Stock Market Today, July 28, 2026: Indexes End Mostly Higher on Strong Earnings

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed higher on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped. The Dow rose 1%, adding nearly 550 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. That matched the split from Monday, the first day of the busiest week of the second-quarter earnings season. Strong quarterly reports from Sherwin-Williams, Coca-Cola and Boeing carried the Dow. A renewed slide in semiconductor and memory stocks pulled the Nasdaq lower and held the S&P 500 to a small gain. The small-cap Russell 2000 finished modestly higher, and the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) eased. Oil prices fell again as the pause in U.S.-Iran hostilities held, and the 10-year Treasury yield retreated from its recent high. Tuesday was also the first day of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, with a rate decision due Wednesday afternoon.

Earnings Beats Lift the Dow as Chip Losses Weigh on the Nasdaq

The Dow’s 1% advance came largely from a small group of members that jumped after reporting results. Sherwin-Williams (SHW) rose roughly 8%, Coca-Cola (KO) climbed about 5%, and Boeing (BA) gained around 4.5%. Sherwin-Williams was among the largest contributors to the index’s gain.

The S&P 500’s 0.2% rise was narrow. Most sectors advanced, but losses in information technology, home to the chipmakers that led Tuesday’s decline, offset much of that strength. The Nasdaq Composite, which has a heavier concentration of technology stocks, finished down 0.2%.

The Russell 2000 closed modestly higher. The session’s weakness was concentrated in semiconductors and memory makers rather than spread across the market. The VIX eased on the day, even with a Fed decision and four mega-cap earnings reports still ahead on the calendar for the rest of the week.

Before the opening bell, futures tied to the Dow had pointed 0.3% higher while chip stocks weighed on Nasdaq futures. The cash market followed that pattern through the session.

The same split played out on Monday, when chip stocks dropped, the Nasdaq slipped and the Dow rose, as covered in the July 27 markets recap. Concern about the pace of AI infrastructure spending had already weighed on technology shares earlier in the month, including in the July 16 session, when the Nasdaq led a broad decline.

Nine of 11 Sectors Rose Intraday as Tech Fell

An intraday snapshot showed how lopsided Tuesday’s market was. At that point, nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were in positive territory, yet the index itself was down 0.2%.

Consumer staples led with an intraday gain of about 4.1%, helped by Coca-Cola’s results. The S&P 500 information technology sector was down about 2% at the time, enough to push the benchmark into the red despite gains across most of the market.

The only other declining sector in that snapshot was industrials, down about 0.7%. The sector held both winners and losers from the day’s earnings reports. Boeing rose after its results, while United Parcel Service fell sharply on its own report. Corning, a maker of glass and fiber-optic components, also dropped steeply after reporting.

By the close, the S&P 500 had worked its way back into positive territory and finished up 0.2%, as gains elsewhere outweighed the losses in technology.

Sherwin-Williams, Boeing Climb; Corning and UPS Slide

Several earnings reports produced large single-day moves in both directions on Tuesday.

Sherwin-Williams, the paint and coatings maker, posted the largest gain of the three Dow leaders at roughly 8%. Boeing’s 4.5% advance after its report helped offset some of the pressure on industrials. Coca-Cola’s 5% rise is covered in detail below.

Other reports drew selling. Corning (GLW) shares sank about 12% after the company’s results, the steepest post-earnings decline among the day’s notable reporters. United Parcel Service (UPS) fell roughly 6.5% after its report. Those two declines kept the industrials sector under pressure even as Boeing rose.

Visa (V) and Ford Motor (F) were scheduled to report after the closing bell.

Coca-Cola Raises Outlook After World Cup Quarter

Coca-Cola delivered the session’s clearest beat among consumer companies. The Atlanta-based beverage maker credited its marketing campaign around the World Cup soccer tournament for much of its second-quarter strength. The company said the tournament gave it a chance to run a campaign at unprecedented scale across more than 180 markets.

Unit case volume grew 5% from a year earlier, more than double the Visible Alpha consensus estimate. Volume for the namesake Coca-Cola brand rose 5%, and Powerade volume increased 8%, partly because of the tournament advertising. The company said its digital and social activations generated more than 60 billion impressions and over 9 billion views.

Comparable, or adjusted, earnings came in at $0.97 per share, ahead of the $0.93 analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected. Revenue grew 7% to $13.4 billion, above the $13.13 billion consensus estimate.

