News Bulletin
Thursday, July 09, 2026
Evening Edition

Economic Numbers:

Time	Event	Actual	Forecast	Previous
Thursday, July 9, 2026
8:30	Initial Jobless Claims	215K	218K	217K
8:30	Continuing Jobless Claims	1,814K	1,820K	1,806K
10:00	Existing Home Sales (Jun)	4.09M	4.19M	4.19M
10:00	Existing Home Sales (MoM) (Jun)	-2.40%		3.70%
13:01	30-Year Bond Auction	5.06%		5.05%

Indices

	CLOSE	50 DMA	200 DMA
DJIA	52,487.41	50,827.43	48,575.51
NASDAQ	26,206.89	26,015.89	23,774.13
S&P 500	7,543.64	7,438.50	6,968.60

Earnings Calendar:

(EPS: Earning Per Share / Rev: Revenue / Mkt Cap: market Capital/ BMO: Before Market Opening /AMC: After Market Close)

COMPANY	EPS Act	EPS Fore	Rev Act	Rev Fore	Mkt Cap	Time
PepsiCoPEP:US	2.2	2.23	24.18	24.01B	$217.69B	AM
ProgressivePGR:US		3.81		21.69B	$117.86B
CintasCTAS:US		1.23		2.87B	$71.37B	AM
PriceSmartPSMT:US		1.3		1.42B	$5.86B	PM
AZZAZZ:US		-		-	$4.37B
WD-40WDFC:US		1.55		164.8M	$3.04B	PM
Washington FederalWAFD:US		0.76		191.74M	$2.88B

Market News:

Wall Street ended in the green on Thursday, as chip stocks extended a rebound amid several developments across the tech sector. Meanwhile, oil prices slipped as President Donald Trump said Iran had contacted Washington to say they wanted to make a deal after the U.S. launched fresh strikes against the country.

The benchmark S&P 500 index advanced 0.8% to close at 7,541.83 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite surged 1.3% to settle at 26,206.89 points, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3% to conclude at 52,487.44 points.

"As we approach the second quarter earnings season, investors remain focused on artificial intelligence related spending and seem to have a very short attention span when it comes to politics and geopolitical disturbances," Oliver Pursche, senior vice president at Wealthspire Advisors, told Investing.com.

"However, there are increasing headwinds that market participants will have to deal with eventually. Renewed inflationary pressures due to rising oil prices, hints of a more cautious consumer and continued fragility in the labor market could structurally alter growth expectations," he said.

"So far, equity markets have acted rationally and reflect a strong growth environment driven by AI-related spending. That spending has offset geopolitical headwinds. The trillion-dollar question is -- is it sustainable or will the dam break?" Pursche added.

After sliding nearly 14% over four sessions, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index -- a key barometer for chip stocks -- rebounded more than 5% over Wednesday and Thursday. Semiconductor and memory names dominated the top percentage gainers on the Nasdaq at the close of trading, led by Arm, Sandisk, and Lam Research.

A furious rally in chip names earlier this year buoyed the artificial intelligence trade, helping U.S. markets shake off the Middle East conflict and return to record levels. But a bout of profit-taking in the space since mid-June, along with concerns that the AI trade had flown too high and too fast, has weighed on the tech sector.

There were several notable headlines in tech on Thursday, highlighted by a Reuters report that Meta Platforms was looking to start production of a custom AI chip in September and was planning to double its computing power to 14 gigawatts next year, citing an internal memo.

Also driving enthusiasm was SK Hynix’s highly-anticipated U.S. listing, with reports suggesting that the offer will be more than seven times oversubscribed.

South Korea’s second-largest company is expected to price its offering at $149 per U.S.-listed share, according to Bloomberg and Reuters, which would represent a premium of about 3.1% over the Korean-listed stock’s closing price. At that price, the offering would raise north of $26 billion, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion IPO in 2019 and trailing only SpaceX’s $85.7 billion offering last month.

SK Hynix, larger rival Samsung Electronics, and U.S. company Micron are the biggest manufacturers of conventional and high-performance memory processing used in computers and AI chips. Soaring demand for the latter in particular has led to a supply crunch and surging prices for memory and for computing power. Global memory monthly sales reached a record $74.6 billion, according to UBS’s July Memory Monthly report.

OpenAI top boss Sam Altman on Thursday told CNBC that the soaring costs of memory and compute were throwing a wrench into the AI startup’s rapid expansion and were "definitely a headwind."

Micron grabbed some attention as well on Thursday, announcing that it would increase its planned U.S. investment to more than $250 billion through 2035, and separately committing up to $3 billion to strengthen the domestic semiconductor supply chain. Micron stock settled 4.5% higher.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg News reported that the world’s largest coffee chain, Starbucks, was developing in-house software using artificial intelligence that could replace applications it currently buys from outside vendors such as Microsoft and IBM, citing an internal presentation. The news had initially hit software names in pre-market trading, but they concluded higher in the regular session, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF climbing 1.7%.

Trump says Iran wants to make a deal after more U.S. strikes

Turning to the Middle East, the geopolitical risk premium resurfaced sharply in the prior session after the biggest escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran since the two sides inked an interim peace deal last month.

In retaliation for attacks on three commercial oil tankers, the U.S. military over Tuesday and Wednesday launched strikes at approximately 170 targets in Iran, including air defense systems, missile and drone storage sites, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats. Iranian armed forces responded by striking U.S. bases in the region, according to state media.

President Trump at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Türkiye ramped up his rhetoric against Iran, saying that a ceasefire between the two was "over" and that he didn’t want to deal with them anymore. The U.S. leader addressed reporters on Air Force One after departing the summit on Wednesday and said the fresh strikes were "retribution" for the attacks on the ships.

"I say we hit them 20-to-1 — every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20... When they hit, we hit back much harder," Trump said.

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