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News of the day for July 31, 2026

Stocks ended yesterday higher, rebounding from Wednesday’s sell-off.
Credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Stocks are pointing to a higher open ahead of July’s final trading session as investors assess earnings from Apple and Amazon and look to extend yesterday’s rally; Amazon shares are soaring after the e-commerce and AI giant beat estimates, reporting faster-than-expected revenue growth from Amazon Web Services; Apple stock is slumping after services revenue fell short of estimates; Microsoft is coming off the biggest single-day addition to a company’s market cap in stock-market history; and Tesla is reportedly considering a sale or spin-off of its operations in China.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Point to Higher Open to Finish Month

Stock futures are on the rise as investors digest the latest big tech earnings reports, with markets on track to end the month of July on a high note. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were recently up 0.6%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up 0.5% and 1.3%, respectively. The major indexes posted solid gains yesterday, bouncing back from a Wednesday sell-off. Gold futures are down 1% to about $4,110 an ounce, while crude oil futures are rising slightly to $84 a barrel as investors await the latest news out of Iran. The 10-year Treasury yield, which impacts rates for a range of consumer loans, is at 4.68%. Bitcoin is trading around $63,800, down from an overnight high of $65,300.

Amazon Stock Soars After Earnings, AI Spending Top Estimates

Amazon (AMZN) stock is soaring after the tech giant posted its latest earnings last night. The e-commerce and cloud computing company beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, while its spending on AI hardware came in higher than expected. Investors may see faster-than-expected Amazon Web Services revenue growth as making the jump to over $50 billion in capital expenditures in a single quarter worthwhile. Analysts said ahead of the report that they expected investors to be focused on the momentum of AWS growth compared to Amazon’s spending, which includes billions for AWS hardware, chipmaking efforts, and growing satellite internet plans. Amazon shares are up 11% ahead of the opening bell.

Apple Stock Slips as Services Revenue Comes Up Short

Yesterday, Microsoft (MSFT) stock soared while Meta (META) tumbled after reporting results. Today it’s happening again, with the two big tech companies that reported last night moving in opposite directions. Apple (AAPL) shares are down 8% premarket after setting a new high earlier this week, despite the iPhone maker also beating revenue and profit estimates. One aspect of Apple’s results that could be a reason for the drop is a weaker-than-expected performance from Apple’s Services segment, which includes products like Apple Music and Apple TV. CEO Tim Cook will hand over the top job to John Ternus in September, the month when Apple typically holds an annual event where it unveils the new iPhone lineup.

Microsoft Coming Off Record $450B Rise in Market Cap

Microsoft shares are moving slightly lower this morning after the Windows software maker turned in a record-breaking performance in yesterday’s session. After its earnings topped estimates and capital expenditures came in lighter than expected, investors rewarded Microsoft with a 15.5% jump yesterday. That added $450 billion to the company’s market capitalization, the largest single-day gain in market cap for any U.S. company. The move surpasses Nvidia’s (NVDA) 19% and $440 billion market cap gain that took place last April, when President Donald Trump announced a pause on the sweeping tariffs he had announced just days earlier.

Tesla Considers Selling China Operations, Report Says

Tesla (TSLA) is considering what a sale or spin-off of its China operations would look like if the electric vehicle maker decided to merge with another Elon Musk-led company, SpaceX (SPCX), per The Wall Street Journal. Tesla has kept a dividing line between its China business and other segments of the company in case the EV maker needed to offload the business in the event of a geopolitical conflict or war between the U.S. and China, the report said. Now, it said, people within the company have been told to explore the idea of separating the China business ahead of a potential SpaceX merger, which has long been a subject of speculation. While the report said it’s unclear if or when such a transition would happen, shares of Tesla and SpaceX are each up more than 1% premarket.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference at Federal Reserve Headquarters on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Bond markets are skeptical of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s commitment to fighting inflation.
• Rising long-term Treasury yields signal bond traders’ concerns about inflation and doubts about the Fed’s resolve.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh says he’s committed to bringing inflation down, but the bond market isn’t buying it unless he shows a willingness to raise interest rates, analysts say.

It’s a tension that’s driving up mortgage rates and other long-term borrowing costs today, as traders question whether Warsh can fight inflation with only words, not actions. 

