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Oil Prices Are Back Up Near $100/bbl on Hostilities in Iran
Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to Near-60-Year Lows
AAL, TMUS, BX and LMT Post Strong Q2 Beats Ahead of the Open
Thursday, July 23rd, 2026
Hostilities heating up in the Strait of Hormuz are taking spot oil prices up 4-5% and pre-market futures down precipitously. With the Yemeni Houthis now involved bombing Saudi oil tankers and repeated U.S. air strikes in Iran, WTI oil prices have risen +4% to over $91 per barrel (/bbl) and Brent crude is up +5% to nearly $100/bbl.
The Dow, as a result, is down -560 points at this hour. The S&P 500 is -83 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is -450. The small-cap Russell 2000 is -27 points at this hour. This, despite mostly positive data in earnings reports yesterday afternoon from Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) , Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) and most especially Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) . All these stocks are down in today’s pre-market trading session.
Jobless Claims Back to 1960s Lows: 187K, 1.796M
Prior to the Covid pandemic, which pushed jobless claims up to record highs in the first half of 2020, we saw Weekly Jobless Claims reduce to lows not seen since Jimi Hendrix was on the album charts (album charts? ask your parents) in the late 1960s. We’re back there again this morning: Initial Jobless Claims reached 187K for last week, well below the 212K expected and the slightly upwardly revised 209K the previous week.
For Continuing Claims, more of the same: 1.796 million is below the downwardly revised 1.798 million from the prior week, the lowest print since the week of May 30th, which included the Memorial Day holiday. A year ago, we were well above 1.9 million longer-term jobless claims (without ever hitting the psychologically important 2 million jobless claims), but we haven’t touched 1.9 million at all in 2026 so far.
Q2 Earnings Results at a Glance
The world’s largest airline, American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) , posted a whopping +400% positive earnings surprise this morning, swinging to a positive earnings result from a year ago to $0.15 per share. Revenues of $16.74 billion also beat estimates, by a decidedly less eye-popping +0.22%, but up big from the $14.39 billion reported in the year-ago quarter. Fuel costs in upcoming quarters is weighing on the share price this morning, however. For more on AAL’s earnings, click here.
T-Mobile U.S. (TMUS - Free Report) shares are trading down -5% at this hour, despite reporting a +25.7% earnings beat to $3.13 per share this morning, well ahead of the $2.84 per share posted in the year-ago quarter. Revenues came in at $22.79 billion, a +0.21% improvement from estimates and the $21.13 billion from Q2 2025. For more on TMUS’ earnings, click here.
Investment bank Blackstone (BX - Free Report) shares are flattish this morning — considered good news in the current trading climate — after surpassing earnings expectations by +14.3% to $1.52 per share. Revenues surprised by a solid +12.7% to $3.8 billion in the quarter. Shares are still down -20% year to date, but it’s nice to see the stock not being further gutted in this morning’s selloff. For more on BX’s earnings, click here.
Aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) shares are up in today’s pre-market by +5.5%, partly on increased tensions in the Middle East which may push up demand for military operation products and services, and partly on a strong Q2 performance. Earnings of $7.94 per share outpaced estimates by +9.97%, up from the $7.29 per share reported a year ago. Revenues of $20.06 billion beat forecasts by +3.26% this morning. For more on LMT’s earnings, click here.
Intel Reports After Today’s Close
After today’s close, we’ll see Q2 earnings results from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) tech firm Intel (INTC - Free Report) . The “world’s largest semiconductor company” has absolutely crushed earnings estimates over the past three quarters, and for the quarter it is expected to have grown +310% on earnings year over year, and +12% on revenues.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Shutterstock
Oil Prices Dampen Mostly Strong Q2 Earnings
Key Takeaways
Thursday, July 23rd, 2026
Hostilities heating up in the Strait of Hormuz are taking spot oil prices up 4-5% and pre-market futures down precipitously. With the Yemeni Houthis now involved bombing Saudi oil tankers and repeated U.S. air strikes in Iran, WTI oil prices have risen +4% to over $91 per barrel (/bbl) and Brent crude is up +5% to nearly $100/bbl.
The Dow, as a result, is down -560 points at this hour. The S&P 500 is -83 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is -450. The small-cap Russell 2000 is -27 points at this hour. This, despite mostly positive data in earnings reports yesterday afternoon from Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) , Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) and most especially Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) . All these stocks are down in today’s pre-market trading session.
Jobless Claims Back to 1960s Lows: 187K, 1.796M
Prior to the Covid pandemic, which pushed jobless claims up to record highs in the first half of 2020, we saw Weekly Jobless Claims reduce to lows not seen since Jimi Hendrix was on the album charts (album charts? ask your parents) in the late 1960s. We’re back there again this morning: Initial Jobless Claims reached 187K for last week, well below the 212K expected and the slightly upwardly revised 209K the previous week.
For Continuing Claims, more of the same: 1.796 million is below the downwardly revised 1.798 million from the prior week, the lowest print since the week of May 30th, which included the Memorial Day holiday. A year ago, we were well above 1.9 million longer-term jobless claims (without ever hitting the psychologically important 2 million jobless claims), but we haven’t touched 1.9 million at all in 2026 so far.
Q2 Earnings Results at a Glance
The world’s largest airline, American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) , posted a whopping +400% positive earnings surprise this morning, swinging to a positive earnings result from a year ago to $0.15 per share. Revenues of $16.74 billion also beat estimates, by a decidedly less eye-popping +0.22%, but up big from the $14.39 billion reported in the year-ago quarter. Fuel costs in upcoming quarters is weighing on the share price this morning, however. For more on AAL’s earnings, click here.
T-Mobile U.S. (TMUS - Free Report) shares are trading down -5% at this hour, despite reporting a +25.7% earnings beat to $3.13 per share this morning, well ahead of the $2.84 per share posted in the year-ago quarter. Revenues came in at $22.79 billion, a +0.21% improvement from estimates and the $21.13 billion from Q2 2025. For more on TMUS’ earnings, click here.
Investment bank Blackstone (BX - Free Report) shares are flattish this morning — considered good news in the current trading climate — after surpassing earnings expectations by +14.3% to $1.52 per share. Revenues surprised by a solid +12.7% to $3.8 billion in the quarter. Shares are still down -20% year to date, but it’s nice to see the stock not being further gutted in this morning’s selloff. For more on BX’s earnings, click here.
Aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) shares are up in today’s pre-market by +5.5%, partly on increased tensions in the Middle East which may push up demand for military operation products and services, and partly on a strong Q2 performance. Earnings of $7.94 per share outpaced estimates by +9.97%, up from the $7.29 per share reported a year ago. Revenues of $20.06 billion beat forecasts by +3.26% this morning. For more on LMT’s earnings, click here.
Intel Reports After Today’s Close
After today’s close, we’ll see Q2 earnings results from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) tech firm Intel (INTC - Free Report) . The “world’s largest semiconductor company” has absolutely crushed earnings estimates over the past three quarters, and for the quarter it is expected to have grown +310% on earnings year over year, and +12% on revenues.
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