"Earnings are the ultimate driver of stock prices. Everything else is just noise." ✍️📈

- Unknown

✅ U.S. stocks were mixed on Tuesday following a strong start to the week that saw fresh record highs. Investors sifted through a new round of corporate earnings

✅ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for a Fed oversight review.

✅ Amazon received a price target lift ahead of its earnings.

✅ Trump Media made a staggering $2B Bitcoin purchase.

✅ Microsoft is scrambling to stop an alarming global cyberattack.

✅ Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne has passed away at 76.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

↗ Dow                            44,502.44                         + 0.40%
↘ Nasdaq                       20,892.69                          - 0.39% 
↗ S&P                              6,309.62                        + 0.064% 

Treasury Secretary Bessent Defends Powell’s Tenure but Pushes for Fed Oversight Review

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling for increased scrutiny of the Federal Reserve’s operations, while stopping short of joining calls for Chair Jerome Powell’s immediate resignation—a demand President Trump has made repeatedly.

"There’s nothing that tells me that he should step down right now," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday. "His term ends in May. If he wants to see that through, I think he should. If he wants to leave early, I think he should."

Despite defending Powell's right to stay on, Bessent intensified pressure on the central bank with a post on X Monday, calling for a formal review of the Fed’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation and a broader examination of its non-monetary policy activities.

He warned that “significant mission creep and institutional growth have taken the Fed into areas that potentially jeopardize the independence of its core monetary policy mission.”

Analysts Lift Amazon Price Targets on AI Gains and Strong Consumer Trends

Analysts are raising their price targets on Amazon (AMZN) ahead of the company’s upcoming second-quarter earnings report on July 31.

Needham’s Laura Martin increased her target to $265 from $220, citing a combination of strong revenue growth from Amazon Web Services (AWS), record-setting Prime Day performance, easing tariff pressures, and reduced logistics costs driven by generative AI.

"AMZN is reporting strong improvement in its labor productivity, which we believe is a lead indicator to upside share price performance," Martin noted.

Deutsche Bank’s Lee Horowitz also raised his price target on Amazon shares, moving it to $266 from $230. He pointed to continued consumer spending and fading tariff concerns as positive signs for e-commerce. Horowitz also highlighted "healthy" advertising revenue and "AI tailwinds" boosting AWS as additional reasons for optimism heading into the earnings release.

Trump Media Shares Rally After $2 Billion Bitcoin Buy as Crypto Strategy Takes Shape

Trump Media (DJT) stock jumped more than 5% Monday following the company’s announcement that it purchased $2 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC-USD) and related securities.

The media group, which operates President Trump’s social platform Truth Social along with streaming service Truth+ and financial brand Truth.Fi, said the crypto acquisition aligns with its May plan to become a bitcoin treasury company.

With this purchase, Trump Media’s bitcoin holdings now make up about two-thirds of its $3 billion total assets.

“We’re rigorously implementing our publicly announced strategy and fulfilling our bitcoin treasury plan,” said CEO and president Devin Nunes in a press release. “These assets help ensure our company’s financial freedom, help protect us against discrimination by financial institutions, and will create synergies with the utility token we’re planning to introduce across the Truth Social ecosphere.”

The company also revealed it has allocated $300 million toward an “options acquisition strategy for bitcoin related securities.”

Trump’s involvement in crypto is growing amid new federal legislation aimed at clearer, more favorable regulation. Last Friday, he signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing the first federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins—expected to accelerate adoption of these digital assets.

Additionally, a crypto startup backed by Trump and his sons, World Liberty Financial, recently launched a US-dollar-pegged stablecoin (USD1) in partnership with BitGo.

Trump Media first revealed its plan in May to raise $2.5 billion to build a bitcoin treasury—a popular approach among crypto firms combining public equity and debt to rapidly accumulate bitcoin.

Microsoft Scrambles to Halt Global Cyberattacks Exploiting SharePoint Flaw

Hackers have exploited a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s widely used SharePoint software to infiltrate governments, businesses, and organizations worldwide, stealing sensitive data, according to officials and cybersecurity experts.