At his second press conference as the Fed’s chair, Warsh said the central bank “remains resolute” and “will not waver” as it looks to bring inflation back to its 2% target. The Fed, however, did not raise short-term interest rates, nor did it give markets a clear sense that rate hikes were coming soon.

Instead, the press conference was “all hat, no cattle,” Bank of America analysts led by Aditya Bhave wrote in a note to clients. Bond markets are now questioning the Fed’s inflation-fighting resolve, he wrote, which could force Warsh into hiking rates at the Fed’s next meeting.

Why This Matters

Higher Treasury yields can translate into more expensive mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing, affecting consumers and investors alike.

“Ironically, we think the need to re-establish credibility increases the probability that the Fed will hike in September, all else equal,” wrote Bhave, who sees the Fed raising rates at each of its next three meetings this year.

Warsh was “barking loud but again providing no signs of bite” at his press conference, TD Securities analysts led by Oscar Munoz wrote.

In some ways, he wrote, that’s a consequence of Warsh’s aversion to giving markets hints about what the Fed will do in future meetings. Other Fed officials may “fill the gap in guidance” in the weeks ahead, Munoz wrote, including hawkish talk from the three Fed officials who voted for a rate hike on Wednesday.

But what is clear is that the bond market’s initial approval of Warsh’s inflation-fighting credentials ended at his “noncommittal press conference,” he wrote.

“The honeymoon period has ended with a bang as long-end rates have moved sharply higher amid a rebound in inflation expectations,” Munoz wrote.

Munoz sees the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged all year, though he noted that there’s “an increased risk of hikes starting in September” if the lower inflation figures from June prove to be a one-off.

Return of Bond Vigilantes?

Bond investors tend to drive up long-term interest rates when they see inflation ahead, since getting paid more interest over time shields them from rising prices.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, a key benchmark for mortgage rates and business borrowing, rose to 4.67% in mid-afternoon trading, up from 4.61% on Tuesday. The moves were more noticeable on even-longer bonds like the 30-year U.S. Treasury, whose yield rose above 5.21%, up from 5.09% on Tuesday.

The moves tack onto their already-sharp rise this year. The 10-year yield was below 4% before the Iran war’s energy shock.

It’s a sign that bond vigilantes are back, wrote Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, who coined the term in the 1980s. The idea centers on bond traders’ ability to protest inflation by driving up interest rates, which makes borrowing more expensive and thus slows the economy and inflation. 

“Once again, the Bond Vigilantes are pushing bond yields higher,” Yardeni wrote. “In effect, they are saying that if the Fed won’t be vigilant about inflation, then they will have to maintain law and order in the economy.”

The Fed “has to raise short-term rates to lower long-term rates” and quell those bond vigilantes, he wrote. 

No Hikes Needed?

Other analysts still see room for the Fed to do nothing on interest rates all year, since there are signs inflation will come down without Fed action.

Oil prices have risen again this month as the Iran war flares up again, but U.S. President Donald Trump will likely push for a deal to keep gas prices from rising sharply again ahead of the midterm elections, Knightley wrote. He also noted that housing prices, which make up a large chunk of inflation indices, aren’t rising much. 

The Fed will get plenty of relevant data between now and its mid-September meeting, he wrote, including two monthly reports on inflation and jobs growth. Weaker hiring could be yet another factor arguing against rate hikes, Knightley wrote.

“If we are right, and we do see further evidence of disinflation and cooler jobs data, then we expect to see the market pricing of rate hikes moderate,” he wrote.

Jonathan Millar, an economist at Barclays, also expects that cooler inflation trends will leave the Fed on hold all year. The risks are “skewed to the upside” if inflation disappoints and stays elevated, Millar wrote.

But one lesson from Wednesday may be that the “Warsh-led FOMC will be slower to react to adverse inflation developments than we had thought before.”

It’s the opposite of what some in markets were betting on ahead of the Fed meeting—that Warsh was so concerned about inflation that he’d surprise markets with a rate hike. This was “not the surprise markets had in mind,” he wrote.

The Service Targets High-Frequency Trading Firms

Trump Media says that markets move on Truth Social posts.
Credit: Photographer: Samuel Corum / Sipa / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Trump Media is rolling out Truth API, a service aimed at businesses that want to pay for faster access to social media posts on Truth Social.
• President Trump has the highest profile account on Truth Social with nearly 13 million followers, and he regularly posts information that would be highly valuable to investors who receive early access.

