Stocks Waver Before Alphabet’s Results; Oil Jumps: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street investors bracing for the start of the high-stakes megacap earnings season sent stocks wavering while worries about an escalation of the conflict between the US and Iran boosted oil prices.
Losses in tech shares weighed on the S&P 500, despite gains in most of its companies. With AI spending skyrocketing, traders are looking for Alphabet Inc.’s results to demonstrate a clear return on its massive investments. Tesla Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are also due to report later Wednesday. Brent oil briefly spiked above $95, spurring concerns about inflationary pressures that could prompt higher interest rates.
The AI euphoria that drove the stocks to all-time highs a month ago is clearly waning, and pressure is building for companies to justify their expenditures. The bar is high. An index tracking the Magnificent Seven tech giants is lagging the S&P 500 in 2026, a rarity for the group that has led the market higher for most of the past four years.
That all happens at a time when the US widened the scope of its airstrikes on Iran overnight, as President Donald Trump and officials in Tehran signaled a renewal of peace talks is unlikely in the near-term.
Corporate Highlights:
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Anthropic PBC have agreed on a deal for AI servers worth tens of billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported. OpenAI said its advanced AI models inadvertently hacked Hugging Face Inc. in an “unprecedented” incident that prompted fresh calls for curbs on the technology. Super Micro Computer Inc. issued preliminary results saying its backlog hit a record on new orders in the quarter of more than $60 billion. AT&T Inc. added more monthly wireless phone subscribers than analysts expected in the second quarter, a bright spot for the carrier in a period that had investors spooked by potential competitive threats. Philip Morris International Inc. trimmed its profit forecast blaming adverse currency conditions and rising costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 was little changed as of 9:56 a.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.8% The MSCI World Index rose 0.2% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1415 The British pound was little changed at $1.3385 The Japanese yen was little changed at 163.07 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $65,890.38 Ether rose 0.8% to $1,938.15 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.64% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.18% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 5.05% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.7% to $86.65 a barrel Spot gold rose 1.7% to $4,145.38 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