The company raised its full-year outlook. It now expects comparable earnings per share to grow 9% to 10%, up from its previous range of 8% to 9%. It sees organic revenue growth of 5%, compared with a prior range of 4% to 5%.

Chief Executive Henrique Braun said the consumer environment remained dynamic. He said the company had used its brands and bottling system to gain value share and deliver growth in revenue, profit and earnings while continuing to invest for the long term.

Coca-Cola shares entered Tuesday up about 20% for the year. They rose about 4% at the open and extended that gain through the session, finishing up about 5%. Coca-Cola’s jump was a major reason consumer staples led the market in the intraday sector snapshot.

Memory Stocks Lead Another Chip Selloff

Semiconductors, and memory chipmakers in particular, were the day’s main drag, as the selloff in the AI trade that had been building for weeks continued.

By the close, the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) had fallen about 9%, and the broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was down about 5%. Memory and storage names took the heaviest losses. SK Hynix (SKHY), Sandisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) each fell between 7.5% and 14%. Micron Technology (MU) dropped about 9%, and Intel (INTC) retreated about 5%.

In afternoon trading, Broadcom (AVGO) and Marvell (MRVL) were also among the decliners. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down about 4% at one point, while the memory ETF was down about 8% at that time before its losses deepened into the close.

Nvidia (NVDA) was an exception. The chip giant had dropped 5% on Monday, a decline that cost it the title of the world’s most valuable company to Apple. Its shares edged higher on Tuesday. The rest of the Magnificent Seven mega-cap technology stocks also finished mostly higher, limiting the Nasdaq’s decline to 0.2%.

The selling extended to memory makers listed overseas. ChangXin Memory Technologies, the Chinese memory chipmaker that soared in its Monday debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, lost about 4% on Tuesday in its second day of trading. The CXMT stock page tracks the shares since their listing.

The chipmakers’ next test comes from their largest customers. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Amazon were all scheduled to report later in the week. Those companies are among the largest buyers of AI hardware, and their capital spending plans feed directly into demand for processors, memory and storage. Higher spending plans from those buyers could support the chipmakers. The same spending has weighed on the buyers’ own shares, as recent reactions to big tech earnings have shown.

Tech Companies Beat Estimates but Lag After Reporting

The second-quarter earnings season had been strong by the usual measures. Fewer than 30% of S&P 500 companies had reported by Tuesday, and nearly 90% of those had beaten profit expectations, according to FactSet. The technology sector was among the strongest contributors to that result.

Stock reactions had been weaker. Analysts at Bank of America found that companies beating both profit and sales estimates had outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 1.2 percentage points the day after reporting. That is slightly below the historical average of 1.4 points.

Technology companies that beat estimates fared worse. On average, their shares lagged the index by about 2.6 percentage points the day after their results, the Bank of America analysts found. The analysts wrote that after several years of strong growth and upward estimate revisions, good results were no longer enough to lift tech stocks so far this quarter. Unease about the sustainability of AI spending formed the backdrop.

Recent reports fit that finding. Tesla (TSLA) shares tumbled after the electric vehicle maker said its investments in AI and research and development had squeezed profits. Alphabet (GOOGL) stock fell even though its earnings topped estimates, after the company said it planned to increase spending on its AI buildout. Intel’s shares slid despite results that were widely described as blowout numbers.

The week of July 27 was set to put that pattern to its largest test of the season so far, with Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) among the companies scheduled to report.

Fitch Calls a Possible AI Correction a ‘Major’ Credit Risk

Concern about AI spending also surfaced in the credit market. Fitch Ratings, one of the three major U.S. credit rating agencies, said in a report released Monday that a possible AI-related market correction, together with geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East, could pose a major credit risk.

Fitch’s report centered on two points. The revenue that AI investments will eventually generate remains uncertain, the agency said. Capital markets and economies have also become deeply intertwined with AI spending. If the long-run returns on that spending are reassessed, Fitch said, the combination creates a vulnerability for credit as well as for stock prices.

The agency placed that risk within a wider set of pressures. It cited slowing momentum in U.S. consumer spending and high inflation risk stemming from the second-quarter energy shock. It also pointed to structural strains on public finances that limit how much governments could do to respond to a risk event.

Survey data has moved in the same direction. In Bank of America’s fund manager survey earlier in July, close to half of respondents named AI spending by the largest U.S. tech companies as the most likely source of a systemic credit event or financial breakdown. Two months earlier, about a third of respondents had said so.

