News Bulletin
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Evening Edition

Economic Numbers:

Time	Event	Actual	Forecast	Previous
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
8:30	PPI (MoM) (Jun)	-0.30%	0.00%	0.60%
8:30	Core PPI (MoM) (Jun)	0.20%	0.30%	0.10%
8:30	NY Empire State Manufacturing Index (Jul)	15.60	9.30	5.70
10:30	Crude Oil Inventories	-1.692M	-1.800M	2.998M
10:30	Cushing Crude Oil Inventories	0.430M		-0.052M

Indices

	CLOSE	50 DMA	200 DMA
DJIA	52,658.64	51,090.60	48,703.36
NASDAQ	26,269.23	26,119.26	23,845.47
S&P 500	7,572.40	7,454.11	6,978.46

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
J&JJNJ:US	2.9	2.85	25.31B	24.96B	$607.12B	AM
Morgan StanleyMS:US	3.46	2.76	21.3B	19.09B	$370.14B	AM
BlackRockBLK:US	13.91	12.55	7.08B	6.7B	$170.54B	AM
ProgressivePGR:US	5.67	3.81	21.57B	21.69B	$123.17B	AM
Bank Of New York MellonBK:US	--	--	--	--	$115.26B
PNCPNC:US	4.85	4.34	6.88B	6.44B	$101.43B	AM
Elevance HealthANTM:US	7.45	6.19	49.8B	48.8B	$90.80B	AM
CintasCTAS:US	1.29	1.24	2.91B	2.87B	$79.20B	AM
M&T BankMTB:US	5.35	4.65	2.53B	2.46B	$41.10B	AM
United Airlines HoldingsUAL:US	1.7	6	17.5	8B	$39.48B	PM
J. B. HuntJBHT:US	1.7	0	3.19	B	$28.63B	PM
First Horizon NationalFHN:US	0.54	0.53	887M8	83.89M	$13.18B	AM
Conagra FoodsCAG:US	0.47	0.46	2.9B2	.89B	$6.74B	AM
Home BancsharesHOMB:US	0.6	1	290	26M	$5.91B	PM
WinmarkWINA:US	2.81	3.14	21.97M	21.67M	$1.33B	PM

Market News:

Wall Street on Wednesday ended higher in a choppy session, as positive U.S. producer inflation data and an advance in nearly every member of the Magnificent Seven club outweighed weakness in chip stocks and elevated U.S.-Iran tensions.

Economic data in the morning showed a moderation in headline producer inflation a day after a similar print for headline consumer prices. Traders reacted by paring their expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Market participants were also focusing on a strong start to the corporate earnings season in what could be a key test of whether corporate profitability can help Wall Street return to record levels despite brewing geopolitical risks.

The benchmark S&P 500 index climbed 0.4% to close at 7,571.01 points, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite added 0.6% to settle at 26,269.23 points. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to conclude at 52,658.52 points.

ASML’s blowout quarter not enough to quell AI-related concerns

While the geopolitical risk premium has resurfaced this month, investors have kept their focus on the high-flying artificial intelligence trade, which earlier this year played a key role in helping Wall Street shake off the Middle East conflict and return to record levels. However, a bout of profit-taking has hit the AI trade since last month, amid rising concerns over massive capital sending on the technology and soaring prices for products such as memory chips that power AI processing.

A notable development on Tuesday was a staggering 25% single-day crash in shares of IBM. The legacy tech firm unveiled preliminary quarterly revenue that fell short of the consensus, largely due to an unexpected, aggressive reprioritization of enterprise IT budgets toward hardware infrastructure. IBM noted that in the final weeks of June, clients abruptly redirected their quarterly capex away from traditional software and mainframe cycles to pile cash into servers, storage, and memory.

Stellar quarterly results and guidance from Dutch lithography giant ASML on Wednesday initially lifted the mood, but that momentum petered out, with the company’s Euronext-listed shares wiping out gains of as much as 7.9% to close slightly lower.

"Tech can’t seem to win – blow-outs aren’t sparking rallies (ASML on Wednesday and Samsung’s preliminary Q2 results last week) and blow-ups are getting crushed (IBM). Go back to Micron in June – the stock is down ~25% since hitting a high (on 6/25) after blow-out financial performance," Vital Knowledge’s Adam Crisafulli said.

