Wall Street ends mixed as investors await major tech earnings

U.S. Equities closed mixed on Monday, July 27, 2026, as traders positioned themselves for a heavy slate of quarterly earnings from major technology companies while keeping a nervous eye on oil prices and potential interest rate moves.

Mixed market action across sectors

The S&P 500 edged up 0.02% to end the session at 7,413.18 points, aided by gains in retail and healthcare stalwarts. Walmart rose 2.1%, Microsoft added 1.9%, and Johnson & Johnson rose 1%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.51% to finish at 52,210.08 points. Technology stocks faced a tougher session. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.18% to 24,932.08 points, and the PHLX chip index fell 2.2%. Despite the latest pullback, the chip index remains up 63% in 2026, though it sits 21% below its record high close achieved on June 22, 2026.

Across the S&P 500, seven of the 11 sector indexes advanced. Consumer staples led the pack with a 1.58% increase, followed by a 1.25% gain in information technology. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1.9 to one, though overall trading volume remained light at 15.8 billion shares compared to an average of 18.2 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

"Today represents a continuation of the rotational market that we've seen,"

Bill Merz, head of capital markets research and portfolio construction at U.S. Bank Asset Management Group, via Reuters

Merz noted that market jitters were also tied to a "creeping suspicion that perhaps a rate hike is coming." According to the CME FedWatch tool, traders project a 62% probability that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged, alongside a 38% chance of a 25-basis-point increase.

AI-driven earnings and Alphabet's financials

Wall Street entered the week wrestling with whether a multi-year rally fueled by artificial intelligence optimism might be losing steam. Those concerns were stoked last week by heavy spending disclosures from Tesla and Alphabet.

Alphabet's second-quarter financial disclosures revealed a net profit margin exceeding 90%, though that figure was largely driven by unrealized gains from early equity investments, including Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), rather than pure business operations alone. While compliant with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the nonoperating gains inflated net income to $112.1 billion on $119.8 billion in revenue. By contrast, Alphabet's operating income—reflecting core business earnings—rose 30% year over year to $40.8 billion. Analysts point out that using the headline net income figure creates a price-to-earnings ratio of 16, which can make the stock appear more undervalued than underlying operations suggest. At the same time, Google Cloud continued to scale rapidly, posting an 82% year-over-year revenue jump and accounting for more than 20% of total sales.

Global chip competition

Competitive pressures on U.S. Semiconductor firms intensified on Monday. Chinese chipmaker CXMT Corp completed a stellar market debut, and separate reports indicated that China has begun manufacturing homegrown deep-ultraviolet (DUV) chipmaking tools.

Oil prices and geopolitics

Crude oil tumbled to a one-week low following geopolitical developments in the Middle East. President Donald Trump announced that Washington was holding "good talks" with Iran, suggesting a chance of a peace deal, while warning that U.S. Strikes would resume if negotiations fail. The administration had abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of airstrikes on the preceding Saturday. Brent crude futures slid 8% to about $89 a barrel, retreating after a surge past $100 a barrel late last week driven by new shipping strikes. The drop in oil prices weighed on energy shares, with Occidental Petroleum falling 4.1% and Exxon Mobil closing down 1.4%.

Key earnings and economic data on the horizon

Major technology firms including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple are scheduled to report quarterly results this week. Analysts surveyed by LSEG I/B/E/S anticipate that aggregate second-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 will jump 39% from a year ago, with AI-related stocks driving much of that growth. The S&P 500 currently trades at roughly 20 times expected earnings, matching its 10-year average according to LSEG data.

Event	Timing	Significance
Federal Reserve policy decision	Wednesday	Traders project a 62% chance of a rate pause and a 38% chance of a 25-basis-point hike
Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index	Thursday (day after Fed decision)	Key inflation gauge shaping rate expectations for later in the year
Major tech earnings	This week	Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple reporting quarterly results