The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 537.24 points Tuesday, or 1.03%, to close at 52,747.32 — a third straight winning day. Strong earnings did some of the work. So did a sharp pullback in oil. But mostly, this was money leaving semiconductors and finding a new home. The blue-chip index has exactly one semiconductor name in it, Nvidia, which is part of why it could rally while everything tech-adjacent got hammered.
Among individual stocks that lifted the 30-stock index was Sherwin-Williams, which led the way, up 8% on a second quarter that beat expectations. Coca-Cola wasn't far behind — up 5% on a top- and bottom-line beat, plus a raised outlook.
Outside the Dow, things looked shakier. The S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 both spent the first hour underwater before clawing back to close up 0.2% apiece. The Nasdaq Composite had it worse — down sharply intraday, then a late fight back to just a 0.22% loss at 24,876.91.
Behind all of it: the Strait of Hormuz, again. Momentum had been building toward a deal that would let Oman and Iran collect voluntary fees for safer passage through the waterway. That hope pulled oil down hard Tuesday, eased Treasury yields for a third straight day, and took some inflation pressure off the table along the way.
The Nasdaq-100 wasn't so lucky. It slid into correction territory as a chip selloff born in Asia crossed the Pacific. SK Hynix's Q2 operating profit surged 557% but still missed lofty estimates, fueling fresh AI concerns. The disappointment deepened the chip selloff as investors questioned whether AI spending and semiconductor demand can justify current valuations ahead of Big Tech earnings. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell more than 3%, extending a losing streak, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR touched its lowest level in more than two months. Micron and AMD fell more than 8%.
Ford Finds Its Footing
Ford beat on the top and bottom lines, then raised its full-year outlook anyway. The F-Series line is finally recovering from an aluminum shortage caused by a fire at its Novelis supplier. Shares closed up nearly 2%. Then they added almost 5% more after hours — a louder vote of confidence than the regular session let on.
A Record Quarter That Still Wasn't Enough
Revenue up 257% year over year. Operating profit up 557%. By any normal measure, that's a quarter to celebrate. SK Hynix's investors sold it off anyway. Both figures missed what LSEG-polled analysts had modeled — roughly 84 trillion won in revenue, 64 trillion in operating profit — and the U.S.-listed shares fell nearly 9% to a fresh post-listing low. The Seoul-listed stock had it worse hours earlier, caught up in a broader chip rout that dragged the Kospi down more than 10% — its ugliest single session in months.
Apple Flirts With $5 Trillion
For a few minutes on Tuesday, Apple was worth more than five trillion dollars. Shares hit an intraday high of $342.89, then drifted back before closing up nearly 1%. The stock still finished at an all-time high of $340.08 — thirty-five cents short of what it needed to lock in the milestone officially.
Shares are up roughly 25% this year. The story is resilient iPhone demand, plus a level of AI spending that looks almost modest next to what Microsoft, Amazon and Google are pouring into data centers. Investors, increasingly wary of megacaps piling on debt to chase the AI buildout, seem to be rewarding the restraint.
Musk's Stocks Keep Bleeding
$1.5 trillion. That's what SpaceX and Tesla have shed combined since mid-June — SpaceX down nearly half from its high, Tesla off close to a fifth since its last earnings report.
Tuesday offered a small reprieve. SpaceX closed up more than 2%; Tesla slipped only about half a percent. The real test is still ahead. SpaceX reports next Tuesday, and options markets are pricing in a swing of roughly 15% once the numbers land. Two days later, the lockup expires on close to 900 million shares — about a fifth of the company's eligible locked-up stock — freeing insiders to sell for the first time since the IPO.
Corning's Guidance Undercuts the Beat
Corning beat on earnings. Beat on revenue too — 78 cents a share against 76 expected, $4.74 billion against roughly $4.61 billion. None of it mattered once the guidance came out. A third-quarter revenue range of $4.9 billion to $5 billion, about 16% growth, still fell short of what Wall Street wanted. Shares tumbled more than 15%.
Royal Caribbean's Guide-Up Wins the Day
Royal Caribbean posted adjusted earnings of $4.21 a share against expectations of $3.98, on revenue of $4.83 billion. It raised full-year guidance to $17.73–$17.87 a share, up from $17.10–$17.50, even while trimming its revenue growth target on softer bookings tied to the ongoing Middle East conflict. This time, the market didn't punish the trim. Shares jumped 5.7%.
Sector Analysis:
Health care and financials both touched fresh intraday all-time highs. With the Fed's decision looming Wednesday, investors wanted safety, and health care was the day's clearest winner.
Consumer staples rode Coca-Cola's earnings beat to a strong showing of its own. Materials caught a bid too, as money fled crowded AI trades for cheaper, more tangible ground.
The losers told the mirror story. Industrials slipped modestly, weighed down by soft consumer-confidence numbers and pre-Fed caution. Technology absorbed the worst of the overnight chip selloff out of Asia, fueled by fresh worry over China's progress in domestic chipmaking.
Energy brought up the rear: Brent crude fell 4.8% to settle at $84.09 a barrel, and as the geopolitical risk premium from recent weeks kept fading, energy stocks simply couldn't find a floor.
