Business Trends
U.S. manufacturing is being reshaped by AI infrastructure, grid investment, defense replenishment and industrial automation. The strongest signals are appearing in companies supplying the physical equipment and infrastructure required to turn record capital spending into operating capacity.
Macro
War in Iran, tariffs, persistent inflation and elevated interest rates are creating pressure across markets, while AI investment and a divided U.S. economy complicate the outlook for investors.
Business Trends
Meta faces a potentially far-reaching child-safety trial while surging AI investment squeezes free cash flow, adding legal and financial uncertainty to a stock already down 17% in 2026.
Earnings
Deere returned to year-over-year profit growth for the first time in roughly three years, powered by construction and smaller equipment businesses. DE stock rallied as stronger earnings and improved guidance outweighed continued weakness in large agricultural machinery.
Earnings
Walmart beat second-quarter revenue and earnings expectations and raised its full-year outlook, but WMT stock fell sharply as U.S. comparable sales slowed, third-quarter guidance disappointed, and investors looked past tariff-refund benefits to softer underlying growth.
Innovation & Tech
Waymo is deploying a custom autonomous-driving chip capable of more than 1,000 trillion operations per second, expanding Alphabet’s control over its robotaxi technology while continuing to work with major semiconductor partners including Nvidia, AMD and TSMC.
Price Action
SpaceX shares dropped about 6% and slipped below their $135 IPO price as 319 million shares became eligible to trade and Elon Musk pushed back the expected timing of a key Starship recovery milestone.
Earnings
Webull’s record Q2 revenue and sharp profit expansion were powered by surging equity and options activity. The removal of the Pattern Day Trader rule helped lift engagement, while customer assets climbed 79% and operating margins expanded.
Business Trends
Apple shares advanced after the company simplified its EU App Store terms, easing a long-running regulatory dispute. Corning moved the other way as Apple’s canceled all-glass iPhone continued to weigh on expectations for a future specialty-glass opportunity.
Earnings
TJX delivered 4% comparable-sales growth, stronger margins and a higher full-year profit forecast, but weakness at its largest division and softer near-term guidance pushed the stock lower.
Innovation & Tech
Google is expanding its custom AI silicon partnership with Marvell, giving the chipmaker a path to significant long-term revenue and Google a potential $12.2 billion stake. Marvell shares jumped while Broadcom fell as investors assessed the changing supplier mix.
Earnings
Target delivered another quarter of sales and traffic growth as merchandise changes, lower prices and stronger digital demand gained traction. A tariff refund boosted headline earnings, but underlying margins and profit guidance also improved.