Q2 earnings season opened with a bang — record bank profits, a beat-and-raise from $JPM, and cooler-than-expected inflation — but none of it was enough to stop the market's worst week in months. A semiconductor rout that started with a historic crash in South Korea ended the week with the $SOX in an official bear market, dragging the Nasdaq to its steepest weekly drop since the spring. Here's the full recap and what's coming in the Big Tech week ahead.
Key numbers to watch
Consensus, prior-quarter or whisper context, and why each line matters.
| Metric | Consensus | Prior / whisper | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 (Fri close) | 7,457.69 | -1.01% day / ~-1.6% wk | Worst week in months. |
| Nasdaq Composite | 25,520.24 | -1.40% day / ~-2.9% wk | Dragged by chip rout. |
| Dow Jones | 52,146.42 | -406.55 (-0.77%) | Down ~0.4–0.9% on the week. |
| PHLX Semi Index (SOX) | Bear market | -20% from record, -9% wk | Worst stretch since Apr 2025. |
| June CPI (YoY) | 3.5% | 4.2% May / 3.8% est | Biggest monthly drop since Apr 2020. |
| JPM adj. EPS | $6.14 | $5.85 est | Revenue $52.4B vs $50.2B est. |
Consensus figures are Street estimates as of publish date and shift as analyst revisions land. Live consensus and implied move are on the stock page.
The week that was
**Monday** — a rough open for chips. South Korean markets suffered a historic crash that triggered circuit breakers and sent recently-listed SK Hynix tumbling, an early sign of the memory-and-AI-hardware wobble to come.
**Tuesday** — the biggest single day of the quarter. All five major U.S. banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup — reported before the bell on the same morning as June CPI and new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's first congressional testimony. JPMorgan posted one of its largest beats in years (adjusted EPS of $6.14 vs $5.85 expected, revenue of $52.4B vs $50.2B), with Wells Fargo also beating comfortably. CPI itself came in well below forecast — headline inflation fell 0.4% on the month (the biggest monthly drop since April 2020), pulling the annual rate down to 3.5% from 4.2% in May and undercutting the 3.8% consensus, largely on a sharp drop in gasoline prices. Warsh welcomed the print but pushed back on any "mission accomplished" reading, reaffirming the Fed has "no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation." It was also IBM's worst day since 1987 after the company said customers were shifting software budgets toward hardware purchases.
**Wednesday** — Morgan Stanley and Johnson & Johnson reported as Warsh delivered a second day of testimony, this time before the Senate Banking Committee, largely reiterating Tuesday's message and defending the Fed's independence under continued political pressure. A morning rally on the back of the soft CPI print faded by midday as the chip sell-off resumed.
**Thursday** — the busiest earnings day of the week and the worst market day of the week. Netflix's numbers landed in line (EPS $0.80 vs $0.79 est, revenue $12.56B vs $12.59B est), but a Q3 revenue guide of $12.86B fell short of the ~$13B the Street wanted, and the stock fell on the outlook. Tech led the broader market lower — the Nasdaq dropped 1.5%, the Dow fell 105 points to 52,553.32, and the S&P lost 0.5% — while UnitedHealth and Abbott both beat estimates comfortably.
**Friday** — no let-up. A fresh Iran flare-up (U.S. Central Command confirmed a seventh consecutive night of strikes) sent oil higher and knocked risk appetite further, while a breakthrough open-source AI model from Chinese startup Moonshot deepened the sell-off in chip names on fears that AI hyperscalers may need to spend less on infrastructure than the Street had priced in. Japan's Nikkei fell 4% on the same worries. Broadcom and Arm both fell about 4%, Micron and Nvidia dropped more than 2%, and the semiconductor ETF (Semiconductor ETF) closed out its third weekly decline in four weeks.
The takeaway
This was the week the AI-infrastructure story met its first real capex-doubt scare, geopolitics stayed a live risk rather than a resolved one, and — even with a genuinely soft CPI print and strong bank earnings in hand — markets still closed lower. Warsh's Fed remains split, and July 28–29 is very much live.
The week ahead: Big Tech earnings and a light data calendar
With banks and the first wave of earnings out of the way, the spotlight shifts to Big Tech and industrials — with Alphabet and Tesla headlining the first Mag 7 reports of the season.
