Public Markets 3 Hours

Last updated: August 5, 2026, 5:32 PM ET

US Markets Navigate Mixed Signals

U.S. stocks finished mixed as optimism about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was offset by more volatility in artificial-intelligence wagers. Stocks lost steam around midday after a morning rally, with the Nasdaq Composite now retreating. The Dow industrials advanced. Treasury yields edged slightly lower ahead of Friday’s employment report from the BLS after weaker-than-expected private payrolls data. U.S. natural gas futures edged up in rangebound trading ahead of the EIA’s weekly storage report. Copper prices rose for the third consecutive trading session and ended at fresh records. Gold and silver prices also settled higher.

Corporate Earnings and Outlooks

Block raised its full-year guidance and reported higher second-quarter revenue as growth in its commerce and financial solutions businesses helped to offset declines in Bitcoin. Goodyear posted a loss of $204 million, or 71 cents a share, compared with a profit of $254 million, or 87 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Zillow posted a loss of $4 million as restructuring costs of $36 million weighed on the bottom line despite higher revenue. Zillow Group said Wednesday that second-quarter revenue jumped 18% from a year earlier to $772 million, as the online real estate company sees rental agreements growing more quickly than home purchases. App Lovin’s quarterly sales were just below analysts’ forecast, and it gave a softer third-quarter outlook than Wall Street was looking for. DoorDash’s decline in profit was driven by higher costs of revenue from more orders, as well as increases in sales, marketing, and research and development expenses and other overhead costs. The online travel agency Expedia now expects annual revenue to be $16.05 billion to $16.22 billion, up from a previous range of $15.6 billion to $16.0 billion. E.l.f.’s sales climbed 36% in the first quarter to $479.4 million, and the company raised its full-year sales guidance. Western Digital reported a more than elevenfold increase in its fourth-quarter profit, driven by continued strong demand for its memory technology. Sandisk posted a higher net income of $6.9 billion as the artificial-intelligence buildout continued to fuel demand for data storage.

Tech and Media Sector Movements

CME Group and Fan Duel are scaling back a joint effort to take on prediction market startups after failing to gain traction in a booming industry that has quickly come to represent a threat to bots. Etsy plans to cut 12% of its workforce as CEO focuses on its core marketplace. These layoffs, which came alongside a quarterly report showing growth across the business, are part of the company’s goal of adapting its marketplace to changing online-shopping habits. SpaceX’s stock dropped on ballooning AI bills. A four-ton SpaceX rocket stage hit the Moon, but no one saw it. Amateur and professional astronomers pointed their telescopes at the impact site, but most did not detect anything. New York Times stock plunged 13% as subscriber growth slowed. The media company’s total revenue climbed 11% to $762.5 million in the second quarter.

Global Trade and Economic Concerns

The U.S. suspended government activities in the Mexican state of Michoacán, affecting imports of avocados from the largest producing region in the country to the U.S. In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones. Two private credit funds managed by Blue Owl Capital Inc. bought back a combined $90 million of shares, marking a consecutive quarter of repurchases as the asset manager sought to steady the vehicles. Fitch Ratings is upgrading 30 portions of collateralized loan obligations, in addition to the hundreds of tranches it had said previously it was considering for upgrades under a new methodology. Fuel-makers enjoying soaring profits will likely keep reaping standout margins through the next quarter and beyond, according to an executive from a top U.S. refiner.

Financial Industry and Regulatory Landscape

Point72 and Citadel were among the firms hit by audio phishing schemes. JPMorgan is poaching M&A banker Amy Lissauer from Bank of America. Lissauer will lead the activism defense practice at the biggest U.S. lender. The federal government is ending its contract with a Kentucky nonprofit that it says pressured medical workers to remove organs from patients who were getting better.

Other Notable Developments

The pilot, identified only by his initials, also tested positive for ecstasy and cocaine when he was arrested last week at the Jakarta airport, the Indonesian police said. The death of an Salvadoran immigrant at the federal detention center in Newark has raised questions about the conditions there. President Trump’s goal of building a “golden fleet” of 15 battleships could cost $275 billion, according to a government estimate. In 32 of the countries included in a recent study, at least a quarter of the native butterfly species had moved to new areas. We’ve reached peak self-diagnosis culture. LIV Golf is pursuing a “grand bargain” with Saudi wealth fund and BC Partners, as potential investors seek assurances that the lossmaking tour’s star players will stay on. The announcement by the Dutch owner of Raleigh and Babboe brands Accell follows four difficult years since it was taken private. A proposal making its way through Congress would integrate the U.S. and Israeli defense and intelligence apparatuses more tightly, though some worry that it is a bad idea. Sales at e-commerce and fintech giant Mercado Libre Inc. beat analysts’ estimates in the second quarter, signaling continued demand in both of its main business lines despite rising competition across the region.