BlockBeats news: On July 31, overnight and early this morning, the cooling of U.S. Q2 core PCE inflation led to a sharp decline in near-term rate hike expectations. On the other hand, Microsoft’s better-than-expected earnings report appeared to restore investor confidence in AI, combined with the end of selling pressure from the prior liquidation of major AI funds, triggering a short squeeze rally in tech and momentum stocks. The S&P 500 closed up 1.66%, while the Nasdaq 100 rose 3.4%, marking its third-largest gain of the year.
According to BIT (bit.com) market data, Microsoft surged over 15%, marking the largest single-day market capitalization gain in Wall Street history and its biggest daily increase in 18 years. Additionally, storage stocks rallied sharply, with SanDisk climbing nearly 26%. Wall Street’s AI stock guru’s heavily weighted NeoCloud-themed stocks, NBIS and IREN, rose over 27% and 30% respectively. U.S.-listed SK Hynix also saw a long-awaited rebound, rising 17.52%. Previously, AI standout stock MRVL gained 12.18%, and Micron rose 18%.
Notably, today’s foreign exchange market was highly volatile, with the yen surging over 3% intraday; Japanese media reported that Japan intervened again. The U.S. dollar index dropped more than 0.9% at one point, marking its largest single-day decline since January and erasing all gains accumulated since Walsh’s debut. South Korea’s foreign exchange authorities also reportedly intervened with a rare sale of U.S. dollars on Thursday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent responded that Japan may have intervened in the foreign exchange market. The yen appears to me to be "significantly undervalued."
Finally, Apple reported its third fiscal quarter results ending June 27, 2026, with revenue increasing approximately 16% year-over-year to $109.42 billion, slightly exceeding analyst expectations, and earnings per share (EPS) rising approximately 29% year-over-year to $2.02, nearly 7% above analyst estimates. Apple’s Chief Financial Officer, Kevan Parekh, stated that both EPS and operating cash flow for the third fiscal quarter reached record highs for the company during that period.
However, market performance shows that Apple’s earnings report, which appeared to beat expectations on the surface, failed to impress investors. Before the report was released, Apple’s stock closed down 1.4% during regular trading hours; after the announcement, the decline widened further in after-hours trading, falling more than 4%.