July 30, 2025

Wall Street stocks lost ground in afternoon trading after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell failed to indicate a rate cut is likely in the coming months. Investors were cautiously optimistic to start the session following a government report that the U.S. economy grew at annualized rate of 3% in Q2 which marked a turnaround from the contraction posted in Q1. However, a rotation into defensive names led to the DJ Utility Index closing at a fresh new high following the Chairman's press conference in which he said that "we have made no decision about September." The Technology (XLK) sector was also strong with semiconductors leading the way after Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO0 continued to hit new highs. The DJIA fell 171.71 points (-0.38%) and settled at 44461.28. The S&P 500 was lower by 7.96 points (-0.12%) and closed at 6362.90 but the NASDAQ rose by 31.38 points (0.15%), closing at 21129.67.  

Breadth was negative with declining issues beating advancing issues by nearly 5:2 on the NYSE and 2:1 on the NASDAQ. The declining volume was 72% on the NYSE and 58% on the NASDAQ. VIX was lower by -0.50 points (-3.13%) and settled at 15.48. Crude oil finished higher by $1.12 (1.62%), as the September contract closed at $70.33 a barrel while Gold finished lower by 54.60 (-1.65%) and settled at $3326.60 an ounce. Bitcoin (BTC) closed the session at 117032.87.   

The Put/Call Ratio, a short-term contrarian sentiment indicator that compares the volume of puts to calls, is beginning to rise, indicating some short-term bearishness among traders. Not all was bad as NASDAQ was able to post positive while the VIX fell lower after an initial spike up to 17. All eyes will be on big tech earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META) after the bell. 

Earnings releases to watch on Thursday include Apple (AAPL), Abbvie (ABBV), Amazon (AMZN), Comcast (CMCSA), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), KKR & Co. (KKR), KLA Corporation (KLA), Microstrategy (MSTR), Mastercard (MA), S&P Global (SPGI), Stryker (SYK) and Southern (SO).  

Thursday's Market Moving Economic Calendar includes Weekly Jobless Claims, Personal Income and Outlays, Employment Cost Index, Chicago PMI and Fed Balance Sheet. 

By Richard Cuvilly