Nasdaq drops 2.1% on the week as AI spending doubts meet a $100 oil scare
S&P 500 week close: 7,411.98 (-0.61%) Nasdaq Friday close: 24,975.82 (-0.64%) Sentiment: mixed
The week on Wall Street
The S&P 500 finished the week at 7,411.98, down 45.71 points or 0.61%. That is a second straight weekly loss and the first back-to-back weekly decline since March. The Nasdaq fell harder, down 544.42 points or 2.13% to 24,975.82. The Dow held up best at 51,947.25, down 199.17 points or 0.38%, and the Russell 2000 closed at 2,930.00, lower by 1.09%.
Two forces drove the week and both landed inside the same 48 hours. Tesla (TSLA.US) and Alphabet (GOOGL.US) reported after the close on Wednesday 22 July. By Thursday's close Tesla had fallen 14.5% to $319.69 and Alphabet had fallen 7%, in both cases on questions about what the AI capital spending is actually buying. On that same Thursday, Brent crude pushed above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months and traded near $102, after President Trump told Axios he was weighing a strike on Iran bigger than any before it. Dearer crude revived the inflation argument, and the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed from 4.541% to 4.679% across the week, a rise of roughly 14 basis points.
Look past the index level and the selling was narrow rather than broad. The technology sector ETF finished the week almost exactly flat at 0.17% while the Nasdaq fell 2.13%. The VIX closed at 18.58, lower on the week, not higher. A market-wide de-rating does not usually leave those two readings behind. This selling was concentrated in two very large stocks that sit outside the technology sector classification.
Sector scorecard (5-day)
- Best: Energy +3.36%, carried by crude's run through $100
- Runner-up: Utilities +2.48%, the AI power demand trade still working
- Worst: Consumer Discretionary -5.22%, which is largely a Tesla number
- Second worst: Communication Services -3.93%, which is largely an Alphabet number
- Dispersion (best minus worst): 8.59 points
- Technology +0.17% and Financials +0.09% both finished close to unchanged
Top movers, week ending 24 July 2026
| Ticker | Week | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| CIFR.US | +31.8% | Miner-to-data-center rally after Hut 8's second $9.8 billion lease |
| CLF.US | +28.6% | Q2 adjusted EBITDA $286 million, up $191 million on the quarter |
| OII.US | +24.7% | Q2 EPS $0.65 against $0.43 expected, best EBITDA since 2015 |
| SMCI.US | +24.5% | Flagged $60 billion of Q4 orders, margin guide lifted to 15% to 17% |
| RIOT.US | +23.4% | Same bitcoin miner pivot into AI data center leasing |
| LBRT.US | -27.2% | Beat on Q2, then raised 2026 capex about 50% to $1.5 billion |
| ACI.US | -27.0% | Cut full-year adjusted EPS guide to $1.80 from $2.27 at the midpoint |
| PTRN.US | -21.1% | No company news in the window, fell seven sessions straight |
| SEDG.US | -20.3% | No company news, residential solar names sold off together |
| TENB.US | -19.1% | Caught in the software de-rating, reports 29 July |
Friday US session
- S&P 500: 7,411.98 (+0.05%)
- Nasdaq: 24,975.82 (-0.64%)
- Dow: 51,947.25 (+0.46%)
- VIX: 18.58 (-0.64%)
- Russell 2000: 2,930.00 (-0.35%)
Friday steadied the week without repairing it. Brent fell 3.9% to settle at $96.78 a barrel after Reuters reported that Pakistan and Iran were exploring a path to talks with the United States. Cheaper crude took the pressure off bonds and the 10-year yield eased back to 4.678%.
The session's split personality showed up in single names. Intel (INTC.US) reported after Thursday's close with profit and revenue above estimates and traded roughly 12% higher after hours, then fell 7.9% through Friday's regular session. Tenet Healthcare (THC.US) went the other way on its own results and rose 17.2%. Memory names took the worst of it, with Sandisk down about 11% and Micron about 7%, pulling the semiconductor ETF lower by roughly 4.5%. Tesla slipped a further 2.08% to $313.03, finishing 17.8% lower on the week.
Macro themes that played out
The Federal Reserve's target range has sat at 3.50% to 3.75% since December 2025 and the July meeting is not expected to move it. A Reuters poll published on 21 July found all 104 economists surveyed expected no change at the 28 to 29 July meeting. What has shifted is the direction of the tail risk. Most of those who did expect a move before year end now expect a hike rather than a cut, a reversal from the same survey in June. Energy is the reason. US crude futures rose 9.2% over the week, and a Middle East supply scare feeds straight into the inflation data the committee is reading.
That combination explains the week's rotation better than any single earnings result does. Higher yields make long-dated growth stories more expensive to hold, which is why Tesla and Alphabet fell hardest in the same week that energy, utilities and industrials all finished higher. The US dollar index rose 0.71% to 101.47, which fits the same repricing.
The two stories point in opposite directions from here. The oil move was a supply scare that partly unwound on Friday. The AI spending question did not unwind, and four of the market's largest reporters answer it next week.
Week ahead, Mon to Fri (ET)
- Mon 27 July: Light. No top-tier US data and no major S&P 500 reporter. The week's risk sits on Wednesday and Thursday.
- Tue 28 July: The FOMC meeting opens. Boeing, Coca-Cola and PayPal report before the open, with Ford, Visa and Mondelez after the close.
- Wed 29 July: Fed decision at 2:00pm ET and Chair Warsh's press conference at 2:30pm. Microsoft, Meta and Tenable all report after the close.
- Thu 30 July: June PCE and core PCE, the inflation gauge the Fed weights most heavily. Apple and Amazon report after the close, Mastercard and Bristol-Myers Squibb before the open, and Riot Platforms after the bell.
- Fri 31 July: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, AbbVie and Moderna all report before the open.
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