High-signal headlines only - macro events, earnings, M&A, regulatory. Listicles and analyst clickbait filtered out by default. Refreshed hourly.
8am: Nasdaq on a roll The Nasdaq is poised to charge ahead again on Friday after its best day in weeks, with Microsoft leading a tech-sector recovery and delivering its biggest single-day increase in market value on record, lifting sentiment across the broader market. Nasdaq futures point...
Everyone knows that interest rates affect stock prices. The Fed’s decision Wednesday to keep overnight rates unchanged sounds like it would have been clearly bullish, but stocks sold off just after Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference. Also following Warsh’s Q&A, long-term Treasury yields hit a 19-year high.
<body><p>STORY: From CXMT's big hitter IPO to Microsoft's largest one-day gain... This is the Week in Numbers. </p><p>:: Week in Numbers </p><p>:: 466%</p><p>466% was how much shares of CXMT soared by in their Shanghai trading debut...</p><p>catapulting the chipmaker to the top of China's stock market by valuation...</p><p>despite a recent sell off in global tech stocks.</p><p>Data showed the one-day surge was the largest among the world's 10 biggest IPOs this year by deal value.</p><p>And lifted CXMT's market capitalization to $487.73 billion.</p><p>CXMT has emerged as a key pillar of Beijing’s drive to build a self-sufficient chip industry.</p><p>The explosive debut crowned CXMT as China's most valuable listed company.</p><p>:: 17%</p><p>South Korea's benchmark KOSPI jumped 17% as the battered market made a record comeback....</p><p>stirring hopes that a recent rout in AI-related stocks had run out of steam.</p><p>Reversing steep losses from earlier in the week, the reversal followed surges in AI heavyweights Microsoft and Amazon...</p><p>lifting chip stocks broadly after upbeat earnings and forecasts from both.</p><p>:: $99 million</p><p>There was a $99 million loss in the first quarter of the year for Shein as it heads into its Hong Kong IPO.</p><p>Shein blamed slowing U.S. sales after Washington scrapped a duty exemption on small packages...</p><p>plus a one-off $328 million accounting charge.</p><p>Selina Li is Reuters Asia financial services correspondent:</p><p>"I think one thing that is for sure, we know that fast fashion isn't going away, but customers should expect those $3 items to get noticeably pricier as global trade rules catch up with the business model." </p><p>:: 16%</p><p>16% was the second-quarter drop at British Airways owner IAG.</p><p>It's been weighed down by soaring fuel costs and weak travel demand linked to the Middle East conflict...</p><p>and said it now expects capacity to be flat this year.</p><p>IAG, which also owns Iberia and Aer Lingus, said it saw an adverse impact from higher fuel prices from March onwards...</p><p>as fuel costs and emissions charges jumped.</p><p>:: $450 billion</p><p>Microsoft added nearly $450 billion in market value.</p><p>That was the largest one-day gain on record for a company...</p><p>after it forecast stronger-than-expected cloud growth and signaled continued cash generation through its new fiscal year.</p><p>The software giant's shares closed up more than 15%, lifting its market capitalization to $3.35 trillion...</p><p>surpassing chip giant Nvidia's previous record one-day gain.</p><p>The results offered fresh evidence that Microsoft's massive AI investments are beginning to pay off.</p></body>
Amazon jumped more than 12% after second-quarter earnings and revenue comfortably beat expectations. Alphabet and Meta Platforms were both punished by the market after hiking capex this earnings season. The spending hike is good news for Marvell Technology as it helps design Amazon’s artificial-intelligence chips.
By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. employment data and a batch of corporate results this coming week will keep equity investors on edge over the direction of the stock market, which
Stock buybacks are near historic highs. But their biggest benefit to investors — making each remaining share more valuable — is fading in the era of the AI spending boom.
Stocks were on track to end the week on an upbeat note after Big Tech earnings revived optimism in the artificial intelligence trade.
The software giant's contracted future revenue now exceeds two full years of sales. Here's what that buys investors.
STRL is projected to double its revenue and its earnings again between 2025 and 2027 as the AI data center boom ramps up. The stock is down ~43% from its highs and finding technical support heading into Q2 earnings.
$450 billion That's the amount of market capitalization gained by Microsoft yesterday, the largest one-day gain in market value by any U.S. business, ever. The tech giant's stock surged 16% after its earnings quelled concerns that investments on data centers, chips and more would outpace the company’s ability to generate cash.
July 31 (Reuters) - European shares hit a record high on Friday, powered by improving investor appetite for tech shares globally, while corporate earnings buoyed markets through a week of central bank
Microsoft surged after delivering stronger-than-expected results, led by Azure growth, expanding operating margins and signs AI spending is driving revenue.