Trump Media wants to pull a page out of Flash Boys.

Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) plans to roll out Truth API on August 1, a service that promises businesses the “fastest access” to Truth Social’s “most influential accounts” for a fee. The company reportedly discussed charging as much as $100,000 a month for the service—a nod to the large sums high-frequency traders paid for a millisecond information advantage in Michael Lewis’s book.

President Donald Trump, who has the highest profile account on Truth Social, with nearly 13 million followers, routinely posts information that is of value to investors. With Truth API, a select group of high-paying customers stands to benefit even more from early access to the market-moving information.

In recent months Trump has posted about new developments in the Iran war, which is particularly important for buyers and sellers of futures contracts who are trying to ascertain where oil prices are headed. Over the past year, he has also posted about tariff policy, government investments in publicly traded companies, and other corporate news developments.

Why This Matters to You

President Trump regularly posts about policy matters that can have significant financial consequences, and the new service will enable deep-pocketed traders to gain a financial advantage that isn’t easily available for the average investor.

The idea would make sense for traders, according to Matt Tuttle of Tuttle Capital Management, known for its thematic ETFs, who said it reminded him of “the old days when you set up shop as close to an exchange as you could to be a millisecond ahead.” Tuttle said he is unlikely to buy preferred access, because he doesn’t trade.

Indeed, Trump Media has said there were early sign-ups for the service, which could prove lucrative to Trump Media and President Trump, who is a majority shareholder of the social media company’s parent company, raising conflicts-of-interest issues.

“This is completely unprecedented, at least since the 1950s and 1960s,” said Eric Petry, counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan, nonprofit law and public policy institute at New York University School of Law. “We haven’t been in the situation where a sitting president has such extensive business entanglements.”

Past presidents have avoided conflicts of interest via the honor system, according to Petry, placing their business interests in blind trusts so that they’re unable to see where their investments were in the stock market or in business ventures. “There is no requirement in the law preventing the president from having conflicts of interest,” Petry told Investopedia. “So much of our federal ethics system, at least with respect to the president, has been built on norms and customs.”

There are anti-corruption provisions in the U.S. Constitution that bar presidents from accepting financial benefits and gifts from foreign governments and state governments, but unless Saudi Arabia, for example, or state governments buy Truth API, the emoluments clauses wouldn’t necessarily come into play, Petry said.

In the release announcing the new API, Trump Media’s Interim CEO said: “Markets already move on Truth Social posts.” The API will deliver a “direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths,” he added, noting that it will be an important source of revenue for the company.

For Petry, the new API is the latest example of gaps in the U.S. federal ethics regime. “It raises questions about whether this administration is making decisions to profit themselves or making the economy work for Americans,” he said.

Trump Media did not respond to an Investopedia request for comment

Trump Media shares have risen slightly since the announcement of the new API two weeks ago, but the stock has lost more than 20% of its value since the start of the year.

Delta Air Lines and DraftKings are collaborating on a free-to-play “SkyPicks” contest
Credit: Delta Air Lines and DraftKings

Key Takeaways

• Delta and DraftKings have launched a free sports prediction game called SkyPicks for in-flight entertainment.
• SkyPicks allows Delta SkyMiles members aged 21 and older to make sports predictions.
• In-flight gambling remains illegal in the U.S., and the move has raised speculation about efforts to push for change.

In-flight gambling has been illegal on U.S. commercial aircraft for more than six decades. Delta Air Lines and DraftKings are collaborating nevertheless.

Delta (DAL) and DraftKings (DKNG) announced yesterday that they are teaming up for a “SkyPicks, a free-to-play sports knowledge contest” on the carrier’s flights. The news comes 18 months after Delta CEO Ed Bastian announced at CES 2025 that the two would be partnering but gave no details.

“Designed solely as an entertainment experience within Delta Sync Wi-Fi,” members of the airline’s SkyMiles program who are at least 21 can use their personal device to make sports predictions tied to real matchups. (SkyPicks launched Wednesday with MLB games, and NFL contests will follow once the season starts in early September.) Top scorers can win Delta gift cards—the values weren’t announced—and the carrier stressed that “no wagering, deposits, real money, miles, or currency” is involved, which would run afoul of the Gambling Devices Act of 1962.

