Dow Bleeds Red Due to Big Blue: Stock Market Today
Six of the official GICS sectors were in the green, led by communications services, technology and energy stocks.
A handful of high-profile names were deep in the red Thursday, and the main U.S. equity indexes closed mixed. Headline numbers aside, the general trend remains up and to the right, with a decided risk-on edge amid summer trading volumes juiced once more by meme stocks.
President Donald Trump took a field trip to Federal Reserve facilities for an in-person inspection of a $2.5 billion renovation project at the center of White House efforts to discredit Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Note that the next Fed meeting kicks off this Tuesday, July 29, and concludes on Wednesday, July 30. Be sure to check in on our live Fed blog for updates about the central bank.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Meanwhile, the yield on the 2-year Treasury note, the market price most sensitive to Fed policy moves, inched up to 3.912% Thursday from 3.884% Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, a risk-free benchmark for the global financial system, was up to 4.402% from 4.888%.
But the 30-year yield – a barometer of long-term economic growth as well as inflation expectations and the basic health of the market – inched back to 4.948% from 4.949%.
Tesla tanks, Alphabet sings
There was more obvious heat from Magnificent 7 stocks such as Tesla (TSLA, -8.2%), which spun into reverse during Wednesday's after-market session when management missed expectations with its second-quarter earnings report.
The market is more sanguine about Alphabet (GOOGL, +1.0%), which also reported second-quarter earnings late Wednesday.
Other members of the Mag 7, such as Amazon.com (AMZN, +1.7%) – one of the top-performing Dow Jones stocks on the day – and Microsoft (MSFT, +1.0%), posted solid gains.
Apple (AAPL, -0.4%) fell late in the trading session, but Meta Platforms (META, +0.2%) was higher Thursday. So was Nvidia (NVDA, +1.7%), the leader of the AI revolution, one of the best stocks of the century, and the biggest publicly traded company in stock market history.
NVDA was up despite President Trump revealing he thought about breaking up the company, even without much knowledge of what the chipmaker does.
Trump provided a bump for Chevron (CVX, +1.8%), with the energy stock rising after the administration said it will allow the oil and gas exploration and production company to resume drilling operations in Venezuela.
At Thursday's closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% to 44,693, widening the gap from a new all-time high to 320 points, or 0.7%.
The broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.1% to 6,363, and again made a new closing high. Same goes for the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, which was up 0.2% to 21,058.
Big Blue's good news is bad news
International Business Machines (IBM, -7.6%) was the biggest drag on the world's oldest stock market index Thursday, even though Big Blue's second-quarter results exceeded estimates and management solidified full-year guidance.
IBM stock had outperformed the S&P 500 by more than three times year to date through Wednesday's close, reflecting great expectations and perhaps auguring today's sell-off.
Big Blue – a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from March 1932 through March 1939 and since June 1979 – reported earnings of $2.80 per share on revenue of $17.0 billion vs a FactSet-compiled consensus forecast of $2.65 on $16.6 billion.
Stifel analyst David Grossman reiterated his Buy rating and his $310 12-month target price for IBM. "We would recommend opportunistic purchases for defensive-minded investors," Grossman writes, "although post-report selling may persist for a short period."
It's a meme-stock market
Opendoor Technologies (OPEN, +5.7%) and Kohl's (KSS, +10.8%) enjoyed big up days again Thursday, rising with the revival of a meme-stock craze that's elevated names such as GameStop (GME, -1.8%) and AMC Entertainment (AMC, -2.9%) in the recent past.
Meme stocks are heavily shorted by "smart money" investors but move, infamously, on social media hype rather than fundamentals.
Krispy Kreme (DNUT, -0.2%) looked a little more like a normal stock Thursday, but that's only by comparison to its 26.7% gain Tuesday and its 38.5% gap-up at Wednesday's open.
"Retail interest was particularly on display in the options market," Reuters reported, "with several retail favorite options names, including Krispy Kreme and Kohl's, drawing massive trading volume."
As OptionMetrics Head of Quantitative Research Garrett DeSimone told Reuters, "It seems like the story, at least in the equity market, is everything is kind of 'risk on.'"
Related content
- Figma IPO: Should You Buy FIG Stock?
- A Contrarian Approach Pays Off for This Small-Cap Fund
- Value vs Growth: Decoding These Two Ways to Invest Isn't So Simple
-
The Top 10 Side Gigs For Retirees In 2026Money is freedom in retirement; here’s how to earn more of it with a profitable side gig
-
3 Retirement Changes to Watch in 2026: Tax EditionRetirement Taxes Between the Social Security "senior bonus" phaseout and changes to Roth tax rules, your 2026 retirement plan may need an update. Here's what to know.
-
The 'Yes, And...' Rule for RetirementRetirement rarely follows the script. That’s why the best retirees learn to improvise.
-
What Not to Do After Inheriting Wealth: 4 Mistakes That Could Cost You EverythingGen X and Millennials are expected to receive trillions of dollars in inheritance. Unless it's managed properly, the money could slip through their fingers.
-
'The Money Prism' Solves Retirement Money's Biggest Headache: Here's HowThis simple, three-zone system (Blue for bills, Green for paycheck, Red for growth) helps you organize your retirement savings by purpose and time.
-
No, AI Can't Plan Your Retirement: This (Human) Investment Adviser Explains WhyAI has infinite uses. But creating an accurate retirement strategy based on your unique goals is one place where its possibilities seem lacking.
-
A Value Focus Clips Returns for This Mairs & Power Growth FundRough years for UnitedHealth and Fiserv have weighed on returns for one of our favorite mutual funds.
-
Small-Cap Stocks Gain Momentum. That's Good News for This iShares ETFThe clouds appear to be parting for small-cap stocks, which bodes well for one of our favorite exchange-traded funds.
-
Don't Let a 60/40 Portfolio Derail Your Retirement: Why a Cookie-Cutter Approach Could Cost YouChoosing a personalized retirement investment plan, rather than relying on the 60/40 portfolio, could help protect your savings and ensure long-term growth.
-
Are You Winging Your Retirement Plan? A Wealth Adviser's Tips to Help Build Wealth and Navigate RiskIf you have no strategy tying together your accounts or haven't modeled scenarios to make sure your savings will last, then your plan is probably inefficient.
-
Divide and Conquer: Your Annual Financial Plan Made Easy, Courtesy of a Financial AdviserOverwhelmed by your financial to-do list? Split it into four quarters and assign each one goals that connect to the time of year. It could be life-changing.