**Earnings, by day:**
- **Monday, July 20:** Domino's Pizza, Steel Dynamics — a quiet start
- **Tuesday, July 21:** Capital One, Charles Schwab, General Motors, Halliburton, 3M, Danaher, Northrop Grumman, Interactive Brokers, D.R. Horton
- **Wednesday, July 22 (headline day):** Alphabet and Tesla after the close, alongside IBM, Texas Instruments, ServiceNow, AT&T, Philip Morris, Southwest Airlines, and Otis — the first look at how the market judges growth and AI capex commitments this season
- **Thursday, July 23 (busiest day):** Intel, Union Pacific, T-Mobile, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, RTX, Blackstone, Nasdaq Inc., Thermo Fisher, Freeport-McMoRan
- **Friday, July 24:** American Express, Verizon, NextEra Energy, HCA Healthcare, Charter
Macro, by day
- **Monday, July 20** — Leading Economic Index (June)
- **Thursday, July 23** — weekly initial jobless claims
- **Friday, July 24** — S&P Global flash Manufacturing and Services PMIs (July), new home sales (June)
Why it matters
After last week's CPI-and-banks megaday, the macro calendar goes quiet — which hands the market back to earnings and to the semiconductor bear market as the dominant story. Texas Instruments's book-to-bill is one of the best industrial-demand signals available and will either confirm or call the bluff on this year's manufacturing recovery. Alphabet and Tesla will be watched less for the headline beat-or-miss and more for capex guidance, given the same fear that hit chip stocks on Friday — that AI infrastructure spending could come in lighter than the Street has modelled. FactSet's estimate for Q2 S&P 500 earnings growth remains a strong 22–24% year-over-year, and with the CPI shock now behind it, this is the week that tests whether earnings alone can stabilize a market that just had its worst week in months.
See our previews for Alphabet and Tesla ahead of Wednesday's after-the-close prints.
*Not investment advice. For informational and educational purposes only.*
Use this on Earnings Compass
- See the full week ahead earnings calendar →Every S&P 500 name reporting July 20–24, day by day.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) stock page →Reports Wednesday after the close — first Mag 7 print of the season.
- Tesla (TSLA) stock page →Also Wednesday after close — capex commentary is the swing factor.
- Intel (INTC) stock page →Thursday print — a key read on the semiconductor bear market.
Frequently asked questions
- How did the stock market perform the week of July 13–17, 2026?
- It was the market's worst week in months. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,457.69, down ~1.6% on the week. The Nasdaq fell ~2.9% to 25,520.24 — its steepest weekly drop since the spring — and the Dow finished at 52,146.42, down ~0.4–0.9%. The PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) entered an official bear market, down roughly 20% from its record.
- What did June 2026 CPI show?
- Headline CPI fell 0.4% month-over-month — the biggest monthly drop since April 2020 — pulling the annual rate down to 3.5% from 4.2% in May and undercutting the 3.8% consensus. The soft print was driven largely by a sharp drop in gasoline prices.
- How did the big banks do in Q2 2026?
- JPMorgan ($JPM) posted one of its largest beats in years — adjusted EPS of $6.14 vs $5.85 expected on revenue of $52.4B vs $50.2B. Wells Fargo ($WFC) also beat comfortably. All five majors — JPM, BAC, GS, WFC, C — reported before the bell on Tuesday, July 14 alongside the CPI print.
- Why did semiconductors enter a bear market?
- The SOX index is down roughly 20% from its record. The sell-off intensified Friday on two catalysts: a breakthrough open-source AI model from Chinese startup Moonshot, which raised fears that AI hyperscalers may spend less on infrastructure than the Street had priced in, and a fresh Iran flare-up that hit risk appetite. Broadcom and Arm fell ~4% on the day; Micron and Nvidia dropped more than 2%.
- Which Big Tech names report next week (July 20–24, 2026)?
- Alphabet ($GOOGL) and Tesla ($TSLA) headline Wednesday, July 22 after the close — the first Mag 7 reports of the season. Intel ($INTC) reports Thursday alongside T-Mobile, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and RTX. American Express and Verizon close out the week on Friday.