Market Review: July 08, 2026

Closing Recap

Wednesday, July 08, 2026

U.S. stocks were weak overnight, with Nasdaq futures falling over -1.5% and S&P futures down over -1% on renewed geopolitical fears as President Trump said his tentative ceasefire with Iran is over after Washington launched a fresh wave of strikes against the country and tightened sanctions, while Iran targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday in response. The move by the U.S. came after Iran targeted three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The news sent oil prices jumping over 5%, boosting Treasury yields in turn on rising inflation fears. Still, while markets were mostly lower, they finished at best levels and well off the lows as some key technicals levels held (50dma SPY) and major averages again bounced off an early morning dip. The Nasdaq posted a big reversal, ending the day higher after a more than 300 point bounce off the morning lows. Large cap tech was a drag with shares of AMZN, TSLA, GOOGL, META and MSFT all down over 1% while the QQQ held below its 50dma ($712.40). Energy (XLE) and Tech (XLK) were the only S&P sectors in the green with notable declines for Materials (XLB) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) with Financials (XLF) also down notably ahead of bank earnings next week.

• But the broader debate seemed evenly divided, minutes of the session showed on Wednesday, with "most participants" seeing scenarios in which inflation would fall towards the Fed’s 2% target on its own, and "most" also seeing situations where it would remain high. "Almost all" of that group considered a rate increase a rate increase as necessary if that occurred.
• U.S. May wholesale inventories revised to +0.1% (consensus +0.3%) from +0.3%; U.S. May wholesale sales +3.4% vs April +2.2% (prev +2.0%); stock/sales ratio 1.15 months’ worth vs April 1.19 months.

• August gold prices tumbled -$75.00/oz, or -1.80%, to settle at $4,082.40 an ounce while September silver prices declined -$2.79 or 4.55% to $58.54 an ounce as precious metals dropped on inflation fears/higher dollar.

• Beverages (BUD, SAM, TAP, STZ): Bernstein said in a note that US Beer Scanner Data shows volumes remain weak, but sequentially less bad in June. Volumes remain weak, although there was some sequential improvement from May on a 4wk basis. On a 2wk trailing basis, the market was down -6.4%. On a 4wk trailing basis, market volumes declined -5.8%. Looking through weekly volatility, industry volumes were down -6.4% on a longer, 12wk trailing basis
• Discount retail: OLLI downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan following recent fieldwork and access, as sees a Q226 same-store-sales miss (lowering to negative low-single-digits vs positive low-single digit guide) and 2H26 same-store-sales cut (lowering to Flat vs +2% implied guide). DLTR was upgraded by two brokers as Raymond James raised to Outperform ($140 tgt) reflecting what it views as an increasingly favorable risk/reward set up, while Goldman Sachs raised to Neutral from Sell (tgt to 125 from $105) saying price and value perceptions have improved and strong cash reserves and potential tariff refunds provide tailwinds, though traffic remains weak, key customer metrics lag historical levels, and a competitive value-focused environment supports a cautious stance.
• In Dining/Restaurants: KRUS shares fell after Q3 revs $85.92M vs. consensus $86.46M; Q3 adj Ebitda $6.6M vs. est. $6.42M; and cuts FY26 revenue view to $330.5M-$331.5M from $333M-$335M.

• Cruise sector: shares of CCL, RCL, NCLH weak again as oil prices jump to 2-week highs, rising as much as 6% this morning after Trump said his tentative ceasefire with Iran is over after Washington launched a fresh wave of strikes against the Tehran and tightened sanctions, escalating tensions between the two nations and sending oil prices higher.
• In Autos: RIVN 75M share Secondary priced at $15.50. TSLA Robotaxi expansion plans advance with Florida launches this summer, The Information reported. Tesla’s Robotaxi initiative is testing a new strategy for faster expansion.

• In Energy stocks: OXY was upgraded to Outperform from In Line at Evercore and raise tgt to $65 saying after a prolonged stretch of underperformance versus both crude and the large cap E&P group, the firm thinks a materially de-levered balance sheet and a structural step-up in capital efficiency should allow Occidental to better reflect underlying commodity fundamentals. Oil refiners (PBF, DINO, VLO, MPCoutperformed, as US Ultra-low sulfur diesel futures surge over 13% after Russia bans diesel exports.

• Brokers & Asset Managers: UBS said they are positive LPLA and EVR into the quarter, each having the potential for 2Q26E EPS beats, and most negative on LAZ, MC, RJF where we are below consensus for the quarter (the firm downgraded MC to Sell). The firm said advisory results appear to be tracking generally below consensus expectations (not all), capping a decent, though not exceptional, first half.

• AZN and Daiichi Sankyo are nearing a pricing agreement in the UK for their breast cancer drug Enhertu, Bloomberg News reported citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
• VNDA announces FDA rare pediatric disease designation for investigational therapy for Charcot-Marie-tooth disease type 2s.

• Healthcare IT sector: Keybanc said in its monthly App User Tracker, HNGE MAUs were up ~40% Y/y in June and app downloads were up ~25% Y/ Y, suggesting ongoing strength in yields, plus Engagement from new members. HQY MAUs were up ~76% Y/y and downloads were up ~25% Y/y in June (up 13% sequentially from May), supporting increased user Engagement toward HSAs/consumer marketplace.
• Hospital operators: Barclays downgraded CYH to Underweight from Equal Weight and both HCA and UHS to Equal Weight following a strong three-year bull run driven by ACA membership growth, Medicaid state-directed payments, and widening revenue-cost spreads, the fundamental and regulatory backdrop for acute hospitals is turning more negative and the firm can no longer recommend the group on an unqualified basis.
• MedTech sector: Citigroup named ABT, DXCM, SYK top picks in US Medtech while removing EW and ISRG and opening positive catalyst watch on GEHC and ISRG, and negative catalyst watch on HAE into Q2 earnings seasons. For the quarter, given the skittish trading environment, Citi prefers higher-quality stocks that may be positioned for a catch-up trade, thus its Top Picks are ABT, DXCM, and SYK.