The same spending ties into Thursday’s economic data. Economists expect AI investment to account for much of the growth in the second-quarter gross domestic product report due that morning.

Apple Becomes Second Company to Reach $5 Trillion

While chipmakers fell, Apple set a milestone. Shortly after overtaking Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company, the iPhone maker became only the second company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. Nvidia, the first, crossed that mark late last year.

Apple shares rose close to 2% shortly after Tuesday’s open, reaching a record high of $342.89 and briefly pushing the company’s value above $5 trillion. A share price near $341 corresponded to the $5 trillion level. The stock gave back part of its gain during the session and closed up about 1%.

The shares had climbed to a series of record highs in the weeks before Tuesday. The run has been supported by optimism about upcoming product launches and AI developments under John Ternus, who is set to succeed Tim Cook as chief executive in September.

Apple has gained about a quarter of its value so far in 2026, well ahead of the S&P 500’s roughly 8% gain over the same period. That makes it the best-performing Magnificent Seven stock of the year to date.

The company was scheduled to report quarterly results after the close on Thursday, when it could provide further updates on its product and AI plans.

SpaceX Shares Extend Post-IPO Slide

SpaceX (SPCX), which listed in mid-June, continued to slide in the early part of the week.

On Monday, a broadly quiet day for markets, the shares fell 1.4% to close at $113.50, the stock’s lowest close since going public. The stock had touched a record intraday low below $109 earlier in that session. At Monday’s close, SpaceX’s market capitalization was around $1.5 trillion, only slightly above that of Tesla, Elon Musk’s other large public company. Tesla, which had plunged late the previous week after disappointing earnings, fell 1.2% on Monday as the Roundhill Magnificent 7 ETF (MAGS) ticked lower.

SpaceX shares pointed down a further 3% before Tuesday’s open. In morning trading they were down more than 1% at about $112, below Monday’s record lows, as the Nasdaq 100 retreated and the S&P 500 edged lower.

The decline extends a sharp reversal after the stock’s debut. Shares of the rocket, satellite connectivity and AI company quickly jumped above $225 after the offering. Over roughly a month, they then fell below both the price at which they first traded and the price at which shares were sold to the public.

Wall Street analysts remained broadly positive. The average price target compiled by Visible Alpha was above $293, more than double Monday’s close.

Morgan Stanley, which values the shares at $300, wrote in a Monday note that below $120 a share, investors were paying a reasonable multiple for the core space and connectivity business while getting limited to no value for the AI opportunity. The firm outlined several paths to AI revenue of around $100 billion by 2028 and called the current valuation an attractive entry point.

Cathie Wood’s ARK funds bought thousands of SpaceX shares on Monday, according to trade notifications. The stock’s addition to several high-profile indexes had not lifted the shares.

Two dates are ahead for the stock. SpaceX’s first quarterly report as a public company was expected the following week, likely with extensive commentary from Musk. Post-IPO lock-up agreements are set to expire in August, which would allow some early investors to sell more shares.

Fed Opens Two-Day Meeting With Hike Odds Rising

The Federal Open Market Committee began a two-day meeting on Tuesday, with its decision due Wednesday afternoon. Futures pricing showed less certainty about the outcome than is typical at the start of a Fed meeting.

The benchmark federal funds rate stands at a target range of 3.50% to 3.75%. Most forecasters expected the committee to leave it there. Fed funds futures, however, priced roughly a 31% chance of a quarter-point rate hike at this meeting, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, up from about 26% a week earlier.

For the September meeting, traders priced about a 75% chance of at least a quarter-point hike, up from 64% a week before.

Warsh Scales Back Pre-Meeting Guidance

Part of the uncertainty stems from a change in the Fed’s approach. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who took over in May, has long criticized the central bank’s past habit of steering market expectations, and he has scaled back the guidance officials give before meetings. In recent years, Fed officials typically signaled the likely outcome well in advance, which kept surprises to a minimum.

Iran Developments During the Blackout

Timing added to the uncertainty. FOMC members enter a blackout period before each meeting, during which they do not make public remarks on policy. During this blackout, the Iran war took several turns, again threatening oil supplies and pushing up fuel prices. With officials silent, there was no public signal of how members viewed those developments.

