by Eric Criscuolo - Market Strategist

Published on 7/20/26 (a/o 2:00 pm)

Energy is leading with crude higher again. Comm Services is right behind, driven by Alphabet. Netflix continues to fall post-earnings and a judge temporarily paused the PSKY (flat) / WBD (-4%) merger. Tech is seeing a bounce from last week’s damage, including memory/storage and semis names (DRAM, ICE Semis +2-3%). The hyperscalers are all modestly higher as well. Alphabet (+2%) is working on a significantly more efficient AI chip (Frozen v2). MSFT and AMD announced an expansion of their partnership that includes AMD’s new integrated AI systems. Moonshot had to suspend subscriptions to its recently released Kimi AI model, which is also helping today. 

Materials and Staples are leading lower, along with Healthcare. Discretionary is outperforming Staples. Amazon’s gain is helping Discretionary but most of the sector is lower. Domino's (+5%) is higher despite missing estimates as they noted “meaningful” order growth during the quarter, though the broader restaurant group is mixed.  

Corporate headlines are reasonably quiet. Beyond what we noted above, AMC (+25%) is sharply higher after better-than-expected results (and The Odyssey crushed the box office). GME (-1%) disclosed a nearly 10% stake in EBAY (+1%). LXP is (+4%) being bought for $5.2B by Brookfield and Canada Pension Plan

Treasury yields have extended to the upside, now +3-5bp across the curve and erasing most of last week's declines. The USD index is higher as well, to around 100.75.

South Korea reopened after being closed on Friday and promptly fell 4.5%, catching up with global tech selloff. Japan was closed. PM Takaichi continued to press for new measures that would encourage households and institutions to increase investment in domestic financial assets.  

Markets in China moved higher amidst reports that the “national team” was active in the market. The PBOC left rates unchanged as expected. The Hong Kong Hang Seng was up >2% as tech stocks continued to move higher (Tech Index +3%). However AI model developers Z.AI (GLM) and MiniMax fell 20% and 10%, after falling 28% and 15% on Friday.  Alibaba is up 5% in the US after releasing a preview of its latest Qwen AI model. There have been multiple press reports on the US administration’s consideration of blocking the use of open-source Chinese AI models. Moonshot AI (Kimi K3 model) has taken its first steps towards an IPO in Hong Kong, potentially as soon as within the next six months. The company is also reportedly in the midst of a fundraising round.

European indices were flat to lower. Energy, tech, media, and banks were the best performers. Travel, financial services, telecom and healthcare (pharma) lagged. The DAX closed just below its 50d ma again, after a move above it was rejected. PPI in Germany came in a touch better than expected and declined from the prior month. Pharma names were mostly lower. In the UK Andy Burnham was officially appointed as the latest PM and is expected to announce his policy agenda and cabinet over the next couple of days.

Brent (Sept) has traded between $85.75 - $92 today and is currently up ~1% after regaining both its 50 and 100d moving averages on Friday. US nat gas prices are down about 2% and below $3 after trading around that level that past week. European gas continues to move higher as the Russia/Ukraine conflict continues to re-escalate, though has pulled back from its highs. Metals are mixed. Gold is flat and continues to hold just above $4k. Copper and silver are both bouncing modestly, with copper looking to get back above its 50d ma. Ag prices are also mostly higher though wheat pulled back from a two-year high. Crypto is bouncing off the morning lows. Bitcoin broke through $65K, while Ethereum is ~$1.9K.

Earnings:

US:

Global: