Market Review: August 04, 2026

Closing Recap

Tuesday, August 04, 2026

Back to back monster returns for US stock markets and up four straight days has the S&P 500 and Dow are back at record highs! U.S. stock markets went parabolic for a second consecutive day, non-stop upward momentum, with virtually no pullbacks along the way to kick off the week as the rotation back into tech (XLK, QQQ, SOX) leads broader averages higher. Investors may have sold the tech/ai/semi stocks off in July on AI spending fears and rising rate impacts on borrowing costs…but now Wall Street is playing catchup with a massive 4 day rally. Bullish earnings results from likes of CAT, PLTR and others, positive developments for optical/AI plays (AAOI, COHR, LITE), tumbling oil prices on Trump admin commentary and lower yields for a second day off recent 52-week highs all helped the bull case Tuesday. While Tech (XLK) was the clear leader, Industrials (XLI) and Financials (XLF) both hit all-time highs today while defensive sectors such as utilities and healthcare slipped along with the weakness in energy on oil. Tech (XLK) was up over 5% doing most of the heavy lifting for US markets. The S&P 500 (SPX) hit a new record intraday and closing all time, along with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The PHLX Semi Index (SOX) rose more than 7% above 12,250, rising a 4th straight day and well off the end of July lows of 10,445.44 on 7/29 (more than 1,800 point bounce for Semi Index in 5 days). Earnings season remains among strongest of all time as of the 327 S&P 500 companies that have reported thus far , coming in at a 87% beat rate vs 82% Last year as the avg beat 14% vs 13% LY, and avg miss -33% vs -25% LY with avg yr/yr earnings growth 24% vs 10% LY. Market participants are now awaiting a series of U.S jobs reports this week, including the ADP employment report due on Wednesday and the nonfarm payrolls data on Friday. Stocks extended gains late morning on headlines Iran is considering allowing European nations to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a concession that could be part of a deal to normalize Shipping in the waterway and ease peace talks with the United States. The headlines pushed oil prices even lower and boosted major averages. No let up all day for US stocks as the Nasdaq 1000 QQQ’s are up 9% from last Wednesday’s close, after hitting correction territory.

• U.S. June trade deficit -$73.3B was in-line with consensus and compared to the May deficit -$77.6B; June goods deficit $102.11B, services surplus $28.85B; June exports -0.9% vs May -3.2%, imports -1.8% vs May +3.3% as exports $314.73B vs May $317.63B, imports $387.99B vs May $395.28B. The U.S.-China June trade deficit $73.86B vs May surplus $9.57B.
• U.S. June factory orders -0.3% below consensus +0.2% and vs. May -1.1%; June factory orders ex-transportation -0.4% vs May +2.0% (prev +1.9%); June Durables orders revised to +0.5% from +0.3%; June factory orders ex-defense -0.4% vs May -1.1%; U.S. June nondurables orders -1.2% vs May +2.2%. U.S. June nondefense cap orders ex-aircraft revised to +1.2% from +0.9%; June shipments revised to +2.0% from +1.9%

• December gold prices advanced +$62.10, or +1.52%, to settle at $4,152.60 an ounce while September silver rises +$2.39, or +4.13%, to finish at $60.25 an ounce supported by a decline in oil prices that tempered inflation fears and lowered U.S. interest rate hike bets, while markets awaited further clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy path. Oil prices fell to a three-week low easing inflation concerns while earlier Fed’s New York President John Williams said he remained optimistic that inflation pressures were on track to ease gradually, but if they do not, the U.S central bank will not hesitate to respond with rate hikes. Among other metals, platinum and palladium both rose around 7%.
• The US dollar index (DXY) was little changed holding just under 100 while the Japanese yen bounced after falling the last few days from 40-year lows and the euro edged higher ahead of key jobs data tomorrow and later this week (nonfarm payrolls on Friday). The 10-yr yield falls -5.9bps to 4.625% today, and down 11.8bps the last 2 days off 18 month highs of 4.743% last Friday as oil prices tumbling have eased inflation concerns for the time being.

