The Wire
Kospi fell 5.72% today. Chinese financial media says the selloff crossed into China and the US too. (July 24, 2026)
Kospi fell 5.72% Friday as Middle East tension pushed oil above $100 a barrel and traders priced in a real chance the Fed raises rates instead of cutting them. A Chinese financial outlet says Korea's leverage ETF unwind is now dragging Chinese and US chip stocks down with it.
Every Friday this month has been different, and the trend says today should be green (July 24, 2026)
Futures are pointing modestly higher Friday morning after Thursday's brutal tech selloff, even with oil crossing $100 a barrel on Middle East tensions and Korea's Kospi and Kosdaq getting crushed overnight. This is what actually happened, and what we're watching before the close.
Intel (INTC) just reported the earnings I called the real catalyst. Revenue grew 25%, and the company posted an $11 billion loss.
Intel beat revenue and EPS estimates by a wide margin, but a CHIPS Act accounting charge turned the quarter into an $11 billion GAAP loss. Here is what the numbers actually mean, and why I am still holding the stock.
SK Hynix (SKHY) reports July 29, and it will most likely be the best quarter the company has ever had
SK Hynix (SKHY) reports second quarter earnings on July 29, and analysts think it will most likely be the best quarter in company history. Profit is expected to be almost six times what it was a year ago, with a profit margin that would be a new record. The demand is coming from artificial intelligence, and it now reaches more than just one kind of chip.
Cybersecurity keeps pulling in money. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) trades at 291 times earnings.
Cybersecurity spending looks as durable as anything in this market, and a wave of M&A backs it up: three public companies gone in a year, the biggest a $25 billion Palo Alto Networks deal for CyberArk. But Palo Alto itself trades at 291 times earnings and CrowdStrike's price-to-earnings ratio is negative. Here's the market-cap breakdown of the 21 stocks left standing, and why the category and the stocks aren't the same bet.
All seven Magnificent Seven stocks fell today. Here's where that money actually went (July 23, 2026)
All seven Magnificent Seven stocks were red by late morning Thursday, led by Tesla's 14% drop on an earnings miss and Alphabet's close-to-7% slide despite beating estimates, on another capex raise. Amazon and Meta sold off too ahead of next week's reports. The money didn't just leave, it rotated: into defense on Lockheed's earnings beat, and out of quantum, SaaS and space.
Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL) are falling hard. The rest of the AI trade isn't (July 23, 2026)
Tesla and Alphabet kept falling through Thursday morning even as chipmakers, neoclouds and photonics stocks held up fine. Oil topped $100 a barrel after Trump threatened to bomb Iranian infrastructure over any new attack on shipping.
Kospi rose 4.4% today. Alphabet's (GOOG) bigger spending plan is why. (July 23, 2026)
Kospi rose 4.4% Thursday, its third straight day of gains and its first close back above 7,000 in five trading days. Alphabet raised its own AI spending plans, easing fears that Korea's memory chip demand was peaking, and foreign investors piled into SK Hynix in particular.
Nokia (NOK) spiked almost 9% on earnings, then reversed. AI and cloud sales doubled, but reported profit fell to a loss
Nokia's Q2 2026 net sales rose 8% and AI and cloud sales more than doubled, but reported operating profit swung to a loss and reported EPS hit exactly zero, on accelerated restructuring charges. NOK spiked as high as $11.17 in early trading before reversing back near Wednesday's close.
Hedge fund Millennium disclosed a new 5.2% stake in Ameresco (AMRC) the week the stock hit its lowest point of 2026
Millennium Management's fresh 5.2% stake in clean-energy developer Ameresco (AMRC), worth about $42.5 million, was disclosed the same week the stock touched its lowest weekly close of 2026. The company is also building a still-early data center power business, including a partnership with CyrusOne.
The House passed a $1.15 trillion defense bill. I think Lockheed Martin (LMT) is due for a bounce, and tomorrow's earnings are the real test.
The House passed a $1.15 trillion defense authorization bill Wednesday and defense stocks rallied, but not evenly. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are still down 25% to 30% from their 2026 highs, RTX and General Dynamics already recovered, and Lockheed reports earnings Thursday morning.
