Daily News 20th July 26
Daily News
Asia Trades Mixed as US-Iran Ceasefire Collapses; Wall Street Posts Weekly Losses on Chip Pullback; Crude Tops $84 as Oil Surges 30% From July Lows; Gold Holds Above $4,000 Near Nine-Month Lows
20 July 2026
Today in Brief
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed early Monday amid escalating Middle East tensions, with South Korea's Kospi dropping 0.74% at the open and the Kosdaq falling 1.66%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.34% and Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. Wall Street ended last week in the red — the S&P 500 lost 1.01% on Friday to 7,457.69, the Nasdaq dropped 1.4% to 25,520.24, and the Dow fell 406.55 points to 52,146.42 — leaving weekly losses of 1.6%, 2.9%, and 0.9% respectively as the VanEck Semiconductor ETF slumped almost 9% over the period. Crude oil climbed above $84 per barrel, extending gains after Iran declared its ceasefire with the US effectively collapsed and said it intercepted four vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, while gold held above $4,000 an ounce near nine-month lows as oil's roughly 30% surge from July lows stoked inflation and rate-hike concerns.
In other news: Russia launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, killing at least eight people across Ukraine, as Ukrainian drones carried out their deadliest strikes inside Russia in over two years; the US military hit Iran for a ninth consecutive night as American casualties rose to three service members; Washington partially lifted Hong Kong sanctions imposed in 2020 while leaving the territory's autonomy status unchanged; Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack joined a growing chorus of policymakers open to rate hikes ahead of the July 28-29 meeting; SpaceX rescheduled its Starship launch attempt to Thursday, July 23, after last week's aborted liftoff erased about $100 billion from its market value; Alphabet and Intel headline a pivotal earnings week for the AI trade, with S&P 500 profits projected up 26%; Boeing held its 20-year jet demand forecast steady at 43,625 deliveries ahead of the Farnborough Airshow; and Apple entered early settlement talks with the US DOJ over its 2024 antitrust case.
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed early Monday amid Middle East escalation
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed early Monday, amid concerns over escalating tensions in the Middle East. The Kospi dropped 0.74% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 1.66%. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.34% higher. Japanese markets are closed for a holiday. The three leading U.S. indexes closed in the red last week, as pressure on chip stocks weighed on sentiment.
S&P 500 closes lower, Nasdaq falls more than 1% as chip stocks suffer
Stocks fell again on Friday, with Wall Street posting a weekly decline, as traders weighed the latest moves in semiconductor names along with recent quarterly reports. The broad market index lost 1.01% to end at 7,457.69, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4% to 25,520.24 as tech stocks came under scrutiny. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 406.55 points, or 0.77%, to close at 52,146.42. The major stock benchmarks notched weekly losses, with the S&P 500 off 1.6%, while the Nasdaq slid 2.9%. The Dow fell 0.9% on the week. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) posted its third weekly decline in four weeks, dropping almost 9% in the period.
Gold held above $4,000 an ounce on Monday, trading close to nine-month lows
Gold held above $4,000 an ounce on Monday, but traded close to nine-month lows as escalating attacks between the US and Iran drove oil prices higher, stoking concerns over inflation and the prospect of interest rate hikes. The US military said it carried out fresh airstrikes against Iran on Sunday following the deaths of three American service members, while Tehran declared that its ceasefire with the US had effectively collapsed and said it intercepted four vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. Oil prices have now surged about 30% from their July lows, raising the risk that central banks may tighten monetary policy to contain inflation. Meanwhile, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack on Friday joined a growing number of Fed officials warning about persistent inflation.
Crude oil climbed above $84 per barrel on Monday, extending last week's gains
Crude oil climbed above $84 per barrel on Monday, extending last week's gains as escalating hostilities between the US and Iran raised fears of further disruptions to oil flows from the Middle East. Iran declared that its ceasefire with the US had effectively collapsed and said over the weekend that it intercepted four vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the US military reported the death of a third US service member in the past two days amid ongoing exchanges of attacks with Tehran. The conflict has also expanded beyond military targets, with bridges, utilities, and port facilities coming under attack. Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said an Iranian strike hit one of its oil facilities on Saturday.
Russia pounds Kyiv as NATO military chief warns Moscow would 'lose a lot' by attacking Baltics
Russia launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, while Ukrainian drones carried out their deadliest strikes inside Russia in more than two years — stoking fears of wider escalation and further strains on oil supplies. Russia has carried out a wave of ballistic missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens, Ukrainian officials said Sunday. At least one person was killed, and 15 were wounded in Kyiv, where residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket, and a dormitory were damaged, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the raid on Kyiv was "one of the most massive ballistic attacks" since Russia launched a full-blown war against the country in 2022.
