S&P 500 closes at 7,748.50 as AI hardware earnings offset Big Tech selling
S&P 500 close: 7,748.50 (+0.26%) Breadth: 8 of 11 sectors higher; equal-weight RSP +0.18% against cap-weighted SPY +0.25% Sentiment: mixed
The S&P 500 closed at 7,748.50 on 12 August 2026, up 0.26%, as earnings beats from CoreWeave, Super Micro and Nebius lifted the AI hardware supply chain enough to cover a 2.26% fall in Microsoft MSFT.US and a 3.38% fall in Meta META.US. Nebius NBIS.US rose 34.14% to $259.20 after second-quarter revenue grew 514% to $575 million and its contracted backlog quadrupled. July CPI matched consensus at 3.4% annual and 0.1% monthly, leaving the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.68% and the VIX down 4.78% to 14.55.
What moved the index
Technology added roughly 45 to 50 basis points to the S&P 500 on 12 August 2026, more than the 26 basis points the index gained across the whole session.
- Semiconductors and AI hardware: XLK +1.49% and SMH +2.08%, worth roughly 45 to 50 bps. Coherent COHR.US +8.24%, Seagate STX.US +7.03%, Arista ANET.US +6.39%, SanDisk SNDK.US +5.76%, Corning GLW.US +5.18% and Micron MU.US +4.92% all rose behind the CoreWeave and Super Micro prints. Nvidia NVDA.US +3.03%, Oracle ORCL.US +5.36%.
- Consumer discretionary: XLY -1.13%, roughly 12 bps of drag. Home Depot HD.US -3.12%, Amazon AMZN.US -1.83%, Tesla TSLA.US -1.59%.
- Communication services: XLC -0.90%, roughly 9 bps of drag. Meta META.US -3.38% did most of it, Netflix NFLX.US -0.78%, Alphabet GOOGL.US -0.08%.
- Materials: XLB -1.24%, roughly 2 bps. Alcoa AA.US -5.29% and Century Aluminum CENX.US -7.88%.
Technology's 45 to 50 bps of lift against roughly 23 bps of combined drag from discretionary, communication services and materials leaves the +26 bps close, with the eight remaining sectors adding a few basis points between them. Sector weights move day to day, so the basis-point split is approximate.
Session highlights
CoreWeave CRWV.US rose 19.28% to $107.73 on 12 August 2026 after second-quarter revenue doubled to $2.6 billion, up 112% from a year earlier.
- SMCI.US +19.02% to $37.61 after reporting more than $60 billion of new orders across the past year in its fiscal fourth quarter.
- LITE.US +13.63% to $932.47 on fiscal fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings above forecasts and first-quarter guidance above consensus, taking Viavi VIAV.US +12.27%, Ciena CIEN.US +11.49% and Nokia NOK.US +9.32% with it.
- MSFT.US -2.26%, META.US -3.38%, AMZN.US -1.83% and PLTR.US -2.23%. The largest buyers of AI capacity fell on the same day their suppliers rose. Bank of America calculates hyperscaler capital spending now absorbs 94% of operating cash flow after dividends and buybacks, against roughly $725 billion of planned 2026 spend by the four largest.
- DELL.US +9.87%, Celestica CLS.US +9.37% and Cerebras CBRS.US +11.63% extended the bid into servers and systems. IREN.US +9.86% and DigitalOcean DOCN.US +10.35% followed.
- VIX 14.55, down 4.78%, after a July CPI print that matched consensus at 3.4% headline and 2.5% core, both a step down from June.
Sector scorecard
- Best: Technology XLK +1.49%
- Worst: Materials XLB -1.24%
- Dispersion (best minus worst): 2.73 pts
- Semiconductors SMH +2.08% beat the tech sector itself while software IGV -0.81% fell. 8 sectors closed higher, 3 closed lower.
Top movers
| Ticker | Move | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| NBIS.US | +34.14% | Q2 revenue +514% to $575 million, contracted backlog quadrupled |
| QNT.US | +27.97% | Debut quarter, revenue +279%, Oracle OCI deal for Helios |
| EROC.US | +22.84% | Record $1.7 billion contracted backlog, roughly tenfold on the year |
| SHAZ.US | +21.00% | Bid alongside CRWV.US and NBIS.US results, no company announcement |
| CRWV.US | +19.28% | Q2 revenue doubled to $2.6 billion, up 112% year over year |
| FRVO.US | -16.59% | Q2 net loss $55.9 million, 2027 revenue guided $60 to $80 million |
| LQDA.US | -10.52% | Q2 EPS $0.74 against $0.76 consensus on $171.7 million revenue |
| WRD.US | -9.64% | Q2 revenue +82%, gross margin 37.5%, sold on the print |
| ADIG.US | -9.60% | Unannounced, likely flow-driven |
| ACM.US | -8.96% | Full-year guidance cut to $3.95 to $4.15 against $5.97 consensus |
After-hours earnings
Cisco CSCO.US reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $17.3 billion after the close on 12 August 2026, above the $16.82 billion consensus, and closed the regular session up 2.86% at $123.88.
- Fourth-quarter total product orders rose 35% year over year and networking product orders rose 40%.
- $4 billion of AI infrastructure orders landed in the fourth quarter, taking fiscal 2026 AI orders to $9.3 billion against a $9 billion target.
- Cisco guided fiscal 2027 AI revenue to $7.5 billion, up from about $4 billion in fiscal 2026.
Notable announcements
- NBIS.US agreed to sell compute to Reflection AI in a contract worth more than $1 billion running through 2029.
- QNT.US will deploy its Helios quantum computer inside an Oracle OCI data center as a hosted service, with cumulative bookings near $81 million after quarter end.
- FRVO.US guided 2027 revenue to between $60 million and $80 million, citing transmission-related curtailment, alongside a $28.7 million operating loss.
- ACM.US set full-year earnings guidance of $3.95 to $4.15 per share against $5.97 consensus.
Next session catalysts (ET)
- Thu 08:30: July PPI, forecast +0.2% against -0.3% prior
- Thu 08:30: initial jobless claims, forecast 202,000 against 199,000 prior
- Thu: reaction to the CSCO.US fiscal fourth-quarter print and its $7.5 billion fiscal 2027 AI revenue guide
- Thu: the 10-year Treasury at 4.68% and the dollar index at 99.98 carry into the PPI print
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