Daily News 15th July 26
Daily News
Cooler June CPI Lifts Stocks and Sends Kospi Surging 6.3%; Chips Rebound as IBM Craters 25%; Gold Holds Near $4,050; Crude Nears $80 as U.S. Strikes on Iran Continue
15 July 2026
Today in Brief
Asia-Pacific markets rose Wednesday, led by South Korea's Kospi surging 6.3% and the Kosdaq gaining 4%, with Japan's Nikkei 225 and Topix each adding 0.9%, after U.S. consumer prices fell 0.4% in June — the first monthly decline since 2020 — bringing annual inflation down to 3.5% from 4.2% and prompting traders to scale back near-term Fed tightening bets. U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday on the soft inflation print and a semiconductor rebound: the S&P 500 gained 0.38% to 7,543.59 and the Nasdaq advanced 0.9% to 26,107.01, while the Dow added just 9.63 points as a 25% collapse in IBM — its worst day on record after a second-quarter earnings warning — weighed on the index. Gold eased below $4,050 an ounce but held most of the prior session's gains, while crude climbed toward $80 per barrel for a third straight advance after fresh U.S. strikes on Iran, even as President Trump abandoned his proposed 20% Hormuz cargo toll.
In other news: China posted its slowest quarterly growth since 2022 at 4.3%, fanning stimulus calls; Fed Chair Kevin Warsh pledged a policy "regime change" to eliminate the inflation "tax" during congressional testimony; Trump said talks with Iranian officials took place Tuesday and vowed strikes will continue until a deal is reached; traders now expect the Fed to skip a July rate hike; Stripe and Advent International offered more than $53 billion to take PayPal private at $60.50 per share; a U.S. trade official said "very few" Nvidia H200 chips have shipped to China, signalling exports have restarted; and Apple is in early talks with Caltech spinout PrismML, which says it can shrink 27-billion-parameter AI models to run directly on an iPhone.
Asia-Pacific markets rise as soft U.S. inflation data lifts sentiment; Kospi jumps 6.3%
Asia-Pacific markets rose Wednesday, with South Korea's Kospi advancing 6.3%, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 4%. Japan's Nikkei 225 and the Topix each added 0.9%. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.6% higher. U.S. consumer price index fell 0.4% in June from the prior month, bringing the annual inflation rate to 3.5%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected a 0.2% monthly decline and annual inflation of 3.8%. The report prompted traders to scale back expectations for near-term Fed tightening.
Stocks end higher buoyed by light inflation data, bounce in chip stocks
The S&P 500 closed higher on Tuesday, boosted by semiconductor stocks, after June inflation data came in weaker than expected. The broad market index finished up 0.38% at 7,543.59, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9% to end the day at 26,107.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average settled up just 9.63 points, or 0.02%, at 52,508.27. Shares of International Business Machines weighed on the 30-stock index, with the stock down 25% after the company warned second-quarter profits will be lower than expected due to soft demand in its software and infrastructure businesses. Semiconductor stocks rebounded after a sell-off in the previous session. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) traded 2.5% higher.
Gold eased below $4,050 an ounce on Wednesday but held most of the gains
Gold eased below $4,050 an ounce on Wednesday but held most of the gains from the previous session, as softer-than-expected US inflation data prompted traders to dial back expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. The annual US inflation rate slowed to 3.5% in June from 4.2% in May, coming in below forecasts of 3.8% as lower oil prices helped ease energy-related inflation. Consumer prices also fell 0.4% from the previous month, marking the first monthly decline since 2020. Meanwhile, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh reiterated the central bank's commitment to restoring price stability during congressional testimony on Tuesday but refrained from signalling a more aggressive policy stance.
Crude oil climbed toward $80 per barrel on Wednesday, advancing for a third consecutive session
Crude oil climbed toward $80 per barrel on Wednesday, advancing for a third consecutive session after the US launched another wave of strikes against Iran while reinstating its naval blockade of Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz. US forces targeted dozens of military assets along Iran's coastline and near the strategic waterway during a seven-hour operation aimed at weakening Tehran's ability to disrupt shipping through Hormuz. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump abandoned plans to impose a 20% fee on cargo transiting the strait, saying any lost revenue would be more than offset by future investments from Gulf nations into the US.
China posts slowest quarterly growth since 2022 as investment slumps, fanning stimulus calls
China's economy in the second quarter expanded at its weakest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022, reinforcing calls for policy stimulus as an accelerating slide in investments deepened the strain on growth, while consumption stayed subdued. Gross domestic product growth came in at 4.3% in the April to June period, data from the National Statistics Bureau showed Wednesday, missing economists' forecast for 4.5% growth in a Reuters poll, and slowing from 5% in the first quarter. That second-quarter growth came below Beijing's full-year growth target range of 4.5% to 5%, the least ambitious goal in decades, amid tensions with trade partners, including the U.S. and the European Union, and sluggish domestic demand.