• In Heavy duty trucks: Daimler Truck (DTRUY) reported an 8% increase in Q2 group vehicle sales, selling 86,707 vehicles during the quarter, up from 80,607 units a year earlier. The improvement was driven by its Trucks North America division, where vehicle sales rose 8% Y/Y to 41,687 units.
• In E&C sector: MTZ acquires OH-based Electric contractor Superior for $1.65B, including $475M in stock. The Superior Group is a premier full-service electrical contractor focused on critical infrastructure; deal consists of $475M in MTZ shares and $1.175B in cash.
• In Waste sector: BMO Capital said they believe sector fundamentals continue to gradually improve which should support strong Q2 results and positive F2026 guidance revisions for most of its coverage. Meanwhile, relative valuations have rarely looked better. BMO’s pecking order within environmental services remains WCN, CLH, and RSG. For investors looking to position ahead of Q2 prints, BMO believes CLH and GFL have the most headroom to increase F2026 guidance.
• In Transports: ODFL was upgraded to Overweight at Wells Fargo (tgt to $250 from $235) as believes the company is well positioned vs. the market’s concern about over-earning on fuel and should benefit from increasing service failures across the less-than-truckload landscape as volume shifts back from truckload. Old Dominion should also beat Q2 results, and Wells sees upside in Q3 and 2027. Stephens resumes coverage on U.S. railroad operators, with UNP, CSX at Overweight and NSC Equal Weight saying rising truckload rates could drive more Freight to Rail as shippers seek lower-cost transport options. Adds that Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merger review is moving forward, but approval is unlikely before the second half of 2027.

• Aerospace sector: RKLB bull case price tgt was raised to $293 at Morgan Stanley (from $185) saying on the back of the SPCX IPO and RKLB’s announced acquisition of IRDM, the firm examines its valuation methodology for RKLB and put it in context vs SPCX. They view RKLB’s acquisition of Iridium as broadening its TAM and positioning it as a vertically Integrated Space platform. Airbus (EADSY) trims 20-year forecasts for industry-wide passenger jet deliveries by 1% in all categories after trade and geopolitical disruption and lowers 20-year passenger traffic growth forecast to average 3.9% a year from like-for-like year-ago figure of 4.1%.

• In Internet/Online: BABA shares outperformed in US listed China space after a company update with analysts pointed to cloud revs growing by 45% up from 38% in March q with low teens EBITDA better than March q’s 9% while domestic e-comm EBITA better than feared as food delivery subsidy war largely reduced

• Hardware sector: DELL price tgt raised to $500 at Evercore saying come away from investor meetings incrementally positive on DELLs positioning across the Ai infrastructure Cycle, with the key message being that demand remains materially ahead of supply and is broadening across deployments
• IT Services & Consulting: NET announced Cloudflare and OpenAI are launching a first-of-its-kind research pilot to explore how insights from participating websites across Cloudflare’s global network can help Ai search engines discover and index relevant content on the open web more effectively.

• Ai chip startup SambaNova said on Wednesday it has raised $1B in a late-stage funding round led by General Atlantic at an $11B post-money valuation. The company makes custom chips, hardware systems and Cloud services tailored for inference – the process by which models respond to user queries. New and existing investors include A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, funds and accounts managed by BLK, INTC and the Qatar Investment Authority – Reuters.
• AVGO shares were strong as AAPL said it’s expanding its partnership with chipmaker Broadcom in a multi-year deal expected to exceed $30 billion, marking the iPhone maker’s largest U.S. manufacturing commitment to date. The agreement will lead to the production of more than 15B U.S.-made chips and includes a $1.5B expansion of Broadcom’s facility in Fort Collins, Colorado
• NVDA got a late morning pop after The Information reported China is planning to let top AI companies buy a limited amount of Nvidia’s H200 chips. Chinese officials have told Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek in recent weeks that they may soon receive permission to buy some H200 chips, the report said, citing two people.
• NVTS shares declined after WOLF filed a patent infringement lawsuit alleging multiple Navitas GaN and SiC power semiconductor products infringe its patents & saying it intends to protect decades of R&D and intellectual property.
• In HDD sector, Susquehanna raised estimates for STX for WDC to account for higher unit ASP, which reflects continued Q/Q increase in Asp/GB and areal density growth. The firm said Recent industry checks indicate blended HDD ASPs increased 15–20% Q/Q in Q226. Current customer negotiations further suggest pricing could increase 20% Q/Q in Q326, followed by an additional 10–15% Q/Q increase in Q426, reflecting continued supply tightness and favorable industry pricing Dynamics.
• In Memory (MU, SNDK), Bernstein said for DRAM, June contract price rose further MoM & indicated 74% QoQ increase for conventional DRAM contract price in 2QCY26. Spot price: DRAM spot price further increased in June following the recovery in May. PC DRAM spot price rebounded by 5.6-11.5% MoM while server DRAM was up 6.1-26.4% MoM. Notably, spot price of Server DDR5 was particularly strong in the past month, but Bernstein expects the volume is too small to move the needle.
• In Analog semis: Cantor believes the analog Semiconductor group is well positioned into Q2 earnings, with improving cyclical demand, pricing power, Ai-driven content growth, and easing capacity constraints supporting upside to estimates through 2H26. The firm’s preferred names are ADI, MCHP, and NXPI, citing underappreciated Ai and power exposure, stronger leverage to edge Ai and industrial recovery, and attractive valuations; sees ON increasingly compelling after its recent pullback.