Over the weekend, Microsoft released a security patch for the flaw affecting SharePoint servers, but additional fixes are still being deployed as attackers continue to target vulnerable systems to access file networks and execute malicious code.

Multiple hacker groups are actively exploiting the vulnerability, cybersecurity firms CrowdStrike Holdings and Google’s Mandiant Consulting confirmed.

A source familiar with the matter revealed that national governments in Europe and the Middle East have already been compromised. In the U.S., attackers accessed systems including those of the Department of Education, Florida’s Department of Revenue, and the Rhode Island General Assembly, according to the anonymous source.

Representatives from these agencies did not respond to requests for comment. Florida’s Department of Revenue spokesperson Bethany Wester Cutillo stated that the SharePoint vulnerability is under investigation “at multiple levels of government” but declined to comment on the software used.

Additionally, a U.S.-based health care provider and a public university in Southeast Asia were targeted, per a cybersecurity report reviewed by Bloomberg News. The report noted that hackers attempted breaches on SharePoint servers in countries including Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.

The attackers have stolen login credentials—usernames, passwords, hash codes, and tokens—in some cases, a person familiar with the incidents said, speaking anonymously.

“This is a high-severity, high-urgency threat,” said Michael Sikorski, chief technology officer and head of threat intelligence for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks Inc.

“What makes this especially concerning is SharePoint’s deep integration with Microsoft’s platform, including their services like Office, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook, which has all the information valuable to an attacker. A compromise doesn’t stay contained—it opens the door to the entire network.”

SharePoint is used by tens of thousands—possibly hundreds of thousands—of organizations globally to store and collaborate on documents. Microsoft noted that the attacks are primarily targeting clients running SharePoint servers on their own premises rather than cloud-hosted versions, potentially limiting the scope.

Ozzy Osbourne, the trailblazing voice behind Black Sabbath and a defining figure in the evolution of heavy metal, has died at age 76.

The British icon, who also found fame as a solo artist and reality TV personality, passed away Tuesday following a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease, according to the BBC.

Osbourne revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in January 2020 and formally stepped away from touring in February 2023, citing ongoing complications from a serious 2018 spinal injury. In a heartfelt message to fans, he wrote: “Believe me when I say that the thought of disappointing my fans really FUCKS ME UP, more than you will ever know. Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.”

Rising from the industrial city of Birmingham, Osbourne fronted Black Sabbath from 1969 to 1979, helping to shape the heavy metal genre with a sound steeped in gloom and power. Despite inner-band tensions and struggles with addiction, albums like Paranoid and Master of Reality became enduring classics. At the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, music critic Deborah Frost captured their raw appeal: “Black Sabbath simply oozed upon us, unfestooned by any pretense of art, peace, love, understanding, or mushroom embroidery, and immediately defined heavy metal.”

In the 2000s, Osbourne reinvented himself for a new generation as the star of MTV’s The Osbournes, where his chaotic but heartfelt family life earned him a new level of cultural resonance. Viewers embraced him as a "trembling Goth-looking Dad" amid a candid, often hilarious household.

📉 ON THE MOVE AND NOTABLES 📈

✔️ Gold hit a 5-week high this week.

✔️ The U.S. dollar remains steady against a trade-weighted basket of currencies.

✔️ Oil prices dipped 1%, staying within the recent $65–$70 range.

✔️ Treasury Secretary Bessant emphasized that the U.S. is not rushing to finalize trade agreements before the self-imposed August 1 deadline.

✔️ Bitcoin has hovered under $120,000 as profit taking hit a 7-month high.

✔️ According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the likelihood of a Fed rate cut next week is under 5%, while the chances of at least one cut by September hover around 57%, though September odds have fallen recently.

✔️ President Donald Trump said he is considering a proposal to end capital gains taxes on home sales in a bid to boost the housing market.

✔️ General Motors (GM) dropped despite beating earnings and revenue estimates. CFO highlighted a $1.1 billion tariff-related hit in the quarter during an interview with CNBC. GM reaffirmed its May guidance, which accounted for a potential $4 billion to $5 billion tariff impact.

