Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Markets Give Up Gains Amid Major News Week

Read MoreHide Full Article

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes notched intra-day record highs today early, but slid in tandem with the other major indexes on the day, and all four closed in the red: the Dow gave up -204 points, -0.46%, while the S&P 500 was -18 points, -0.30%. The Nasdaq was down -80 points today, -0.38%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 was -13 points, -0.61%.

Trade deals are inching along but not firm or robust enough to send this rally to new levels. Q2 earnings reports, while demonstrating a healthy quarter overall, has begun to show some dents in the armor, especially in non-Big Tech spaces. And with monthly jobs numbers yet to come out — aside from June JOLTS numbers, which slimmed to 7.4 million job openings from a downwardly revised 7.7 million the previous month — perhaps from this lofty vista, investors want to wait and see.

There will also be a new announcement on Fed policy tomorrow at 2pm ET, whereby it is widely expected the current 4.25-4.50% interest rate level will remain for the fifth-straight FOMC meeting. Yet analysts also expect at least a couple voting Fed members to contradict Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s steady, methodical approach and start cutting now — even with +4.1% unemployment and a +2.7% Inflation Rate.

Earnings Roundup After the Bell: SBUX, V, BKNG & More


The Brian Niccol turnaround at Starbucks (SBUX - Free Report) is visible in certain places within the coffee house giant’s fiscal Q3 report this afternoon, but not particularly on the bottom line. Earnings of 50 cents per year missed the Zacks consensus of 65 cents pretty widely, although a one-time charge of 11 cents per share was attributed to the extent of the miss. Revenues in the quarter were notably ahead of expectations: $9.50 billion versus $9.30 billion projected.

Same-store sales were shy of estimates, -2% versus -1.3% consensus, led downward by -2% growth in North America. China was a bright spot in the quarter, +2%, while the overall International segment was flat for the quarter. Shares initially pulled back -2% on the news, but are up more than +4% at this point in late trading.

Visa (V - Free Report) beat earnings, as per normal, reporting $2.98 per share versus $2.86 anticipated (and $2.42 per share from the year-ago quarter). Revenues were similarly impressive: $10.2 billion versus expectations for $9.87 billion, on payment volume which grew +8% year over year. But shares are selling off -3% in the after market; Visa had been up +11% year to date.

Booking Holdings (BKNG - Free Report) also outperformed on both top and bottom lines this afternoon, reporting Q2 results after the closing bell. Earnings of $55.40 per share easily surpassed the $50.59 analysts had been looking for, with $6.8 billion in quarterly sales ahead of the $6.56 billion consensus. Gross bookings for the quarter reached $46.7 billion, and the company reiterated full-year revenue guidance.

Mondelez (MDLZ - Free Report) saw a big jump in cocoa prices, which hurt organic growth in the international snack company’s results and guidance, though earnings of 73 cents per share beat estimates by a solid nickel and revenues of $8.98 billion was better than the $8.88 billion expected. Tariffs on imported goods may make companies like Mondelez particularly vulnerable. Shares are flat late, +16% year to date.

What to Expect from the Market Wednesday


Earnings season hits its busiest pace of Q2 thus far on Wednesday, highlighted after the close with results from Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Meta Platforms (META - Free Report) , two more “Mag 7” stocks. We’ll also see Ford (F - Free Report) , Qualcomm (QCOM - Free Report) and V.F. Corp. (VFC - Free Report) , among about 300 others, out tomorrow with earnings.

Private-sector payrolls from Automatic Data Processing (ADP - Free Report) will hit the tape Wednesday morning, ahead of the regular trading session. These look to bounce back from a dismal -33K reported a month ago; however, consensus is only for a +64K jobs gain for July in the private sector. We’ll also be sure to check prior-month revisions and the percentage in wage gains for job “stayers” and job “changers.”

Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to reverse course, back up +2.3% from Q1’s -0.5%. Heavy tariff policy brought to bear early in the quarter gave way to a reprieve that refreshed outlooks for the economy, especially those segments that tightened their belts ahead of the tariff storm that didn’t come (or hasn’t yet). Also Pending Home Sales for June come out Wednesday, expected to stay positive but dial back from the prior month’s +1.8%.

Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>

Published in