“If inflight gambling were allowed on US carriers, it could become a very lucrative industry, so one can’t help but wonder if this is the first step toward trying to convince regulators to update those rules,” Ben Schlappig writes on his travel site One Mile at a Time, adding that he suspects “there’s a bit more going on here than meets the eye.”

Gary Leff from travel site View From the Wing wrote that “the smarter play for another airline might be to partner with a prediction market like Kalshi, which sells futures contracts (sports betting) but is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and isn’t gambling under federal law.” Leff adds that he’s “surprised we haven’t seen a renewed lobbying effort to legalize inflight gambling, because there’s simply so much money at stake—stakes that airlines are currently leaving on the table.”

Starbucks shares are now up nearly 30% since the start of the year.
Credit: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Starbucks raised its full-year forecasts for same-store sales growth and earnings per share, signaling confidence in its turnaround progress.

• The company’s same-store sales growth of 7.9% exceeded expectations, boosting investor optimism.

Shares of Starbucks are rising as investors buy into the company’s turnaround progress.

Starbucks (SBUX) said Wednesday that it earned an adjusted 85 cents per share, 20 cents ahead of estimates, on $9.32 billion in revenue. The topline figure was down 1% year-over-year but better than the $9.18 billion analyst consensus. The chain’s same-store sales growth also topped estimates at 7.9%, just over 2% better than analysts had forecast. 

Starbucks lifted its full-year forecasts for comparable-store sales growth to 6.5%, up from 5% previously, along with adjusted EPS of $2.55 to $2.65, up from the prior range of $2.25 to $2.45. 

William Blair analysts said they “expect investor enthusiasm to continue to ramp up as the margin recovery remains early and Starbucks is just starting to play offense after 18 months of a foundational reset.” Morgan Stanley analysts, lifting their price target to $115 from $111, said that Starbucks has “by now shown an effective ability to turn sales around.”

CEO Brian Niccol took over the coffee chain in late 2024 and introduced a “Back to Starbucks” turnaround plan that included changes such as speeding up the drink-making process and simplifying Starbucks’ menu. 

Meta was one of the worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Thursday.
Credit: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Meta’s stock dropped nearly 9% after quarterly earnings missed analysts’ expectations.
• Costs surged 55% as Meta invested heavily in AI and faced legal and severance charges.
• Meta’s shares are now about one-third below their highs from last year.

Meta’s stock is taking a hit after the social media giant posted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates. 

Shares of Meta (META) were down nearly 9% in morning trading, sliding after the company’s quarterly results added fuel to worries about its AI spending plans. 

The Facebook and Instagram parent yesterday posted second-quarter earnings per share of $6.18, below the $7.19 analysts had expected, despite a record $60.80 billion in revenue. Costs surged 55% as the company continues to invest heavily in AI infrastructure. Meta said it incurred $2.40 billion in charges tied to legal proceedings and $1.18 billion related to severance expenses after laying off 8,000 employees in May. 

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the results could be interpreted “as a solid indicator of the application of AI compute to the company’s core business but not quite the outsized positive returns that had been expected.”

“We still need greater clarity on the product pipeline & spending outlook,” wrote analysts at JPMorgan.  

Thursday’s slide leaves Meta shares about a third off their highs last year. 

Microsoft shares are down in 2026.
Credit: Matthias Balk / picture alliance via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Microsoft shares surged after its quarterly earnings exceeded expectations.

• Analysts praised Microsoft’s ability to balance revenue growth and profit margins amid AI investments.

Microsoft stock is surging after its latest earnings report eased investor fears about its AI spending and revenue growth.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) were up 15% in recent trading a day after the tech giant topped estimates with its quarterly earnings. The Windows software maker said Wednesday it earned an adjusted $4.74 per share in its fiscal fourth quarter on $90.01 billion in revenue, while analysts had expected $4.25 per share and $87.7 billion in revenue.

The company reported Intelligent Cloud revenue of $39.3 billion, about $1 billion above estimates, as revenue from Microsoft’s Azure segment and other cloud services rose 43%. Azure has become a key metric for Microsoft’s results as it can indicate the level of demand Microsoft is seeing for cloud computing services from fellow AI companies.

JPMorgan analysts said after the report that Microsoft’s results stand out among big tech companies in terms of its ability to balance revenue growth while managing profit margins.

Citi analysts called the report a “solid rebuttal to the bear case” for Microsoft, thanks to better-than-expected growth for two of Microsoft’s most important segments, Azure and Copilot.

