US stocks fall before Alphabet’s results as oil jumps

The latest market report highlights that Wall Street market participants bracing for the start of the high-stakes megacap earnings season sent stocks softer, with the market additionally falling as worries around an escalation in the Iran war boosted crude prices.

A renewed dip in chipmakers dragged down the S&P 500, with a closely watched industry gauge down 1.7%. The Nasdaq 100 lost around 1%. With AI spending skyrocketing, traders are looking for Alphabet Inc.’s results to demonstrate a clear return on its massive investments. Tesla Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are additionally due to report later Wednesday.

The AI euphoria that drove the stocks to all-time highs a month ago is clearly waning, and pressure is building for firms to justify their expenditures. The bar is high. An index tracking the Magnificent Seven tech giants is lagging the S&P 500 in 2026, a rarity for the group that has led the market elevated for most of the past four years.

That all happens at a time when the US widened the scope of its airstrikes on Iran overnight, as President Donald Trump and officials in Tehran signaled a renewal of peace talks is unlikely in the near-term. Brent oil briefly spiked above $95, spurring concerns around inflationary pressures that could prompt elevated interest rates. Corporate Highlights:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Anthropic PBC have agreed on a deal for AI servers worth tens of billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal noted.

OpenAI stated its advanced AI models inadvertently hacked Hugging Face Inc. in an “unprecedented” incident that prompted fresh calls for curbs on the technology.

Super Micro Computer Inc. issued preliminary results saying its backlog hit a record on new orders in the quarter of more than $60 billion.

AT&T Inc. further noted more monthly wireless phone subscribers than market watchers anticipated in the second quarter, a bright spot for the carrier in a period that had market participants spooked by potential competitive threats.

Philip Morris International Inc. trimmed its earnings forecast blaming adverse currency conditions and rising costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East.

Some of the main moves in markets:

The S&P 500 declined 0.2% as of 9:31 a.m. New York time

The Nasdaq 100 declined 0.7%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.9%

The MSCI World Index was little changed

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed

The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1420

The British pound was little changed at $1.3383

The Japanese yen was little changed at 163.04 per dollar

Bitcoin declined 1.1% to $65,633.38

Ether rose 0.1% to $1,924.36

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.63%

Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.18%

Britain’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to 5.04%

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.3% to $86.31 a barrel

Spot gold rose 1.6% to $4,141.85 an ounce