Review & Preview: An Earnings Week to Forget -- Barrons.com

Alex Eule

Earnings Up, Stocks Down. It's peak earnings season, and investors could be forgiven for wanting an escape hatch.

Corporate America is delivering solid results, but it's not helping stocks. In fact, it seems to be hurting. Last night, chip maker Intel's quarterly results blew past Wall Street estimates. The stock finished down 7.9% today. This morning, American Express reported its own earnings beat boosted by a 9% rise in cardmember spending. Amex stock fell 4.3% on the news. And then there's Alphabet, whose earnings should have impressed even the most hardened AI skeptic. The company's shares still fell 7.8% on the week.

Big spending from tech firms has been making investors nervous for several quarters but those worries seem exacerbated this earnings season, as evidenced by the market's reaction to Alphabet and Intel results. It could spell a tough week to come, with Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, and Microsoft on tap to report. All of them are spending heartily to build out their AI abilities. ( Apple reports next week as well, but its capital expenditures have been relatively constrained.)

As for this week, the major indexes all continued to slide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week down 199 points, or 0.4%, for its third straight weekly decline. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite took the AI spending worries particularly hard, shedding 2.1% on the week. The tech-heavy index is now coming off its worst two-week stretch since April 2025, when tariff worries hung over markets.

Watch our TV show on Fox Business Fridays at 7:30 p.m. ET and Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. ET. This week, Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk on why Alphabet's earnings might portend bad news for markets. Plus, what to expect from an intense week of earnings next week.

The Hot Stock: International Paper +11.2% The Biggest Loser: Sandisk -10.8%

Best Sector: Real Estate +2.4% Worst Sector: Technology -0.9%

This Weekend's Magazine

The Calendar

Next week is the busiest on the second-quarter earnings calendar with nearly one-third of S&P 500 index companies reporting results, including four of the Magnificent Seven.

Boeing, Coca-Cola, and Visa announce earnings on Tuesday, followed by Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and Starbucks on Wednesday. Amazon.com, Apple, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Mastercard report quarterly results on Thursday, while AbbVie, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil Holdings close out the week on Friday.

There is also a two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting ending on Wednesday and more uncertainty than normal heading into the confab. This is partially due to the fact that new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh prefers not to communicate about interest rates ahead of time. Warsh has called inflation "a choice," and with inflation running ahead of the FOMC's target for more than five years, Wall Street is expecting at least two quarter-point rate hikes over the next year.

The key economic release next week is the personal consumption expenditures price index for June, which the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release on Thursday. The BEA also reports second-quarter GDP growth later that day.

-- Dan Lam

What We're Reading Today

-- Musk Is Losing His Magic -- and Tesla Is Paying the Price

-- Google's Earnings Could be a Bad Omen for Big Tech

-- AMD, Newly Emboldened, Is Taking Direct Aim at Nvidia

-- 6 Medical-Device Stocks to Buy After a Massive Selloff

-- And this weekend's cover story: Beyond AI: 10 Ways to Cash In on the Global Building Boom

Join Barron's Live on Monday at noon. Almost everything in the economy and financial markets now relates in some way to explosive spending on artificial intelligence technology. Did someone say mania? Barron's Ben Levisohn and Lauren Rublin speak with Tom Essaye, founder and president of Sevens Report, about the implications for investors -- and how to prepare for the day when the great wave crests.

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July 24, 2026 19:55 ET (23:55 GMT)