• Restaurant sector: MCD Q2 revs rose 4% y/y to $7.10B vs est. $7.13B, Q2 global comparable sales +1.3% vs est. +1.39% and Q2 adj EPS $3.38 vs est. $3.32; Q2 global systemwide sales +5% (+4% at constant currency) and Q2 U.S. comparable sales +0.8% vs est. +1.06%; said Q2 results reflect pre-tax charges of $52M; CMG shares fell midday after reports the company removed jalapenos linked to Minnesota salmonella cases.
• Consumer Products: CLX Q4 adj EPS $1.66 vs. est. $1.65; Q4 revenue fell -2% y/y to $1.95B vs. est. $1.91B; Q4 gross margin narrowed 5.2% to 41.3%; expects its 2027 net sales to rise 13%-14% vs. est. 12.8% and EPS $5.70-$6.00 vs. est. $5.97; KMB cut its annual sales and profit forecasts citing a significant hit to Q2 sales in China that stemmed from false claims about the quality of some of its diaper brands; Q2 adj EPS $2.12 vs. est. $2.01 and sales $4.189B vs. est. $4.22B; Volumes in North American business slipped 0.3%. PG agreed to buy supplement company Thorne for $3.8 billion.
• Food sector: ADM Q2 EPS $1.84 tops est $1.44 and raised its forecast for full-year adjusted profit citing a strong oilseed processing outlook; now expects 2026 adjusted earnings between $5.15 and $5.60 per share, compared with a prior forecast of $4.15 and $4.70 per share.

• Household Appliances: WHR Q2 Sales of $3.517B were down (-1.7% YoY on an organic basis) with Major Domestic Appliance (MDA) North America sales down (2%) YoY (vs. 3% AHAM shipments), Small Domestic Appliance (SDA) Global sales flat and MDA Latin America sales up 8% YoY.

• Auto sector: GM and EVGO just put another 100 locations in the ground with Pilot, cracking 300 sites and 1,300 stalls across 40 states; TM reported a Q1 operating profit decline but raised its full-year outlook, expecting $21 billion in profit as it benefits from a weaker yen and marketing efforts and unveils $6 billion buyback, but shares fall. Auto supplier APTV shares fell to 52-week lows after posting Q2 beat but cuts FY26 adjusted EPS view to $5.60-$5.80 from $5.70-$6.10 and lowered its FY26 revenue view to $12.6B-$12.8B from $12.8B-$13.2B, and below consensus $13.3B.

• Energy Infrastructure: AMRC shares surged after Q2 revs of $515.5M and adjusted EBITDA of $62.8M both topped consensus, with EBITDA finishing above the high end of the company’s $58-62M guide along with a record $1.8B of new awards, including $1.2B tied to data Centers, lifted awarded backlog 65% y/y to $4.4B and total backlog 32% to a record $6.7B. In nuclear space, NRG shares fell as interest expense rose to $310M from $148M y/y; adj EPS of $1.49 missed the $1.70 estimate and Texas unit posted an adjusted core profit of $381M, down 25.6% y/y due to higher supply costs and mild winter weather.

• Payments: FIS shares fell after weaker guide as sees Q3 revenue between $3.41B-$3.44B, below consensus of $3.51B and EPS expected $1.58-$1.62, below market expectations of $1.65 saying they temporarily curtailed share repurchases and paused tuck-in M&A activity following Total Issuing Solutions acquisition. PAY shares rose reflecting another beat-and-raise quarter with an acceleration in underlying trends. While FY guide was slightly raised above the beat, 3Q26 guidance came in a bit tighter across the three line items.

• IRT 2Q nFFO beat cons. and management affirmed 2026 nFFO guidance ($0.01 above cons.). SSRev. growth decelerated 50 bps to +0.9% y/y in 2Q. With YTD SSRev. growth of +1.1% y/y, SSRev. guidance implies +2.3% in 2H26.
• IVT Q2 Core and NAREIT FFO that was in line with consensus; affirmed its Core FFO guidance but increased its FY26 NAREIT FFO guidance by $0.01 ($2.01-$2.07), as results appear to be trending as anticipated— SPNOI growth increased to 4.1% from 2.6% in 1Q26, leasing was steady, and the SNO pipeline expanded.
• SBRA reported 2Q26 nFFO in line with consensus, which excludes a $102M ($0.40) loan loss related to the previously disclosed RCA loan settlement. SHOP SSNOI growth decelerated 70 bps to 13.7% y/y but remains on track with ’26 guidance for low-to mid-teens growth.