"One of the more ominous parts of the IBM update was the company’s claim that CTOs are accelerating data center hardware purchases to front run inflation – this suggests the current order rate is being inflated and could suffer a nasty hangover at some point in the next few quarters (of course, IBM might just be making excuses to justify why it only grew revenue by 1% in Q2)," he added.

Against this backdrop, quarterly results from AI leaders such as the Magnificent Seven companies and chipmakers will be closely perused this earnings season. A strong performance could be the catalyst to send Wall Street back to record levels. The S&P is currently XX% below its most recent record close.

"We believe there is more upside ahead in stocks, and expect the S&P 500 to reach 7,900 by year-end," Charlie Anderson, senior vice president at UBS Wealth Management, said.

"The drivers of the path forward are likely to change, as the environment has shifted and has a renewed focus on cash flow, earnings and company specific execution, rather than multiple expansion and broader AI enthusiasm, which drove stocks higher in the first half of 2026. The drivers of the market’s next leg higher are very important from a stock selection point of view," he said.

"Strong earnings can continue to propel stocks higher but the bar is getting higher. Simply beating estimates isn’t good enough anymore; companies increasingly have to beat and raise. Investors have rewarded companies delivering genuine earnings growth, particularly those benefiting from AI and digital infrastructure spending. As valuations move higher, fundamentals become increasingly important," Anderson added.

New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on Wednesday made several comments about AI in his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.

"The shock of AI, the supply shock of AI, has an effect on demand and supply ... We see the effect on demand much more quickly ... We see it in the prices of chips that are going up," he said.

"Will it increase measured prices over the course of the next 12 months? I suspect it will be. Whether that’s inflationary or not, that’s up to the Federal Reserve, and we’re going to have something to say about that," Warsh added.

Headline producer prices see first monthly fall in nearly a year

Speaking of inflation, U.S. headline producer prices in June posted their first one-month decrease since August 2025, mainly on the back of a slide in prices for final demand energy goods.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the headline U.S. producer price index (PPI) fell 0.3% M/M in June, while the core PPI rose 0.2% M/M. Economists had expected a flat reading for the headline number and a 0.3% rise for core. In May, headline PPI had risen 0.6% and core 0.1%.

On a Y/Y basis, the headline PPI ticked up 5.5% and core advanced 4.7%, lower than consensus figures of 6.2% and 5.2%, respectively. In May, headline PPI had advanced 6.0% and core 4.6%.

The moderation in the headline PPI was driven by the biggest one-month decline in the index for final demand goods since July 2022. The latter was helped by a 6.4% M/M drop in prices for final demand energy goods, the largest monthly fall since December 2022.

U.S. energy price pressures were widely expected to have eased in June coming into the PPI and Tuesday’s consumer price index (CPI) reports, after global oil prices slumped. But inflation dynamics have rapidly shifted this month, amid the biggest escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran since they inked an interim peace deal.

Still, the June data gives the Fed some breathing room in terms of not having to immediately hike interest rates. As per the CME FedWatch tool, the odds of a quarter-point rate hike at the central bank’s monetary policy committee meeting at the end of this month has slipped to about 10%.

"The Fed will likely see June’s cool inflation as a justification for holding interest rates steady at the decision near the end of this month. Even so, it’s hard to feel too excited about last month’s drop in producer prices, which largely reflected lower energy prices—prices which rebounded in the first half of July as energy traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed," Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said.

U.S. ramps up Iran strikes, Trump threatens power plants and bridges

On the topic of strait, the situation in the Middle East continued to escalate. The U.S. ramped up its attacks against Iran, launching two rounds of strikes on Wednesday. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump was considering expanding military operations in the country, including deploying ground forces near the vital waterway.

Trump also issued harsh rhetoric against Iran. On Tuesday he said: "We’re going to knock out all their power plants, we’re going to knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the table and negotiate."

The U.S. president on Wednesday was asked whether he would give Iran a deadline before attacking bridges, to which he said: "I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know — they know the story. They better behave."

Oil prices ticked up more than 1%, extending their big weekly gains. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were last up 1.3% to $85.85 a barrel, and had soared nearly 13% for the week.

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