Performance far exceeded expectations, and the chip giant once rose more than 13% after the market closed
On July 23, local time, the collective correction of technology giants dragged down the U.S. stock market. The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down across the board. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.97%, the S&P 500 Index fell 1.21%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.15%. After the U.S. stock market closed, chip giant Intel released second-quarter results that far exceeded expectations, and its stock price soared by more than 13% after the market closed. U.S. technology stocks fell sharply. On July 23, local time, large U.S. technology stocks generally fell, with the Wind Seven U.S. Technology Index falling 3.86%.
On July 23, local time, the collective correction of technology giants dragged down the U.S. stock market. The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down across the board. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.97%, the S&P 500 Index fell 1.21%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.15%. After the U.S. stock market closed, chip giant Intel released second-quarter results that far exceeded expectations, and its stock price soared by more than 13% after the market closed. On July 23, local time, large U.S. technology stocks generally fell, with the Wind Seven U.S. Technology Giants Index falling 3.86%. Affected by the latest performance news after the market closed the day before, Tesla fell by more than 14%, the largest single-day decline since March 11, 2025; Google fell by more than 6%, the largest single-day decline since May 8, 2025, with the total market value falling below US$4 trillion; Amazon fell by more than 4%, Meta fell by more than 3%, Microsoft fell by more than 2%, and Nvidia and Apple fell by more than 1%. According to Xinhua News Agency, the European Commission announced on the 23rd that Google violated the EU's Digital Markets Act in its online search and app store operations and decided to impose a total fine of 890 million euros on it. The European Commission issued a statement on the same day saying that Google gave priority to displaying its own services in shopping, hotels, transportation and sports in its search results, preventing similar third-party services from receiving the same level of display, which constituted "self-preferential treatment" of its own services. The statement also stated that Google failed to comply with the provisions of the "Digital Market Law", restricting application developers from informing users that they can purchase related services at a lower price through channels other than the "Google Market" of the Google App Store, and preventing developers from guiding users to complete transactions outside the "Google Market". According to the decision made that day, the European Commission requires Google to treat third-party services in search results fairly and non-discriminatoryly, and to allow application developers to freely introduce and promote offers to users, and to complete transactions outside the "Google Market". Google must complete rectifications within 60 days, otherwise the European Commission may impose additional fines. The performance of the chip sector was divided, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling slightly by 0.54%. Micron Technology bucked the trend and strengthened, rising by more than 3%. Ketian Semiconductor and Teradyne rose by more than 1%; Texas Instruments fell by more than 3%, and Qualcomm and AMD both fell by more than 2%. In terms of Chinese concept stocks, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 0.57%, and the Wind China Concept Technology Leading Index fell 0.59%. Meituan-ADR bucked the trend and rose 2.24%, Xiaomi Group-ADR rose 0.38%, Alibaba fell more than 2%, Baidu Group, JD.com Group, Tencent Holdings-ADR and others fell slightly. Intel earnings beat expectations On July 23, local time, Intel closed down 2.33%, with a total market value of US$503.5 billion. Affected by the after-hours news, Intel's stock price rose by more than 13% after the market closed. After the U.S. stock market closed, Intel's second-quarter earnings report significantly exceeded market expectations. The financial report showed that Intel’s second-quarter revenue was US$16.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25%, significantly higher than market expectations of US$14.42 billion; adjusted earnings per share was US$0.42, also exceeding market expectations. Looking forward to the third quarter, Intel expects revenue of US$15.8 billion to US$16.8 billion, with a median of US$16.3 billion, higher than analysts' previous expectations of approximately US$15.1 billion; adjusted earnings per share are expected to be US$0.38, also higher than market expectations. Against the backdrop of continued growth in AI demand, Intel has also raised its capital expenditure plan for 2026 from US$18 billion to US$20 billion. The company said applications such as intelligent AI are increasing demand for CPUs in data centers. The strong performance and guidance show that while GPU investment remains high, AI server demand for CPUs, wafer manufacturing and advanced packaging is also rising. On July 23, local time, international precious metal futures generally closed down. COMEX gold futures fell 2.4% to US$4,052.30 per ounce; COMEX silver futures fell 3.99% to US$57.90 per ounce. On July 23, local time, international oil prices rose sharply. As of the close, the price of light crude oil futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by $5.36 to close at $92.19 per barrel, an increase of 6.17%; the price of London Brent crude oil futures for September delivery rose by $6.62 to close at $100.69 per barrel, an increase of 7.04%.
Market strategists at Wells Fargo believe that gold's current risk-reward structure has significantly improved and short-term downside risks remain, but the long-term upside is still attractive. Goldman Sachs believes that oil prices are expected to maintain recent gains in July and August, supported by declining production in the Middle East, summer travel demand and slowing release of strategic petroleum reserves, and maintain the fourth quarter Brent crude oil price forecast unchanged at $80 per barrel, assuming that the situation in the Middle East eases before the fourth quarter.
Market strategists at Wells Fargo believe that gold's current risk-reward structure has significantly improved and short-term downside risks remain, but the long-term upside is still attractive. Goldman Sachs believes that oil prices are expected to maintain recent gains in July and August, supported by declining production in the Middle East, summer travel demand and slowing release of strategic petroleum reserves, and maintain the fourth quarter Brent crude oil price forecast unchanged at $80 per barrel, assuming that the situation in the Middle East eases before the fourth quarter.