Stock Market Today, July 2, 2026: Dow Jumps 600 Points to a Record as Tech Sells Off

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%, or nearly 600 points, to close at a record high on Thursday, July 2, 2026. The S&P 500 finished essentially unchanged and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.8%. Early gains came after the June jobs report reduced the odds of a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike. A sharp selloff in semiconductor and memory stocks then erased those gains for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. Apple, McDonald’s and Walt Disney carried the Dow to its record. The session also brought second-quarter delivery figures from Tesla and Rivian. The jobs report came out a day early because of the Independence Day holiday.

All three indexes traded higher in the morning after the Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed slower hiring than economists expected. Tech selling built through the day. The Dow’s leaders held their gains through the close, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 gave theirs back as losses in chipmakers deepened. The Nasdaq was the only major index to close clearly lower. U.S. stock and bond markets were closed Friday, July 3, for the holiday, which made Thursday the last session of the week.

Apple, McDonald’s and Disney Lift the Dow to a Record

Apple (AAPL) was the top gainer in the Dow, rising about 5%. McDonald’s (MCD) and Walt Disney (DIS) each added around 4%. Those three moves carried the 30-stock index to its record close even as the broader technology sector weakened.

Apple’s rally also supported the S&P 500. The chip selloff hit several other heavyweights in the benchmark, and the two forces roughly offset each other, which left the index flat for the day. The S&P 500 index page carries the benchmark’s price history and performance chart.

The Nasdaq took the brunt of the chip and memory losses and was the session’s clear laggard. Its 0.8% decline came on the same day the Dow posted its gain of nearly 600 points.

Chip and Memory Stocks Lead the Selloff

Semiconductors drove the decline. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) fell nearly 6%. Intel (INTC) dropped 5% and Marvell Technology (MRVL) tumbled 10%. Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) also lost ground.

Memory names fell harder. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) lost about 9%. Sandisk (SNDK) plunged 14%, the worst performance in both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Thursday’s losses added to Wednesday’s. The major indexes closed lower on Wednesday to start the second half of the year, and chip stocks sank in that session too. Nvidia shares fell about 1% on Wednesday. Thursday’s selloff extended the move across the group.

The sector was already split heading into the session. Memory maker Micron Technology (MU) had drawn heavy buying in recent weeks, and its stock hit record highs the week before. Other leading AI chip stocks had pulled back. As of Wednesday, Nvidia was about 16% below its May high and custom AI chipmaker Broadcom was about 25% below its early June record.

Analysts Called the Pullback a Buying Opportunity

Some analysts recommended buying the dip before Thursday’s further decline. “Some of our favorites, even tech companies that we don’t formally cover, are screaming buys,” Paul Meeks of Freedom Capital Markets wrote in a note on Wednesday.

Meeks singled out Nvidia. He said “skeptics have exaggerated the threats” to the company’s AI chip franchise. He also argued that the market’s reluctance to reward Nvidia for strong growth in its fundamentals “ain’t right.”

Chip stocks remained a focus in the weeks that followed. On July 16, the Nasdaq dropped on AI spending concerns.

June Payrolls Miss Forecasts as Unemployment Falls to 4.2%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published the June employment report on Thursday morning before the opening bell. The report normally comes out on a Friday, but markets and federal offices were closed Friday, July 3, for the Independence Day observance. Stock futures were little changed going into the release, with contracts tied to the Dow up about 0.1%.

U.S. employers added 57,000 jobs in June. That was about half of what economists had forecast and well below May’s total. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2%, its first change in four months. Both numbers came in below expectations in a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The details of the report were mixed:

• Continued gains. June was the fourth straight month of job growth. That followed a stretch from mid-2025 through February in which the economy frequently lost jobs.
• Slow pace. Hiring remained well below the pace of 2024. The labor market continued to show a “low-hire, low-fire” pattern, with few layoffs and job seekers struggling to land new positions. In June, the share of U.S. adults who said jobs are hard to find reached its highest level since 2021, according to public opinion polls.
• Healthcare. The sector added 22,000 jobs. That continued its run of solid hiring, though at a slower pace than earlier in the year.
• Leisure and hospitality. The sector lost 61,000 positions. Some economists had expected the World Cup to give it a temporary hiring boost.

Rate-Hike Odds Fall After the Jobs Report

The jobs data shifted market pricing for the Federal Reserve. Traders had been positioned for a possible rate increase, and the cooler labor report reduced the odds of one.

Late in the day, the CME FedWatch tool showed an 18% chance that the Fed would raise its benchmark rate at its late-July policy meeting, down from 29% the day before. The implied probability of a hike at the following meeting, in September, fell to 54% from 64% before the employment data came out.

Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, said in written commentary that the headline of slowing job growth may read as negative. He said there could be a silver lining for markets, because the data could force some of the more hawkish Fed governors to reconsider quickly raising rates to fight inflation.

The bond market’s reaction was brief. The 10-year Treasury yield fell as low as 4.46% shortly after the release, then climbed back to finish at 4.49%, unchanged from Wednesday’s close. The U.S. inflation rate by year page has the historical inflation series behind the Fed debate.

Tesla Falls Despite a Delivery Beat; Rivian Jumps

Tesla (TSLA) shares fell more than 7% even though the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries. Tesla said Thursday morning that it delivered more than 480,000 vehicles in the quarter. Analysts had expected roughly 400,000. The total topped both the Visible Alpha consensus of Wall Street estimates and an average compiled by the company itself. The stock was down about 6% earlier in the session before extending its losses.

