Breakfast | July 29, 2026

U.S. stocks closed mixed, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index breaking below key support levels, while Apple's market capitalization exceeded $5 trillion for the first time. WTI crude surged again after the U.S. military intercepted Iranian missiles.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its interest rate decision in the early hours of Thursday (Beijing time), with rates expected to remain unchanged.

Leaders from the U.S. and Israel met, focusing on Iran's nuclear issue. Israel claimed "full coordination" was achieved, while the White House described the talks as "constructive."

OPEC+ plans to pause production increases after September, stating it will assess the impact of the war in Iran on supply.

China's Ministry of Commerce released the "Chinese Position on the So-Called 'Overcapacity' Issue."

South Korean financial regulators introduced new measures to curb excessive leverage in individual stocks, proposing a 20% cap on margin trading.

SK Hynix reported Q2 sales of 79.32 trillion South Korean won, missing the expectation of 83.85 trillion won. Its Q2 operating profit also fell short of analysts' expectations, causing its after-hours drop in U.S. trading to widen to 5.7%.

Corning closed down 12%. Although both Q2 revenue and profit exceeded expectations, the Q3 revenue guidance lacked "surprise." During the conference call, the company stated that "orders are accelerating," and all-optical vertical expansion would increase fiber optic usage by tenfold, though the implementation timeline remains uncertain.

Amid exploding demand for AI storage, Seagate Tech's revenue grew nearly 50% year-over-year last quarter, beating expectations, while its gross margin jumped significantly to exceed 50%, with an even stronger outlook. Despite closing down 8.5%, Seagate's stock rose more than 10% in after-hours trading, driving a broad rebound in memory chip stocks.

NXP Semiconductors' Q2 revenue and Q3 guidance both exceeded expectations, yet its stock still plummeted in after-hours trading.

Meta pays the price for its AI spending spree: The interest rate on its $12.5 billion in new debt surged, leaving Wall Street struggling to digest the news.