Even with Thursday’s gains, Microsoft shares are still down since the start of the year.

GDP fell short of forecasters’ expectations and slowed down in the second quarter of 2026.
Credit: Kena Betancur / Bloomberg via Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• U.S. economic growth slowed to an annualized rate of 1.5% in the second quarter, down from the first quarter.
• The slower growth was driven by rising imports, particularly of computer equipment tied to the AI boom.
• High inflation and global conflicts, such as the war in Iran, continue to pose risks to the U.S. economy.

The U.S. economy tapped the brakes in the second quarter, surprising economists with unexpectedly slow growth.

The inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product grew at an annualized rate of 1.5% in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. That was a slowdown from 2.1% in the first quarter, and less than the 1.8% forecasters had expected, according to a survey of economists at Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The lackluster growth report showed the U.S. economy faces risks of a slowing expansion at the same time as it’s dealing with stubbornly high inflation that’s been exacerbated by the Iran war.

What This Means For The Economy

The overall growth rate of the economy fell short of expectations, but a surge of consumer spending suggested the core of the economy remained healthy.

However, the report’s details showed the picture was somewhat more encouraging for growth prospects later in the year.

Consumer spending, the main engine of the economy, rose at a 3.2% annualized rate, up from 0.5% in the first quarter. Much of the slow growth rate was due to rising imports, which subtract from GDP calculations, reflecting a spending spree on imported computer equipment driven by the AI investment boom.

“Overall, the report suggests the economy entered the third quarter with somewhat less momentum than previously thought,” Brian Therien, senior analyst at Edward Jones, wrote in a commentary. “However, the strength in consumer spending and business investment indicates that underlying demand remains resilient.”

The uptick in consumer spending suggested the economy is remaining resilient to the fuel price shocks caused by the Iran war, economists said.

“Growth slowed overall, but with some hopeful signs of some normalization in the consumer sector in particular,” Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, wrote in a commentary. “It’s still not an economy that is firing on all cylinders, but it’s starting to look like one that’s less reliant on business investment to carry the primary burden of growth on its back.”

Update July 30, 2026: This story has been updated after publication to include commentary from economists and more details from the GDP report. It was originally published on July 30, 2026.

A lull in the Iran war caused gasoline prices to fall in June and brought overall inflation down with it.
Credit: Matthew Hatcher / AFP via Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the PCE price index, rose 3.7% annually in June.
• Core PCE prices, which exclude food and energy, ticked down slightly at 3.3% annually, above the Fed’s 2% target.
• The inflation slowdown aligns with other data, such as the Consumer Price Index, which also showed cooling in June.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation cooled in June, as a lull in the Iran war caused gasoline prices to fall.

The cost of living as measured by Personal Consumption Expenditures rose 3.7% over 12 months in June, down from a 4.1% annual increase in May, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.

“Core” prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.3% annually, down slightly from 3.4% May and remaining well above the Fed’s 2% target. Both figures were in line with forecasters’ expectations, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

What This Means For The Economy

The inflation report largely matched expectations and came day too late to influence the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy decision. The next two reports on the PCE price index will heavily influence whether the Fed raises rates in September to quell inflation.

The deceleration of inflation echoed the trend in the government’s other major inflation gauge, the Consumer Price Index. That report was released earlier this month and also showed inflation cooling, at least temporarily, in June. However, fuel prices rose in July after fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere threatened oil supplies.

PCE prices are of particular significance to the Fed, which uses the core PCE price index as its benchmark for judging whether inflation is running at its 2% target, at least for the time being.

At a press conference Wednesday, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said the Fed would continue to focus on PCE for the time being, but that a task force was rethinking the way the Fed measures inflation.

Fed officials will likely closely watch PCE prices in the coming months when judging whether to raise the Fed’s benchmark interest rate to counteract inflation at the Federal Open Market Committee’s next meeting in September. June’s inflation reprieve gave the Fed breathing room to avoid a rate hike at its most recent meeting, but that relief may not last.

“The cooling in inflation pressures in June allowed the less hawkish members of the Federal Open Market Committee to argue for no change in the policy rate at yesterday’s policy meeting, but it could lead to a more hawkish call for higher rates in the coming months,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, wrote in a commentary.