The Inflation Backdrop

The Fed targets inflation of 2% a year, and inflation has run above that goal since 2021. The case for a hike rests on that persistent overshoot, recently reinforced by the second-quarter energy shock. Against it is the risk of slowing an economy that already appears to be decelerating and weakening the job market.

Treasury Yields, Oil, Gold, the Dollar and Bitcoin

Treasury yields. The 10-year Treasury yield was above 4.60% late Tuesday, down more than five basis points from Monday’s close. The previous Thursday, it had reached nearly 4.72%, its highest level since January 2025, amid concern about inflation.

Oil. Crude prices fell further as the pause in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran continued. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 4.3% to about $79 a barrel at 4 p.m. ET. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, fell 5.1% to $83.80. U.S. gasoline prices had moved back above $4 a gallon.

Gold. Gold futures declined 1.2% to $4,025 an ounce.

The dollar. The U.S. dollar index slipped 0.2% to 101.38.

Bitcoin. Bitcoin traded around $63,700, down from overnight highs near $65,000.

What Comes Next

The rest of the week packs the Fed decision, two major economic reports and four Magnificent Seven earnings releases into three days. The FOMC announces its decision Wednesday afternoon, and Meta reports after the close the same day. Thursday brings second-quarter GDP and June inflation data in the morning, followed by Apple and Amazon after the close. Microsoft also reports during the week.

Second-Quarter GDP

The Bureau of Economic Analysis is scheduled to release its first estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal expect inflation-adjusted GDP to have grown at an annualized rate of 1.8%, down from 2.1% in the first quarter.

Economists expect much of that growth to come from the technology industry’s spending on AI and the data centers that run it. A report in line with forecasts would show the economy expanding more slowly than its 2.3% average since 2000, with a single sector supplying much of the growth.

Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust, wrote that capital spending by the hyperscalers, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, is projected at almost $700 billion in 2026, about $300 billion more than in 2025. By his estimate, that increase alone would account for a full percentage point of GDP growth.

June PCE Inflation

The Bureau of Economic Analysis is also due to release the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for June on Thursday. The PCE index is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, and the Fed uses the core reading as its benchmark for whether inflation is at target.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal expect headline PCE inflation of 3.7% over the 12 months through June, down from 4.1% in May. The core index, which excludes food and energy prices, is expected to ease to 3.3% from 3.4%.

The expected decline in the headline figure reflects lower gasoline prices in June, when Middle East oil supplies temporarily resumed during a pause in the Iran war. A report in line with forecasts would mirror the trend already seen in the Consumer Price Index. Gasoline has since climbed back above $4 a gallon, and the core figure is expected to move only a tenth of a point.

Meta Platforms

Meta was scheduled to report after the close on Wednesday. Options pricing pointed to a possible swing of up to 7% in either direction by the end of the week. From Monday’s close, a move of that size would put the shares back above $636, where they traded earlier in the month, or below $552.

Shares of the Facebook and Instagram parent were down about 10% for the year, as solid quarterly results had been outweighed by concern about spending on the company’s AI buildout. Earlier in July, the stock rose on reports that Meta was considering selling excess computing capacity to other AI companies, a topic executives could face questions about on the earnings call.

Deutsche Bank analysts, who rate the stock a buy with an $800 price target, wrote that after Alphabet raised its capital spending forecast the week before, investors were worried Meta might do the same.

Amazon

Amazon was scheduled to report after the close on Thursday. Options pricing implied a move of up to 6% in either direction by the end of the week. From the stock’s recent level of around $231, that would put the shares close to $246 on the upside or just under $217 on the downside.

Amazon shares were roughly flat for the year and about 17% below their May highs, which followed the company’s first-quarter report. The stock had been hit by the broader pullback in the AI trade in recent weeks, tied to concern over big tech companies’ large infrastructure budgets.

Bank of America analysts said they expect a modest lift to retail sales from the company’s Prime Day event, with more attention likely on Amazon Web Services, the cloud business. Wedbush analysts said they expect continued heavy investment in Amazon’s AI chip efforts and its satellite internet network.

Apple and Microsoft

Apple reports after Thursday’s close with its stock near record highs and its market value having just crossed $5 trillion. Microsoft is the fourth Magnificent Seven member reporting during the week. Microsoft and Amazon are also among the hyperscalers whose combined capital spending is projected at almost $700 billion this year, the figure at the center of both the chip selloff and the GDP forecasts.