Public Markets 3h Briefing
×Last updated: July 24, 2026, 11:30 AM ET
Market Movers and AI Concerns
The S&P 500 Index steadied Friday bloomberg.com after a significant one-day drop, as Brent crude prices bloomberg.com and the selloff in Big Tech shares eased bloomberg.com. Despite corporate earnings bloomberg.com, investors remain unenthused, fretting about AI spending and economic growth. Meta Platforms Inc. is tapping investors bloomberg.com through a bond sale led by BlackRock to finance a data center, testing appetite amid concerns over AI infrastructure spending FT Companies bloomberg.com. Verizon, meanwhile, is wsj.com as its turnaround continues, though profit slid due to costs from a BT Group joint venture.
Geopolitical Tensions and Trade Dynamics
The dollar wsj.com and may stay strong until a U.S.-Iran ceasefire is agreed upon, as geopolitical volatility weighs on international markets. Europe faces a deadline to end liquefied natural gas imports from Russia, with concerns over rising dependence on American energy even as the ban on Russian gas tankers looms nytimes.com. China, despite threats from former President Trump's trade war, has nytimes.com, with its overall average weighted tariff on goods lower than that of countries like Brazil and Canada. The Trump administration, however nytimes.com of around 10% on over 80 nations, tied to imports of goods made with forced labor, and has unveiled a complicated system for further trade war measures after the Supreme Court struck down original levies nytimes.com. China is also wielding its leverage over Europe with new export controls on critical supplies to