Rivian (RIVN) also reported second-quarter deliveries above its own expectations and raised its full-year guidance. Its shares rose about 10%.

The two delivery reports may partly reflect higher demand for electric vehicles. Gasoline prices rose during the U.S.-Iran conflict, which may have pushed some buyers toward EVs. According to AAA, a gallon of regular unleaded was recently a little above $3.80. That was down from a month earlier but well above year-earlier levels.

Cox Automotive offered a different reading the month before. “Although there is a tremendous amount of economic and policy uncertainty these days, the new-vehicle market seems to be relatively unfazed,” the firm said. That view suggests gas prices may have had little effect on second-quarter buying.

Tesla’s first half remained weak. Its shares rose about 13% in the second quarter, slightly behind the S&P 500, but were still down for the year. The S&P 500 was up nearly 10% over the same six months. Tesla belongs to the Magnificent 7 group of large technology stocks, which declined as a group over the first half amid unease about the health of the Big Tech rally.

Other Notable Movers

AeroVironment Wins a $500 Million Army Contract

Drone maker AeroVironment (AVAV) rose about 5% in premarket trading after the U.S. Department of War announced a $500 million Army contract. The award covers “the procurement of commercial counter-unmanned aerial systems and counter small-unmanned aerial systems capabilities,” according to the announcement.

The contract extended a strong holiday-shortened week for the stock. AeroVironment shares were up 25% for the week going into Thursday. That included a jump of nearly 19% on Tuesday after a better-than-expected earnings report. Even after that run, the stock was down roughly 29% since the start of the year.

Strategy Extends Its Rebound

Strategy (MSTR), the large corporate bitcoin holder formerly known as MicroStrategy, rose more than 6% before the open. The premarket gain added to an advance of about 13% earlier in the week. The stock had fallen sharply from late 2024 and again after bitcoin’s highs the previous year.

Earlier in the week, the company said it could continue and expand sales of bitcoin. It also said it planned to buy back both its common and preferred stock. That news helped ease some concerns about the company’s financial health. Bitcoin traded above $61,000 that morning, up over the previous 24 hours.

Oil, Gold, the Dollar and Bitcoin

Commodity and currency markets were relatively calm compared with equities.

• Treasurys. The 10-year yield finished at 4.49%, unchanged from Wednesday’s close, after its post-payrolls dip to 4.46%.
• Oil. Prices were little changed from the prior close. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, traded at $71.60 a barrel after earlier touching their lowest level since late February, just before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, slipped 0.2% to $68.45.
• Gold. Futures rose 1.3% to $4,135 an ounce.
• Dollar. The U.S. dollar index fell 0.5% to 100.90.
• Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency traded around $61,400 late in the day, up from overnight lows near $59,500.

The Week and the Quarter in Context

Thursday’s mixed session ended a holiday-shortened week that was strong for all three major indexes. The Dow gained about 2% for the week, extending its winning streak to four weeks. It has risen in six of the past seven weeks. The S&P 500 added 1.8% for the week and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.1%, recovering from losses the week before.

The week followed a second quarter in which the S&P 500 rose about 15%. That was its best quarter in six years and its biggest gain since the second quarter of 2020. The index posted that advance despite a modest decline in June.

Stocks advanced over the first half despite economic uncertainty, fears of a Fed rate hike and concerns about an AI bubble. Wall Street analysts generally expected strong corporate earnings to support further gains in the second half.

Strong Second Quarters and the Following Nine Months

Research firm SentimenTrader studied the S&P 500’s performance after “strong” second quarters. It defined these as quarters in which the index rose 10% or more from April through June, rose in each of the three months, or both.

SentimenTrader found 20 such quarters over roughly seven decades. In every case, the S&P 500 was higher nine months later, with an average gain of 13.5% over that stretch.

The results varied widely. The largest gain followed the second quarter of 2020, when the S&P 500 climbed 28% over the nine months through the following March. After the previous year’s strong second quarter, the index gained only 5% over the following nine months.

Meb Faber on Long-Run Returns

Meb Faber, co-founder and chief investment officer of Cambria Investment Management, addressed long-term returns and short-term risk ahead of the release of his book, Investing In America: The Rise of A 250-Year Bull Market, which was set for release on Saturday. The book traces the U.S. stock market decade by decade from 1800 to 2020.

Faber writes that $1 invested in U.S. stocks in the 1800s would have grown to more than $4 million by the end of 2025. The same dollar would have grown to about $51,000 in the rest of the world’s markets. To “get rich,” Faber said, an investor only has to put money in U.S. stocks and wait for the “magic of compounding.”

Faber describes his investing approach as half value and half momentum and calls himself an optimist. He also said a 50% drop in stocks between now and 2030 would be “totally normal.”

He said he wrote the book after watching “a whole generation” turn to the stock market during Covid. Many of those new investors came in through services that steered them toward meme stocks and would “shoot confetti in the air” each time they made a trade, he said.

What Comes Next

Independence Day fell on Saturday, July 4, so the holiday was observed on Friday, July 3, and U.S. stock and bond markets were closed that day. Trading resumes Monday, July 6. The July 7 coverage follows the market as the post-holiday week continues.

The Federal Reserve’s late-July policy meeting is the next major policy event. As of late Thursday, the CME FedWatch tool showed an 18% chance of a rate hike at that meeting and a 54% chance of a hike at the September meeting.