4:20pm: A losing week overall
Wall Street ended a choppy Friday on a mixed note, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 managing modest gains while the Nasdaq remained under pressure as investors wrapped up a volatile week.
The Dow climbed 236 points, or 0.5%, to 51,947, while the S&P 500 edged up 4 points, or 0.1%, to 7,412. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 162 points, or 0.6%, to 24,976, extending its recent weakness.
Despite Friday's rebound for the broader market, all three major indexes finished the week in the red. The Nasdaq led the declines, losing around 2% over the past five trading sessions as investors continued to rotate away from some high-growth technology names.
Attention now turns to a packed week of corporate earnings that could set the tone for markets heading into August. Big Tech will once again dominate the spotlight, with results due from Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Arm. Investors will also be watching reports from blue-chip names including Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil and Chevron for fresh insight into consumer spending and the energy sector.
With earnings season entering one of its busiest stretches, traders will be looking for signs that corporate profits can continue to support a market that has faced increased volatility in recent weeks.
3:40pm: Proactive news headlines
- American Resources Corp (NASDAQ:AREC) approved a special cash dividend of $0.0431 per share, returning capital to shareholders while continuing to invest in its critical minerals business.
- Miivo AI (TSX-V:MIVO) launched Customer Insights, an AI-powered self-service platform that helps small and mid-sized businesses track customer sentiment and manage their online reputation across major digital platforms.
- Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE-A:OPTT) acquired strategic subsea technology assets from Columbia Power Technologies to expand its capabilities from surface to seabed and strengthen its autonomous maritime infrastructure offering.
2:30pm: Market movers
- Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC, XETRA:INL) shares fell more than 4% after investors looked past a strong second-quarter earnings beat and upbeat guidance to focus on mixed analyst reactions following the chipmaker's results.
- Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ, XETRA:BAC) shares climbed about 3% after the telecom giant beat second-quarter earnings expectations and raised its full-year outlook despite reporting revenue that missed forecasts.
- American Express Company (NYSE:AXP, XETRA:AEC1) shares dropped about 6% after second-quarter revenue narrowly missed Wall Street expectations, overshadowing better-than-expected earnings.
12:15pm: Welcome to X, Mr Huang
Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) (Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD), Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD)) CEO Jensen Huang posted on X for the first time on Friday, sharing a multi-company letter that defends open-weight AI models as essential to US technology leadership.
Huang, who joined the platform last month but had not posted until now, used his debut message to promote a letter signed by Nvidia and roughly 20 other organizations, including Meta, Microsoft and Palantir.
The letter argues that open models strengthen safety, accelerate innovation and support national AI sovereignty, and that US leadership should not rest on a single frontier model alone.
For my first post, I’m sharing a letter @NVIDIA signed on why open models matter.
AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country.
Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty.… pic.twitter.com/t02bi51N4C
— Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang) July 24, 2026
11:00am: Inflation still Fed's primary concern
The US labour market continues to show little sign of meaningful deterioration despite softer hiring in June, according to Bank of America, leaving inflation as the Federal Reserve's primary concern ahead of next week's policy meeting.
The bank noted that while June payroll growth came in below expectations, the broader picture remains solid. The three-month average of job gains is still comfortably above the level needed to keep pace with population growth, while the unemployment rate has held steady at 4.2%.
More recent indicators have also remained encouraging. Bank of America said ADP private payroll growth has eased in recent weeks, but suggested that slowdown likely reflects a normalization after unusually strong hiring earlier this year. At the same time, weekly jobless claims continue to point to a stable labour market.
"Bottom line: the labor market appears healthy heading into the July FOMC meeting, leaving the focus squarely on inflation risks," analysts wrote.
10am: Mixed open
It's another mixed open on Wall Street, with the Dow adding around 100 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq Composite started down 0.2% as technology shares seemed to be extending yesterday's selloff.
Charter Communications was the biggest Nasdaq 100 faller, sliding 6% after earnings, while other fallers include Marvell, Lumentum, Micron, Western Digital, ARM, Seagate and Intel, all down over 3.8%.
American Express has dropped 4.8%, the biggest Dow faller, but Verizon tops the leaderboard with a 3.5% gain, followed by Salesforce and IBM.
8am: Dow called higher but tech to remain a drag
Wall Street is set for a tentative recovery on Friday after the previous session's technology selloff wiped roughly $800 billion from the market value of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech giants, with the world also waking to a new US tariff regime.
Dow Jones futures were up 199 points or 0.4%, while S&P 500 was expected to add 0.2% and Nasdaq futures were broadly flat, having surrendered an earlier gain of around 0.25%.
The day before, the Nasdaq had tumbled 2.2% to 25,138 due to the worst session for the Mag 7 since the original "tariff tantrum" day. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% to 7,408, while the Dow shed 507 points, or 1%, to close at 51,712.
Investors dumped technology stocks after results from Tesla and Alphabet failed to ease concerns about surging AI spending. Higher oil prices also reignited inflation worries and pushed Treasury yields to their highest levels of the year.
After WTI crude reached a seven-week high of $93.5 a barrel the previous afternoon, prices eased to $89.8 on Friday morning.
Security concerns remain elevated after strikes in the Red Sea, which led some tanker operators to reroute vessels onto even longer journeys.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump confirmed new tariffs covering more than 99% of US goods imports under Section 301 rules.
The levies, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, take effect Friday and are designed to enforce restrictions on "forced labour" imports, the White House said.
"Today's action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.
Yale Budget Lab estimates the measures will lift the average statutory tariff rate to 12.8%.
In company news, Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) gained 3% in premarket trading after beating second-quarter expectations and issuing a stronger outlook.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) has fallen 2.3% despite an earnings beat, while Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ, XETRA:BAC) is down 1.3% and NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE) has slipped 0.7% following mixed quarterly updates.
Elsewhere, a senior Korean official said Samsung and SK Hynix are expected to announce “very large-scale” contracts with leading US technology companies during President Lee Jae-myung’s visit to Silicon Valley, which starts today.