A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY.
Here's a full recap:1. SK Hynix $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) reported Q2’26 revenue of $54.6B vs $57.7B expected, up 257% YoY and 51% QoQ, while operating profit came in at $41.6B vs $44.2B expected, up 557% YoY. Operating margin hit a record 76%, with gross margin at 83% and EBITDA of $44.4B, or an 81% margin. Pricing remained extremely strong, with DRAM ASP up ~30% QoQ and NAND ASP up mid-50% QoQ, while Q3 guidance calls for DRAM bit growth of about 10% QoQ and NAND bit growth in the low-single digits. SK Hynix also said HBM4 shipments began in Q2 with a full ramp planned in 2H, while HBM4E samples were supplied to a major customer in 1H. Net profit surged to $64.6B, boosted by $43.5B of investment-asset gains, meaning net income exceeded revenue due to $42.8B of non-operating profit.2. The Trump administration is proposing a change that would allow the FAA to waive certain environmental review requirements for commercial launch sites, rocket launches, and spacecraft reentries, according to WSJ. The move could speed up approvals as annual launches and reentries are expected to rise from 214 this fiscal year to more than 500 over the next decade. SpaceX $SpaceX(SPCX.US), Rocket Lab $Rocket Lab(RKLB.US), Blue Origin, and Stoke Space could benefit, though the proposal still has to go through public comment.3. U.S. Central Command said IRGC forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran today in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East. CENTCOM said all Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted and that U.S. forces remain on high alert and ready to respond. Oil was up 5% after hours on the news even though it went down 4% today on earlier reports that Egypt, Qatar, and Pakistan were working to bring back the original MOU between the US and Iran. No updates on that original MOU coming back are in place yet, but the attacks after hours showcased further escalation. 4. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) with 2.4M contracts, $Tesla(TSLA.US) with 1.7M contracts, $Apple(AAPL.US) with 1.0M contracts, $Intel(INTC.US) with 820K contracts, $SpaceX(SPCX.US) with 750K contracts, $Micron Tech(MU.US) with 737K contracts, $AMD(AMD.US) with 573K contracts, $SoFi Tech(SOFI.US) with 558K contracts, $Amazon(AMZN.US) with 495K contracts, and $Palantir Tech(PLTR.US) with 461K contracts.5. Nvidia $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) CEO Jensen Huang reportedly met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as Nvidia faces growing scrutiny over China chip exports, per Axios. The meeting comes while the Commerce Department investigates potential violations tied to Nvidia’s Blackwell shipments to China, though the details of their discussion were not disclosed. Huang is also meeting with lawmakers from both parties as Washington prepares a broader AI framework covering advanced models, open-source AI, and China, expected by August 1.6. OpenAI and Anthropic are reportedly lobbying the Trump administration ahead of an August 1 deadline for deciding which frontier AI models should face government evaluation, per The Information. The companies want rival models from players like Meta $Meta Platforms(META.US) and SpaceXAI included as well. Qualifying models could be subject to review at least 30 days before release if they raise cybersecurity or national-security concerns. OpenAI and Anthropic are also warning about Chinese open-source models allegedly built in part using their outputs, citing privacy, IP theft, and cybersecurity risks.7. Moonshot AI is reportedly looking for more Nvidia $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) Blackwell chips as it discusses Kimi K4, a model expected to be significantly larger than its 2.8T-parameter Kimi K3, per The Information. K3 was reportedly trained partly in China using Blackwell chips accessed through multiple Chinese cloud providers, with Moonshot linking separate 8-chip servers across providers and data centers because no single provider had enough capacity. Inference is now another constraint, with Moonshot pausing new subscriptions within 48 hours of launch as demand overwhelmed capacity. The company reportedly uses Nvidia H20 chips for inference and recommends at least 64 chips to host K3. The report also says Alibaba trained its 2.4T-parameter Qwen3.8-Max using Nvidia chips, including Blackwell.8. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said a compute oversupply could emerge within 2 years if AI models become efficient enough to handle most tasks while human attention becomes the real bottleneck. He also said oversupply risk could rise if the industry hits a scaling wall and costs stop falling, making additional compute less economically attractive.9. Bloom Energy $Bloom Energy(BE.US) crushed Q2’26 earnings, with revenue rising 166% YoY to $1.07B vs $827.6M expected and adjusted EPS jumping 680% YoY to $0.78 vs $0.41 expected. Product revenue surged 215.4% YoY to $935.4M, while adjusted gross margin expanded 604 bps to 34.3%. Bloom also raised FY26 guidance, now expecting revenue of $3.9B–$4.2B vs $3.73B expected and adjusted EPS of $2.55–$2.85 vs $2.16 expected. Management said all major U.S. hyperscalers, plus over a dozen neoclouds, AI labs, and data center operators, have approved Bloom’s power solutions for AI factories, calling Bloom a new standard for AI onsite power.10. ADP data shows U.S. private hiring has slowed for the fifth straight week, averaging just 15,000 jobs per week through July 11, less than half the 35,750 weekly pace seen in early May. At the same time, Visa $Visa(V.US) is reportedly cutting 7% of its workforce, or about 2,600 jobs, adding to signs that labor-market momentum is cooling.11. Retail investors are leaning heavily into Big Tech upside, with call options on U.S. Big Tech stocks now making up roughly 55% of all new retail options positions on a 20-day average basis, near the highest level on record. This tracks newly opened call positions, not total volume, making it a clearer read on directional retail bets. The figure is up 10 percentage points since the late-March market bottom, compared with a 57% peak during the 2020 pandemic rebound and a 35% low during the 2022 bear market.12. Every component in the semiconductor index $SOX is now trading below its 50-day moving average for the first time since April 2025, a sharp reversal from early June when all 30 members were above that level. The SOX is down 18.9% so far in July, putting it on pace for its worst monthly decline since 2008, and now trades 11% below its 50-day moving average, the widest gap since March 30. Despite the pullback, semis remain up 63% YTD. Meanwhile, the semiconductor ETF $SMH has seen $1.3B of outflows month-to-date, tracking toward its second-largest monthly outflow on record.WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.Source: amit