The report also included data on income and spending, which highlighted the strain that higher prices are putting on household budgets. Income rose 0.2% from May, while spending rose 0.3%. The personal saving rate—the percentage of after-tax income left after spending—fell to 2.7%, a four-year low.

Update, July 30, 2026: This article has been updated to include economist commentary and information on income and spending. It was originally published July 30, 2026.

News of the day for July 30, 2026

The Dow dropped 1,150 points yesterday, its biggest one-day decline since the sell-off that followed the announcement of tariffs in April 2025.
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Stock futures are pointing to a higher open for major indexes after yesterday’s massive sell-off. ; the U.S. and Iran are trading strikes again as hopes for new peace talks have fallen apart; the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation is expected to show that price increases slowed last month; shares of Meta and Microsoft are making big moves after their latest earnings reports, just in opposite directions; and Apple and Amazon are set release their quarterly results after the closing bell. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Point Higher After Yesterday’s Sell-Off

Stock futures are gaining ground Thursday morning as markets look to bounce back from a big day of losses yesterday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.5% in recent trading, while futures tied to the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.7% and 1.4%, respectively. The Dow tumbled 1,150 points yesterday, its biggest one-day decline in 15 months, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also fell sharply. The losses accelerated yesterday after the Federal Reserve decided to leave its key interest rate unchanged but said it remains focused on taming inflation, an indication that rate hikes could be coming.

WTI oil futures were down 1% at around $83.50 per barrel as investors track developments in the Iran war, while gold futures rose 1% to $4,075 an ounce. Bitcoin was trading at $64,800, up from an overnight low of $63,300. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which influences rates on a variety of consumer loans, ticked higher to 4.69%, once again approaching its highest level since early last year.

US, Iran Trade Strikes Again as Deal Hopes Fall Apart

The U.S. military said Wednesday that it completed a “heavy wave of strikes” against dozens of targets in Iran after the country launched a surprise attack early in the day that led to several missiles being intercepted in Jordan, a U.S. ally that hosts American military personnel. Jordan said it downed more missiles this morning, while Kuwait said a strike in the country killed at least one person, per The Associated Press. The pickup in fighting dashed hopes from earlier in the week that a a new round of peace talks and a deal to end the war could come soon as it enters its sixth month. The renewed fighting this month has injected uncertainty into financial markets, sparking fresh concerns about the impact of high oil prices on inflation.

Fed’s Preferred Measure of Inflation Due This Morning

An inflation report that is closely followed by the Federal Reserve is set to be released this morning, one day after the central bank decided to stand pat on interest rates while making clear that it’s committed to bringing inflation down to its target level. The June Personal Consumption Expenditures index, due out at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show that prices rose 3.7% year-over-year in June, down from 4.1% in May, which would match the trend of other inflation readings that have shown slowing price growth as fuel prices fell in June. Core inflation, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, is expected to have been 3.3% in June, down from 3.4% in May. Inflation remains well above the Fed’s 2% target, and rising fuel prices in recent weeks as a result of the war threaten to spark higher inflation readings for July.

Microsoft, Meta Stocks Make Big Moves After Earnings

Two tech giants released earnings reports last night, and their stocks are mirror images of each other this morning. Meta Platforms (META) shares were down 10% premarket after the Facebook and Instagram parent’s earnings per share came in roughly $1 below Wall Street estimates at $6.18 owing to the costs associated with its AI infrastructure buildout, legal proceedings, and recent layoffs. Microsoft (MSFT) shares were up 10% after the company’s results topped estimates thanks to better-than-expected revenue growth from Microsoft Azure. Tech stocks have been under pressure lately as investors look for clear signs that massive investments in AI are paying off.

Apple, Amazon Set to Report Results Later Today

Big tech’s busy week of earnings rolls on tonight, with results from Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) due after the closing bell today. After Microsoft spent less than expected and saw its stock jump while Alphabet (GOOGL) lifted its spending forecast and shares tumbled, investors will be looking for updates to Amazon’s AI spending plans and the growth rate of Amazon Web Services. Apple, meanwhile, is reporting earnings for the last time with Tim Cook as CEO, as John Ternus is set to take over the top job in September. Focus will likely be on the iPhone giant’s recent price increases for several of its products and its annual fall launch event, which could include the first foldable iPhone. Amazon shares were up 3% ahead of the opening bell, while Apple stock, which hit a record high this week, was down less than 1%.