U.S. hits Iran for ninth consecutive night as American casualties rise
The U.S. military on Sunday continued its campaign aimed at destroying Tehran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Central Command completed the ninth consecutive evening of strikes against Iran, at 10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Centcom said in a post on X. The three-hour exercise targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, aimed at further diminishing Tehran's capabilities to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the strait, Centcom said. The warring powers have intensified their attacks in the region, stoking fears of a return to full war, with Washington and Tehran accusing each other of violating a memorandum of understanding reached in June.
US lifts some Hong Kong sanctions imposed by Trump, autonomy status unchanged
The United States on Friday partially removed Hong Kong-related sanctions and trade restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump in 2020 over China's security crackdown on the territory, but did not restore its autonomous status, the U.S. State and Treasury departments said. China had earlier announced that the U.S. decision to allow the expiration of Trump's national emergency declaration over Hong Kong would restore the territory's special trade and economic status, but U.S. officials disputed this assessment. The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had allowed only the national emergency portions of Trump's order to expire.
Fed rate-hike voices swell before July decision, rates still seen on hold
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack on Friday added her voice to a small but growing chorus of policymakers arguing the Fed may need to raise short-term borrowing costs to deal with persistently high inflation, setting up a charged debate at the central bank's July 28-29 meeting. "For the first time in my tenure, I'm hearing from businesses who say they think we need to take action to curb inflation, and from consumers who can't make ends meet about a growing sense of despair," said Hammack, who joined the Fed in 2024 after it ended a run of sharp rate hikes to fight the surge in inflation after the pandemic. "Inflation is too high. The labor market is right around my level of maximum employment," Hammack said in a LinkedIn post on the last day that Fed policymakers are permitted to speak publicly ahead of their upcoming meeting.
SpaceX moves Starship launch attempt to Thursday
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, July 23, for another attempt to launch its Starship rocket, the company said in a statement on Sunday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially posted on X that the next Starship launch would occur on Friday. He later replied to that post, saying, "I mean Thursday," aligning with the company's earlier statement. On July 16, SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas, which erased about $100 billion from the company's market value. SpaceX said it has modified Starship's propulsion system to address the engine issue experienced on the previous flight. A launch delay for the $15 billion rocket development program better known for dramatic engineering feats and explosive testing failures is not uncommon.
Alphabet, Intel results in focus for AI trade as US earnings rev up
U.S. corporate earnings season gathers steam in the coming week as Alphabet and Intel are set to offer updates that could sway the market-leading AI trade amid high profit expectations and uncertainty over the Iran war. The S&P 500 skidded on Friday to post a weekly decline, dragged down by a steep pullback in high-flying semiconductor shares. Still, the benchmark S&P 500 remained up about 9% in 2026, and stood 2% below its early June record high. Increasing expectations for profit strength this year have provided bedrock support for investors' enthusiasm for stocks. Now they are counting on the second-quarter earnings season, just under way, to show the corporate profit engine is still humming along, with S&P 500 earnings projected up a whopping 26% in the period, according to LSEG IBES data.
Boeing keeps 20-year forecast for jet demand steady, shrugs off Iran war impact
Boeing maintained its forecast for strong global demand for new commercial aircraft over the next 20 years, according to the U.S. planemaker's market projection released in England on Saturday, ahead of the Farnborough Airshow. The U.S. planemaker's forecast was almost identical to its 2025 outlook. Boeing forecast industry-wide global deliveries of 43,625 new jetliners and freighters around the world from 2026 through 2045 — 33,545 single-aisle jets, 7,715 widebody aircraft, 930 factory-built freighters and 1,435 regional jets. This month, Boeing's European rival Airbus trimmed its projection by 1% to 42,060 new aircraft, citing the Iran war and trade tensions. Boeing expects air passenger traffic growth of about 2.3% this year, less than half of last year's growth rate of 5.3%. It expects growth to rebound to 6%-7% in 2027 and 5%-6% in 2028.
Apple in early settlement talks with US DOJ over antitrust case
Apple Inc. and the US Justice Department are in early discussions to settle a 2024 antitrust lawsuit, Bloomberg reported Friday. The discussions are active, but no guarantee exists that the two sides will reach an agreement, the report said. No trial date has been set in the case. Apple is said to have made multiple offers this year to the Justice Department to resolve the case. Settlement discussions between the DOJ and companies can end without an agreement. The US government filed the lawsuit against Apple during the Biden administration as part of multiple legal actions aimed at limiting the power of major technology companies. The DOJ complaint stated that Apple harmed competitors, software developers and consumers through its alleged conduct. In June 2025, Apple failed to have the antitrust suit dismissed.