Warsh pledges Fed policy 'regime change' to rid inflation 'tax' on American people
Calling inflation an "unfair burden," Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh on Tuesday reiterated his call for "regime change" at the central bank. "It has been a tax on the American people and businesses. We plan on getting rid of that tax," he said. "That means we need a regime change in policy, and we need new consideration of practices, some of which have been working, some of which haven't." In remarks for delivery to separate congressional panels this week, Warsh ramped up his recent tough talk on inflation, while also touting the strength of the U.S. economy and benefits coming from business investment, particularly involving artificial intelligence.
Trump says Iran talks held on Tuesday, strikes to continue until deal is reached
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had been in contact with Iranian officials earlier in the day, and said attacks on the country will continue until it agrees to a deal. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said his representatives had spoken to Iranian officials as recently as "an hour ago," and that "they wanted to make a deal." He said strikes against Iran will "continue until I say that's enough," and said Iran "better make a deal, you're not going to have anything left." When questioned about Kharg Island, Trump said attacking Iran's oil infrastructure would be saved for last, but would ultimately be carried out. Trump also raised the possibility of more attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, specifically Pickaxe Mountain. Trump held a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday to discuss a massive offensive in Iran, Axios reported. The president discussed escalating the war beyond the current scope of strikes around Southern Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, the report showed.
Traders expect Fed to skip July rate hike as inflation cools
Federal Reserve policymakers are far more likely to wait to increase interest rates than to do so later this month, traders bet on Tuesday, after a government report showed inflation cooled more than expected in June. The Consumer Price Index increased by a still-high 3.5% in the 12 months through June after surging 4.2% in May, the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. Excluding food and energy, the so-called core CPI increased 2.6% on a year-on-year basis in June after rising 2.9% in May. Compared to the prior month, the core CPI, which analysts see as a guide to underlying inflation pressures, was unchanged. The benign readings may help assuage worries at the Fed that high oil prices from months of conflict in the Middle East are accelerating inflation in a more persistent manner, requiring a response from the U.S. central bank.
Stripe, Advent offer to buy PayPal for more than $53 billion
Payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal Holdings Inc for $60.50 per share, in a deal that would value the payments company at more than $53 billion, two people familiar with the matter said. The offer, submitted earlier this month, is backed by about $50 billion in committed financing from banks, the people said, and represents around a 28% premium to PayPal's closing share price on Tuesday. The people declined to be named as the deal discussions are confidential. Advent declined to comment, while PayPal and Stripe did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The proposal follows an initial approach made in early April, the sources said.
U.S. trade official says 'very few' Nvidia H200 AI chips have been shipped to China
A top U.S. trade official said on Tuesday that "very few" of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips have been shipped to China and Hong Kong. "The bottom line is very few shipments against licenses for H200s and equivalents have taken place. It's a very small quantity of chips," Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffery Kessler said at a congressional hearing. The remark is a sign that H200 shipments to China have restarted, potentially boosting Nvidia's sales even higher. Since last year, Nvidia has excluded any potential Chinese AI chip revenue from its forecasts and CEO Jensen Huang said on CNBC in May that he told investors to "expect nothing" from Chinese sales. An Nvidia representative declined to comment.
IBM stock craters 25%, the worst day on record, after company issues second-quarter earnings warning
International Business Machines shares plummeted 25% on Tuesday after the hardware, software and consulting provider released preliminary second-quarter results that fell short of expectations. The stock logged its worst day on record, sinking further than its previous worst day of Oct. 19, 1987, when shares fell 23.7%. Records track trading activity back to 1968, though IBM has been a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange since 1916. The tech company reported adjusted earnings of $2.93 a share on revenue of $17.2 billion, below analysts' expectations for earnings of $3.01 a share and revenue of $17.86 billion, according to FactSet. CEO Arvind Krishna blamed the shortfall on weakness in the software and infrastructure business, as clients shifted spending toward hardware purchases such as memory chips.
Apple in talks with startup that shrinks AI models to run on an iPhone
Apple is in talks with a small Silicon Valley company that says it can shrink powerful artificial intelligence models enough to run directly on an iPhone, the startup's CEO told CNBC. PrismML, a Khosla Ventures-backed spinout from the California Institute of Technology, publicly released compressed versions of Alibaba's open-source Qwen model on Tuesday. The company said it reduced the model from roughly 54 GB to less than 4 GB, allowing all 27 billion of its parameters to run on an iPhone 15 or newer. PrismML CEO Babak Hassibi told CNBC that Apple and other companies have been evaluating the startup's models and measuring their speed, energy efficiency and performance on devices. "They're really evaluating our technology right now," Hassibi said of Apple. He characterized the discussions as very early and said it remains unclear where they will lead, but that "things are progressing nicely."