By Rae Wee SINGAPORE, July 31 (Reuters) - Asian markets rallied hard with Wall Street on Friday as South Korea's battered market made a record comeback, stirring hopes that a recent rout in AI-related
<body><p>STORY: :: Central California / July 30, 2026</p><p>:: AI is costing billions and Wall Street expects returns</p><p>:: Stephen Nellis, Technology Correspondent</p><p>"The big takeaway from a spate of big tech earnings this week is that AI costs a lot of money to build, but what Wall Street really cares about is whether you have a credible plan in place to make money off of AI once you've built it."</p><p>"Microsoft and Meta both talked about spending a lot of money to build up data centers to deliver AI, but one stock, Meta, got punished while another stock, Microsoft, got rewarded. I think what you have to understand is that there's a huge difference in how these companies want to go after AI."</p><p>"Meta is looking at weaving AI into all of its existing products that people know about, like Instagram, etc."</p><p>"Microsoft has a bit of a different approach where what they're pitching is saying, hey, what we plan to make money on is that part of helping the business figure out how to apply AI to the data inside their business."</p><p>"Apple is a little bit different case from the rest of its big tech peers, and that's because at this point, its business is still mostly selling things like iPhones because it's been very late to AI."</p><p>"The company had really good sales of iPhones and Macs in the quarter that just ended in late June, but looking ahead to the quarter that we're in currently in the rest of the year, it's actually signaling that this AI data center build out is really gumming up the supply chain in a way that's gonna make it harder for Apple to actually build its consumer devices, even though those devices don't compete directly with these data centers."</p><p>"And I think you're seeing the market respond to what they think of those different approaches."</p></body>
South Korean stocks soared a record 17 percent Friday as global tech firms performed a blistering recovery from an extended sell-off, with beaten-down chip giant SK hynix rocketing more than a quarter as the AI boom roared back.Seoul's Kospi had been at the forefront of the sell-off after hitting a record high a month ago, with chipmakers SK hynix and Samsung the poster children of the rout, losing around half their value in the panic.
Sony on Friday hiked its full-year operating profit forecast by 8% to 1.72 trillion yen ($10.72 billion), citing the strength of its gaming business. The Japanese conglomerate has received plaudits for its pivot to entertainment, but the market is concerned about the impact of AI and a memory chip price boom on its business. In the April-June quarter, group operating profit rose 40% to 476.5 billion yen, beating analyst estimates, due to the strength of the gaming and image sensors businesses.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares jumped Thursday after the company delivered stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings, with investors and analysts praising accelerating Amazon Web Services profitability as evidence that returns on artificial intelligence investments are beginning to materialize. Cramer Calls Amazon ‘Astonishing’ After AWS Delivers CNBC host Jim Cramer called the results “astonishing,” in a post on X, though he said Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) remains the standout am
July 31 (Reuters) - Indian shares were expected to open higher on Friday, supported by a rebound in Asian markets and renewed foreign buying that improved sentiment towards domestic equities.
South Korean stocks jumped 17%, leading the region’s equity markets higher, as chip and technology shares climbed.
IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) soared by 30.54 percent on Thursday to close at $38.26 apiece, as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following six consecutive days of losses, supported by Citadel’s backing that helped avert a potential fire sale on its stock, alongside a technology giant’s major announcement. This followed the disposition of Situational Awareness’ huge chunk of […]
AI stocks skyrocketed today after a hedge fund blowup.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma outlined a turnaround plan focused on accelerating growth, expanding franchises and lifting margins.
Microsoft (MSFT) stock spiked 15% in Thursday's trading session after delivering blockbuster results for its fiscal fourth quarter yesterday evening.
<body><p>STORY: U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Thursday, with the Dow gaining more than one percent, the S&P 500 climbing one-and-two-thirds percent and the Nasdaq rallying more than two-and-three-quarters percent.</p><p>:: Microsoft</p><p>Shares of Microsoft soared more than 15% to log their biggest daily percentage gain in 18 years, after the tech giant gave a stellar forecast that eased fears about massive spending on AI infrastructure.</p><p>That boosted overall market sentiment, says Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth.</p><p>“I think the real focus is on Microsoft and their earnings report. There's been a lot of concern about the hyperscalers, the money that they're spending and whether or not they're going to get a return on their capital. And Microsoft eased their concerns. Their spend on their cloud they didn't raise, and their return on their cloud was positive. So the market's really hyper focused, I think, that things aren't that bad.”</p><p>:: Amazon</p><p>After the close, Amazon gave investors more reason to cheer when it topped market expectations for quarterly cloud revenue growth on the back of surging enterprise AI spending, signaling the company's hefty investments were bearing fruit. Its shares, up nearly 4% at the close, surged more than 8% in extended trading.</p><p>Also after the bell, Apple reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations, fueled by its customers snapping up iPhones and MacBooks amid price increases across the consumer electronics sector. Its shares, however, dipped more than 2% in extended trading.</p><p>:: Meta Platforms</p><p>And shares Meta tumbled 8% after the social media heavyweight reported a 91% drop in second-quarter free cash flow, a sign that its costly AI buildout was causing a financial strain.</p></body>
We use Google Analytics to count anonymous page views and understand which content gets read. No ads, no profiles. Decline keeps you on cookieless mode. Details.
