☕️ [Task Coins Giveaway] Daily Market Talk — Intel Soars as Big Tech Sheds $800B, Oil Breaks $100

It was the wildest night of earnings season. After the close Intel (INTC) roared back, jumping about 12% on its fastest revenue growth since 2011, but the rest of Big Tech went the other way: Tesla (TSLA) cratered about 14% and Alphabet (GOOGL) fell about 7%, and the Magnificent 7 shed roughly $800B in a single day, their worst since April 2025. On top of the earnings carnage, Brent oil broke above $100 for the first time since May as the Iran conflict escalated, driving Treasury yields to year-highs. Risk-off was everywhere. Let's dig in 👇

💬 Buying this Big Tech dip, or does $100 oil keep you defensive?

📊 Quick Recap — What Moved & Why

🇺🇸 US — Earnings Split the Tape, Oil Adds Fuel
🔑 Key Event: Earnings week turned brutal for Big Tech. A day after Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL) reported, the market delivered its verdict: Tesla cratered about 14% and Alphabet fell about 7%, its market cap slipping below $4 trillion, as investors balked at soaring AI capex. The Magnificent 7 shed roughly $800B, their worst day since April 2025, and the indexes followed, with the S&P 500 off 1.2% to 7,408.30, the Nasdaq down 2.2% to 25,137.69 and the Dow off 1.0% to 51,711.65. After the close, Intel (INTC) stole the show, jumping about 12% on Q2 revenue of $16.1B (up 25% YoY, its fastest growth since 2011), AI-related sales up 70%, and upbeat Q3 guidance. Layered on top, Brent crude broke above $100 for the first time since May on the escalating Iran conflict, pushing the 10-year yield to a year-high near 4.70% and giving stocks a second reason to fall.

👀 Other to Watch

• Nvidia (NVDA) & AMD (AMD) → Nvidia slipped about 1.6% with the tech tape but signed a $1.5B chip-packaging deal with Amkor (AMKR), while AMD rolled out new AI chips it claims lead Nvidia's, keeping the silicon arms race in focus.
• Lockheed Martin (LMT) +10.6% → defense stocks jumped after a Q2 beat (net sales $20.06B, EPS $7.94) and raised full-year guidance, with the Iran escalation adding a bid.
• Micron (MU) about +4% → memory bucked the sell-off on steady AI-infrastructure demand.
• Nokia (NOK) → beat on Q2 profit and raised its full-year guidance, but US-listed shares still fell about 5% as the cautious read met the broad tech selloff.

🇸🇬 Singapore — STI Slips From Its Record, Banks Cool
🔑 Key Event: Singapore took a breather just shy of its record. The STI eased about 0.2% to 5,581.76, holding within a whisker of Wednesday's all-time high of 5,595.42, then opened weaker again Friday as Wall Street's tech selloff and $100 oil weighed. The three banks that drove the record run pulled back, and CGS International downgraded OCBC (O39) and UOB (U11) to "hold" on valuation after a strong year, turning attention to Q2 results in early August.

👀 Other to Watch

• DBS (D05) · OCBC (O39) · UOB (U11) → the big three eased from records; CGS cut OCBC and UOB to "hold" on valuation (both up sharply YTD), with results due Aug 6 for DBS and Aug 7 for OCBC and UOB.
• Singapore Airlines (C6L) → holds its 54th AGM today (Jul 24), with the 25.1% Air India stake in focus; SIA has flagged progress there and said no impairment was needed.
• Macro → June core inflation rose to 1.6% (from 1.4%, just below the 1.7% expected) and headline CPI was 1.9%, keeping attention on the MAS policy statement due Jul 27.

🇭🇰 HK/China — Opens Lower, Tracking Wall Street
🔑 Key Event: Hong Kong gave back Thursday's rebound at Friday's open, tracking Wall Street's tech rout. The HSI fell about 1.35% to around 24,870 and the Hang Seng TECH dropped about 1.9%, as the overnight AI selloff spilled into China's mega-cap internet names. The pain was concentrated there rather than in chips, as local semiconductors and oil-and-gas names actually bucked the drop.

👀 Other to Watch

• Alibaba (9988.HK) · Tencent (0700.HK) · Baidu (9888.HK) → internet mega-caps led the fall, with Alibaba down about 4.4%, Tencent about 2.5% and Baidu about 2.8%; Meituan (3690.HK) eased about 1.6%.
• Chips bucked the tape → Hua Hong (1347.HK) and SMIC (0981.HK) edged higher, a reversal from Thursday's semiconductor selloff.
• Oil & gas gained → energy names rose with crude above $100, while gold miners slipped.
• Zhongji Innolight (300308.SZ) → its Hong Kong mega-listing is mid-subscription (Jul 22-27) at up to HK$1,010 a share, having locked in about US$3.45B from 29 cornerstones including Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek and Chow Tai Fook; it debuts around Jul 30 as the city's biggest IPO since 2019.

🌍 Other

• Oil → Brent broke above $100 (about +7% to $100.69) for the first time since May and WTI jumped about 6% to $92.19, as Iran rejected a ceasefire, intercepted US missiles and Washington threatened strikes on its nuclear sites; the 10-year Treasury yield hit a year-high near 4.70%.
• Central banks & data → the ECB held its deposit rate at 2.25% and stayed data-dependent with no pre-set path, while US jobless claims fell to 187,000, the lowest since 1969, a hot labour read heading into next week's FOMC.
• Tariffs → with the temporary 10% blanket tariff expiring at midnight, the White House unveiled replacement duties of 10% to 12.5% on roughly 60 trading partners, exempting oil, gas and food.
• FX & crypto → the yen slid toward 164, near a four-decade low, on the oil-driven hit to Japan; Bitcoin eased to about $65K as the CLARITY Act stalled (passage odds down to roughly 38%), while gold recovered $4,100.

📅 Key Events Tonight / This Week

• 🇺🇸 S&P Global Flash PMIs (July) and New Home Sales · today, Fri Jul 24
• 🇸🇬 SIA 54th AGM · today, Fri Jul 24
• 🇺🇸 Big Tech Q2 earnings · Microsoft (MSFT) & Meta (META) Wed Jul 29; Apple (AAPL) & Amazon (AMZN) Thu Jul 30
• 🇸🇬 MAS quarterly monetary policy statement · Mon Jul 27
• 🇺🇸 June durable goods orders · Mon Jul 27
• 🇺🇸 FOMC meeting · Jul 28-29 (decision Wed Jul 29)
• 🇭🇰 Zhongji Innolight (300308.SZ) HK IPO pricing · around Jul 29, debut near Jul 30
• 🇺🇸 Q2 GDP advance and June PCE · Thu Jul 30
• 🌍 US-Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz flows · ongoing (oil driver)

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🚫 No duplicates · ⏰ Deadline: July 24, 2026, 11:59 PM SGT
Not investment advice, just market talk 🙏