• ABBV files for nine-part senior offering; size not disclosed. Plans to use proceeds to fund acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics
• GILD announced that the California Supreme Court ruled in its favor in the State TDF litigation, directing dismissal of all claims and rejecting plaintiffs’ novel theory that the company had a legal duty to continue TAF development in 2004.
• JAZZ delivered solid Q2 results beating cons revenues +8% on better-than-expected performance of Xywav and Jazz’s broader product portfolio.
• MDGL was upgraded from Peer Perform to Outperform at Wolfe Research saying the stock overcorrected on perception of ‘F4 data coming late or coming delayed’ (but a delay could be a long-term positive); Q2 beat also confirmed net-zero volume impact from Novo, setting up for consecutive revisions 2026-2027.
• NVO shares fell after Q2 results released a day early, despite beating on sales $12.1B vs. est. $10.9B and raised its year sales outlook.
• VRTX reported broadly in-line revenue and strength across its core cystic fibrosis franchise as well as newer products and raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance, reflecting continued confidence in cystic fibrosis, and reiterated at least $0.5bn in non-cystic fibrosis revenue.
• Medical Technology sector: INSP shares rose as Q2 revenue was modestly ahead of subdued expectations, as the impact from previously communicated headwinds was somewhat less impactful than estimated and raised its 2026 outlook for revenue and earnings, primarily to account for Q2 outperformance and announced a strategic restructuring to support LT revenue growth. CLPT shares fell after Q2 revenue of $10.9M (+18.1% Y/Y), missing consensus of $12.7M, with EPS of ($0.38) vs. consensus ($0.29); IRRAflow drove growth while organic revenue declined ~9% Y/Y on a tough biologics comparison.

• Chemical sector: DD reported better-than-expected profits and sales for the second quarter. The maker of Medical packaging, clean-water technology and building Materials also raised its full-year EPS and organic growth targets. Issue seems to be a slightly soft second-half outlook. OLN downgraded to Equal Weight at Wells Fargo as believes that overall, the chlor alkali market backdrop may be less supportive than previously expected for OLN, as it appears that the conflict in the Middle East has not translated to as meaningful upward pricing momentum for caustic soda or merchant chlorine as anticipated.
• Engineering & Construction sector: STRL Q2 beat by 21% on revenue (+90% y/y) benefiting from Stone Ridge and EBITDA beat by 13%, less than revenue beat as E-Infra margins came in lower. BTB was 1.5x on booked backlog, 1.4x ex Stone Ridge. Key point is margin miss on E-Infra and lower guided margins.
• Transport sector: LSTR was upgraded to Outperform at Wolfe with $214 tgt saying they remain upbeat that we’re at the onset of another strong transport cycle and is looking for buying opportunities within the group with transport stocks pulling back in recent weeks

• Defense technology: PLTR shares soared on results/guide as easily cruised past consensus on revenue +6.8% upside, operating Income/margin +10.5% beat, and free cash flow/margin +9.0% while guided FY adjusted income from operations $4.88B-$4,89B; guides FY revenue $8.15B-$8.158B vs. est. $7.69B and above the prior forecast of $7.65B-$7.66B; guides Q3 revs $2.16B-$2.164B vs. est. $2B.
• Space sector: SPCX earnings on tap tonight, its first as a public company; VOYG rises as Q2 adj EPS loss (-$0.70) vs. est. loss (-$0.91); Q2 revs rose to $52.75M vs. est. $48,23M; posted "record" quarterly revenue of $52.7M, increasing 51% sequentially from the first quarter, and "record" quarterly bookings of $113.0M, resulting in a 2.1x Book-to-Bill ratio; raises FY26 revenue view to $275M-$305M,vs. consensus $240.81M.
• Gov’t IT services: LDOS shares jumped after forecasts annual revenue between $18.20-18.40B as the midpoint of which is more than Wall Street estimates of $18.25B; posted Q2 adjusted EPS of $3.26 vs estimate of $2.91.

