a 3-digit loss at close. Tech’s fall from grace was understandable but the Dow’s decline is more of a mystery, especially given how strong Q2 has been so far.  

Wall Street ends lower as chip weakness offsets solid earnings, economic data

Wall Street ends lower as chip weakness offsets solid earnings, economic data

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Thu July 16, 2026  

After four out of five straight sessions of gains, tech took another substantial dive today. You might call it profit-taking, you might call it more jitters over extended fighting in the war that has basically now nullified the truce. The Dow, boosted by a strong Q2 from United Health, had less dramatic losses.  But today all the good economic news, of which there was a good amount, and all the good Q2 was not quite enough to avoid the dive in tech.  

Wall St ends higher on cool inflation data, strong earnings

Wall St ends higher on cool inflation data, strong earnings

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Wed July 15, 2026  

PPI came in today confirming yesterday’s CPI that inflation is slowing down. That combined with a second day of strong Q2 reporting and the market went on another buying spree (though something very strange happened right about 11:30 that brought all three indexes crashing down into minor losses after a morning of nice gains, but quickly recovered, no explanation given.)  

S&P 500 and Nasdaq end higher on cool inflation data, solid bank earnings

S&P 500 and Nasdaq end higher on cool inflation data, solid bank earnings

By Stephen Culp and Avinash P

Tue July 14, 2026  

The big banks came in today with boffo Q2 reports which oddly enough lifted tech but not so much the Dow. All three indexes closed with gains although the Dow just barely so after spending most of the day in the red. CPI also came with the good news that inflation seems to be calming with hopes now that inflation will continue to come down and thus there will be no need for a rate hike later this year. Of course, any good news on inflation is good for tech.  

Wall Street ends lower as Iran tensions dampen risk appetite; chipmakers drop

Wall Street ends lower as Iran tensions dampen risk appetite; chipmakers drop

By Stephen Culp and Ragini Mathur

Mon July 13, 2026  

The war has ramped up and consequently the markets have ramped down, all three indexes on a continuous downward spiral all day closing with 3-digit losses, the Nasdaq particularly hard hit closing down 408. The Dow suffered a little less due to oil spiking again, today up 9.4%, on account of further restricted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. As today’s expert put it, “If the market were cheap, it’d be one thing. Now there’s less cushion and there continues to be a lot of unknowns.”  

Wall Street climbs, oil slides as investors bet on AI growth over Middle East tensions

Wall Street climbs, oil slides as investors bet on AI growth over Middle East tensions

By Pete Schroeder

Fri July 10, 2026  

For a second day, Wall Street is ignoring Middle East tensions and focusing again on AI and that drove tech mildly upward all day and the Dow even more into a low 3-digit gain. Oil prices came down a bit as investors eye the continuing attacks but may still be holding out optimism for the negotiations. Per the CBOE, a mere 14.9 billion shares traded hands, even more way below the 23.0 billion average than before, indicating that investors are on the fence waiting to see what happens next. 

Stocks climb, oil slides as tech hopes outlast Middle East worries

Stocks climb, oil slides as tech hopes outlast Middle East worries

By Pete Schroeder

Thu July 9, 2026  

Yesterday’s negative war news with new strikes on Iran drove the whole tech sector down. Today, even despite a second day of strikes and Iran retaliation, the market decided to disregard the war and return to the love affair with AI, bolstering both the S&P and Nasdaq into a daylong and quite fruitful rally. Nvidia was riding high on the second day after being allowed to sell its chips to Chinese companies. Yesterday, this news sent the chip index up 2.4%, today an additional 3%.  

S&P 500 ends down after Trump says Iran deal is 'over'

S&P 500 ends down after Trump says Iran deal is 'over'

By Noel Randewich

Wed July 8, 2026 

The bad war news today (or should I say peace news) brought all the indexes down except the Nasdaq which, though sunk by almost 300 by noon, had an afternoon comeback that got it modestly into the black. The same thing happened to the S&P though the comeback there still kept it modestly in the red. The Dow was down almost 900 by noon but with a much more modest recovery that still left it well into the red. What pushed tech back up was an Apple announcement that it was buying $30B of chips from Broadcom to put in the 2.5B Apple devices people use globally.  

Nasdaq sinks as AI worries hit chipmakers

Nasdaq sinks as AI worries hit chipmakers

By Noel Randewich and Shashwat Chauhan

Tue July 7, 2026  

AI nerves were back today big time with Micron and other chipmakers falling due to continuing doubts about AI’s sustainability. Even Samsung with today’s blowout earnings report was unfortunately not enough of a blowout to satisfy investors whose expectations were through the roof.  As today’s expert put it, “Expectations have gotten to be almost impossible to beat …”  

S&P 500, Nasdaq close sharply higher as Broadcom rallies

S&P 500, Nasdaq close sharply higher as Broadcom rallies

By Noel Randewich and Ragini Mathur

Mon July 6, 2026  

AI exuberance is back after last week’s setbacks and it sent all three indexes straight up with 3-digit gains on both the Dow and Nasdaq and the S&P also up an impressive 54 points. This was all triggered by strong expectations of a blossoming Q2 earnings season which starts shortly combined with expectations that this boom will continue through the rest of the year. The chip index was up 2.2% after last week’s slump.  

Nasdaq ends lower with tech; investors assess softer jobs data

Nasdaq ends lower with tech; investors assess softer jobs data

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Niket Nishant

Thu July 2, 2026  

It was a second day of sharp declines in tech, today being written off as profit-taking after such a long run of gains. Only about half the number of expected new jobs materialized which was greeted as good news on inflation and a possible stay of execution on the Fed raising rates. Odds of a rate hike decreased from 64 to 55%.  

Wall Street ends choppy session lower as tech shares drop

Wall Street ends choppy session lower as tech shares drop

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Niket Nishant

Wed July 1, 2026  

Investors chose to return to caution again today with all three indexes starting the session in the red, the Nasdaq deeply so, but then rising into the black until about noon when they began to decline and all closing modestly in the red. The concerns over the war and AI expenses reared their ugly head again and brought the Nasdaq way down until Meta saved the day momentarily with an 8.8% gain.