Alphabet (GOOGL) raised AI capex to $205 billion, its third hike this year. Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) barely moved after hours
Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to $195-205 billion during Wednesday's call, its third increase this year, and GOOGL fell as much as 5% in extended trading. But the chip and power stocks that are supposed to benefit from that spending, Nvidia, Broadcom, TSMC, Micron, Vistra and Constellation, barely moved.
Korean overdraft debt grows 4.5 times faster on Kospi crash days than rally days
A Seoul Economic Daily analysis of five major Korean banks found overdraft account balances grew 4.5 times faster on days Kospi fell than on days it rose, as retail investors borrowed to buy the dip during this summer's volatility.
Alphabet (GOOGL): cloud growth hits 82%, and its AI spending just doubled
Alphabet's Q2 2026 results answered the question this earnings week was supposed to settle. Google Cloud grew 82%, capital spending on AI infrastructure more than doubled to $44.9 billion for the quarter, and the reported 298% profit jump comes with an asterisk worth reading before you believe it.
IBM earnings are tonight. The stock crashed 25% and the government is betting $1 billion on its quantum future (July 22, 2026)
Down 38 percent in seven weeks, still falling into tonight's call, with a government-backed quantum business nobody is talking about.
GE Vernova (GEV) raised its cash forecast by $5 billion and fell 8% (July 22, 2026)
GE Vernova raised its 2026 revenue and free cash flow forecasts and reported an 88% jump in orders, but earnings missed and the wind unit's losses widened. The stock fell about 8%.
Senator Jerry Moran bought Berkshire Hathaway for the third time since May, then bought back Google 11% below where he'd sold it a month earlier
Sen. Jerry Moran's July 21 disclosure shows he bought Berkshire Hathaway on June 23, his third purchase of the stock since late May, and bought back Alphabet the same day, about 11% below the price he'd sold it at a month earlier. Here's what the filing shows and how both stocks have moved since, hours before Alphabet's own Q2 earnings report.
Super Micro's (SMCI) revenue landed at the low end of guidance. The stock is up 25% anyway (July 22, 2026)
Super Micro Computer's preliminary Q4 update showed more than $60 billion of new orders and gross margin guidance that nearly doubled, but revenue landed at the low end of its own range. The stock is up about 25% anyway.
I let Claude AI trade $100 on Robinhood, week 5: it passed on CleanSpark (CLSK) near its low, then bought it at the highs
Two weeks ago, with CleanSpark (CLSK) around $12.65, Claude AI called it a falling knife and passed, buying MSTR instead, which lost money. Then CleanSpark landed a $6.6 billion AI data center lease. This morning Claude AI finally bought CLSK, at $15.53, about 23% above where it passed.
Nasdaq-100 futures sank close to 1% Wednesday morning. Stocks clawed almost all of it back by mid-morning (July 22, 2026)
Nasdaq-100 futures fell close to 1% Wednesday morning on an Iran oil spike, new tariffs and chip-stock fear. Stocks opened lower too, but climbed steadily through the first half hour of trading and were back to nearly flat by mid-morning.
Korea's SK Hynix opened up almost 9% on a global chip rally. It closed the day lower.
Korea's SK Hynix opened up almost 9% on a global chip rally, then closed down 0.33%. Kospi gave back most of a 6.20% intraday gain, closing up just 0.74% after triggering its second buy-side sidecar in two trading days.
Oklo (OKLO) and X-Energy (XE) rallied Tuesday. After the bell, a Trump nuclear-for-AI report sent them higher again (July 21, 2026)
Oklo (OKLO) closed up about 6% Tuesday and X-Energy (XE) about 7%, then both extended those gains after the bell. Bloomberg reports the two nuclear reactor developers are joining Microsoft and Nvidia in a near-$200 million Trump administration effort to speed power plant construction for AI data centers.
SK Hynix (SKHY) denies it is buying Intel's (INTC) Ohio chip campus, hours after the report lifted its stock
SK Hynix was reported to be in talks to buy Intel's unfinished Ohio chip campus. Hours later, SK Hynix formally denied the report in a Korea Exchange filing.
Kosdaq's trading value hit an 11-month low. Kospi's rally on record chip exports didn't change that.
Kosdaq's trading value fell to 4.83 trillion won on July 20, the lowest in about 11 months and down 54.9% in a single month, despite Kospi's 3.56% rise on record chip exports the next day.