Amazon surged 15.3% after quarterly profit more than tripled and cloud growth accelerated, helping the S&P 500 rise 0.7%, the Nasdaq gain 1% and the Dow add 276 points.
AI spending remained the market's hinge: Amazon's results reinforced Microsoft's prior rally as evidence hyperscalers may be monetizing heavy investment, while Apple fell 7.4% on a weak revenue outlook and Micron swung from a 6.4% gain to a 5.9% loss.
Brent crude settled up 1.2% at $87.93, keeping inflation pressure in focus as the Iran war disrupted oil flows; the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.71% and average U.S. gasoline prices neared $4.11 a gallon.
Seoul's Kospi posted its best day on record with a 17.9% jump, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix gains of at least 26.8%, though the index still finished July down 22% after earlier more than doubling in 2026.
As AI bottlenecks shift to memory, can next-gen HBM4 truly sustain a $5 trillion infrastructure boom before tech valuations snap?
Beyond the staggering 2026 earnings, is this hyperscaler spending spree a genuine technological revolution or an accelerating capital expenditure bubble?