• Telecom & Tower sector: SBAC Q2 results were slightly better than expected with -2.2% organic growth 3.3% ex Sprint/DISH churn), and AFFO/share above consensus. TU was downgraded to Underperform from Buy at Bank America and cut its tgt to C$13 from C$22 after a surprising ~30% reduction to 2028E FCF outlook saying bull thesis of strong FCF growth and execution on monetizations has not played out.

• In Ai space: Bloomberg reported Blackstone (BX) has reportedly begun early talks with investors about arranging at least $36B in debt to finance Anthropic’s use of Google’s custom Ai chips. If completed at the proposed size, it would surpass the $35B package arranged by Apollo and Blackstone two months ago, which financed Anthropic’s use of Google chips across five data Centers. The size, structure and Blackstone’s role are still under discussion and could change.
• Data Center/HPC sector: SHAZ signed a 5-year $373M Ai Cloud agreement across its Australian infrastructure. The initial deployment uses 2,048 NVDA GB300s as Sharon Ai contracts 120MW of its 132MW capacity and scales toward 64,000 GPUs by mid-2027. CIFR shares fall after Q2 EPS loss (-$0.65) misses est. loss (-$0.24) with Q2 operating loss of $78.5M and Q2 revs $25M and adj Ebitda of negative (-$30M); HUT Q2 revs $74.93M vs. est. $80.7M and logs Q2 loss of $150.2M, or (-$1.27) vs. a profit of $137.3M, or $1.18 a share y/y as loss was largely due primarily non-cash accounting hit of $94.6M on its digital assets. BTDR said its AI business signed a 16-year AI data center lease and services agreement with Volta Tydal AS, expected to generate about $4.7B in contracted revenue.
• Electrical Equipment & Parts: ZBRA shares rose after Q2 EPS and revs topped consensus and raises FY26 sales growth forecast to between 14%-16%, up from prior forecast of 10%-14% and sees full year adj. EPS in the range of $20.75 to $21.25, up from previous outlook of $18.30 to $18.70 (est. $18.56)

• AEIS shares rose following a strong beat and Q3 raise lifting the semi equipment space (AMAT, KLAC, LRCX, ONTO, MKSI, etc.), driven by content/share gains across its key growth markets of Semi & Data Center Computing, and in-line with the strong reads from key customers LRCX, AMAT, hyperscalers. For Semi, mgmt. forecasts 2H to be up >50% YoY, suggesting FY26 growth of +32% YoY.
• ICHR Q2 revs rose 24% Y/y to $294.78M vs. est. $300.2M; Q2 adj EPS $0.03 vs. est. $0.31; guides Q3 adjusted EPS $0.40-$0.50 vs. est. $0.41 and revs $315M-$345M vs. est. $314.52M; said expects continued sequential growth in revenue, gross margin and EPS for 2026.
• MXL and MRAM signed a memorandum of understanding to explore next-generation memory technology aimed at improving the performance and efficiency of AI servers. The MOU establishes a framework for the companies to evaluate the use of Everspin’s persistent, low-latency MRAM technology with MaxLinear’s storage compression, encryption, and hardware acceleration platform.
• ON posted solid 2Q results and 3Q guidance which were slightly above expectations as DC was the fastest growing segment as Other grew +21% y/y, while DC revs in ’26 are now expected to more than double vs. double prev from $250M in ’25. Given supply constraints ON prioritized DC capacity over Auto/Industrials, which missed expectations. Upcycle trends continue as B2B improves, lead times are increasing
• Qnity (Q) Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.19 and revenue of $1.43B, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 and $1.36B, respectively and raised FY26 adj. EPS forecast to $4.40 to $4.60 from its earlier outlook of $3.80 to $4.14 and boosts FY revs view to $5.55B-$5.65B from its prior forecast of $5.23B-$5.38B.