Market Update: Wednesday Morning, July 8th, 2026

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE STOCK MARKET. SO YESTERDAY WAS A ROUGH ONE AND THIS MORNING IS NOT LOOKING SO GREAT EITHER. SO YESTERDAY WAS A ROUGH ONE AND THIS MORNING IS NOT LOOKING SO GREAT EITHER. SO LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY AND WHAT'S GOING ON SO FAR TODAY. SO YESTERDAY, THERE WERE TWO MAJOR DRIVERS OF THAT WE SAW IN THE STOCK MARKET. SO NUMBER ONE SAMSUNG REPORTED EARNINGS AND ITS PROFIT WAS UP MORE THAN 1800% FROM A YEAR AGO. ON PAPER THAT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING BUT THE STOCK ACTUALLY FELL ABOUT 7% BECAUSE EVEN A NUMBER THAT HUGE STILL CAME IN BELOW THE SKY HIGH EXPECTATIONS THAT INVESTORS HAD BUILT UP FOR THE COMPANY. AND THAT'S THE DANGER OF THESE CHIP STOCKS HAVING SOARED SO MUCH THE STOCKS WERE ALREADY PRICED ASSUMING THAT EVERYTHING WENT PERFECTLY AND ACCORDING TO PLAN. SO WHEN THE COMPANIES DON'T EXCEED EXPECTATIONS SIGNIFICANTLY, A LOT OF INVESTORS DECIDE TO SELL AND TAKE THEIR PROFITS. ON TOP OF SAMSUNG, A REPORT CAME OUT THAT CHINA'S DEEPSEE IS BUILDING ITS OWN AI CHIP ON NVIDIA AND WHEN YOU PUT THOSE TWO STORIES TOGETHER, THE WHOLE CHIP SECTOR GOT HIT. INTEL FELL ALMOST 10%, AMD WAS DOWN OVER 6%. ALL IN ALL NOT A GREAT DAY FOR SEMICONDUCTORS. DRIVER NO. 2 WAS GEOPOLITICAL. IRAN ATTACKED OIL TANKERS NEAR THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ YESTERDAY, THAT CRITICAL WATERWAY THAT CARRIES A HUGE CHUNK OF THE WORLD'S OIL. THE US LAUNCHED RETALIATORY STRIKES AND OIL RIPPED HIGHER. YESTERDAY WAS UP OVER 5%. THOSE RENEWED GEOPOLITICAL RISKS SENT INVESTORS ROTATING OUT AND INTO SAFER STEADIER, MORE DEFENSIVE SECTORS LIKE UTILITIES AND CONSUMER STAPLES. SO WHEN THE DAY WAS DONE, THE DOW SLIPPED ABOUT A QUARTER OF A PERCENT. THE S&P 500 WAS DOWN ABOUT HALF AND THE NASDAQ HEAVY ON THOSE CHIP STOCKS FELL OVER 1%. BUT THE REAL MOVER THE DAY WAS OIL. IT WAS UP OVER 5% TO ABOUT $72 PER BARREL. UNFORTUNATELY THIS MORNING, IT'S GOTTEN A LITTLE BIT WORSE. OVERNIGHT IRAN STRUCK US BASES IN BAHRAIN AND KUWAIT AND PRESIDENT TRUMP DECLARED THAT THE CEASEFIRE IS OVER. US OIL IS NOW ABOVE $74 PER BARREL. SO THIS COULD BE A BUMPY DAY. WE'VE ALSO GOT THE FED MEETING MINUTES COMING OUT TODAY WHICH COULD BE IMPACTFUL. KEVIN WARSH DID NOT SHARE AS MUCH INFORMATION AT THE MOST RECENT FED MEETING AS JEROME POWELL USED TO. SO IF INVESTORS SEE ANY SURPRISES IN THE MINUTES THAT COULD CAUSE MOVEMENT. A FEW CORPORATE STORIES FROM YESTERDAY THAT ARE WORTH KNOWING. META REVEALED THAT FOUR STATES ARE SEEKING UP TO $1.4 TRILLION WITH A T IN PENALTIES OVER CLAIMS THAT ITS APPS ARE ADDICTIVE TO KIDS. THAT'S ALMOST THE ENTIRE VALUE OF THE COMPANY. DESPITE THE NEWS, THE STOCK WAS STILL UP TWO AND A HALF PERCENT YESTERDAY. AMAZON IS SELLING MORE BONDS AROUND $25 BILLION TO FUND ITS AI BUILD OUT PART OF A MASSIVE BORROWING SPREE ACROSS BIG TECH TO FUND AI. CLOUD FLARE WAS UP ABOUT 8.6% YESTERDAY AFTER SCOTIA BANK UPGRADED THE COMPANY TO SECTOR OUTPERFORM AND RAISED ITS PRICE TARGET TO $300 WITH SEVERAL BANKS NOW FRAMING CLOUD FLARE AS CORE AI INFRASTRUCTURE. SK HYNIX IS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN TRADING ON THE NASDAQ ON FRIDAY, JULY 10TH. THE COMPANY AIMS TO RAISE ROUGHLY $28 BILLION FUNDS TO CONTINUE EXPANDING ITS PRODUCTION CAPACITY. ELON MUSK'S AI COMPANY XAI OFFICIALLY REBRANDED AS SPACEX AI AFTER MERGING WITH SPACEX, SIGNALING THAT AI IS REALLY GOING TO BE A CORNERSTONE OF SPACEX'S PRODUCT OFFERINGS. LOOKING AHEAD THE BIG SCHEDULED EVENT TODAY IS THE RELEASE OF THOSE FED MEETING MINUTES. AND OF COURSE INVESTORS WILL BE WATCHING ANY UPDATES OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST. IF YOU FIND VALUE IN THESE UPDATES, PLEASE CONSIDER LIKING, SUBSCRIBING OR SHARING WITH SOMEONE YOU KNOW.