✔️ Philip Morris (PM) slipped after reporting earnings per share that beat expectations but revenue that missed consensus. The company also lowered its third-quarter and full-year guidance, forecasting 12% to 14% growth in smoke-free products but a 2% decline in cigarette volumes.

✔️ Coca-Cola (KO) shares edged lower following earnings that slightly beat estimates on the bottom line but matched revenue expectations. The company issued fiscal 2025 EPS guidance below consensus and its prior outlook, citing a 1% to 2% currency headwind and a 1% impact from acquisitions, divestitures, and structural charges. The company announced that it will introduce beverages made with real cane sugar to its U.S. lineup this fall, while continuing to offer its signature products sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

✔️ Northrop Grumman (NOC) gained following an earnings beat.

✔️ PulteGroup and D.R. Horton surged as both homebuilders surprised investors with robust quarterly results.

✔️ Google (GOOG) edged up slightly, and Tesla (TSLA) gained about 1% ahead of their eagerly awaited earnings reports.

✔️ Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, announced a strategic partnership with Pittsburgh-based PNC bank on Tuesday.

✔️ Kohl’s (KSS) stock jumped with trading temporarily halted after shares briefly surged 105%.

✔️ Circle (CRCL) shares fell, extending its decline from the previous day.

✔️ The “Magnificent Seven” stocks have risen 27% over the past three months, outperforming the 11% gain in the rest of the S&P 500, according to Barron’s.

✔️ Apple (AAPL) gained early Tuesday, building on Monday’s rally to two-week highs after Bloomberg reported plans for a foldable phone next year. Still, shares are down about 15% year to date.

✔️ Lockheed Martin’s stock plunged 8.8% after earnings and revenue missed estimates, hurt by significant losses in a classified Aeronautics program. The company lowered fiscal 2025 earnings guidance below consensus.

✔️ Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) slid after the FDA ordered the company to stop shipments of its bestselling drug.

✔️ Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) shares surged after the steelmaker posted second-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations, despite year-over-year declines in both earnings and revenue.

✔️ NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) declined after issuing a Q3 outlook that forecasted lower earnings per share compared to last year, despite beating earnings and matching revenue estimates.

✔️ CoreWeave (CRWV) extended its rally supported by a $1.5 billion bond sale.

✔️ Opendoor (OPEN) made more moves north and is up 300% since July 11; Barron’s labeled it “a classic example of a meme stock.”

✔️ ChatGPT receives 2.5 billion prompts from global users every day, OpenAI told Axios.

✔️ Shares of Domino’s Pizza rose following its second-quarter results, as Wall Street weighed strong sales performance against weaker-than-expected earnings per share.

✔️ Tax software company Avalara, which went private in 2022, disclosed on Monday it had confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering.

✔️ Big Three automaker Stellantis (STLA) cautioned on Monday that it anticipates a net loss of 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) for the first half of 2025, driven by restructuring expenses, declining sales, and initial impacts from U.S. tariffs.

✔️ Target (TGT) dropped after Barclays downgraded the retailer from Equal Weight to Underweight, citing expectations that Target’s sales will continue to lag. Starting on July 28th, the retailer is altering its “price match” policy, which allowed customers to request and receive a refund for the difference of a product if the shopper found the identical item cheaper at Amazon, Walmart or Target itself within 14 days of purchase.

✔️ Texas Instruments (TXN) fell ahead of its earnings report after the close. Its results are seen as a barometer for demand in smartphones, medical devices, and automobiles. Investors also await updates on plans to build or expand seven U.S. semiconductor plants.

✔️ Solana (SOL-USD) moved higher after a Florida-based real estate data firm revealed it had purchased nearly 1 million units of the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency.

✔️ Trump Media (DJT) shares rose following the company’s announcement that it acquired $2 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC-USD) and related securities.

💲What Else to Watch This Week 💲

The Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting is just eight days away, with the FOMC showing signs of division on interest rate direction.

The first two Magnificent 7 stocks have their earnings this week: Alphabet and Tesla.  

The electric vehicle maker has faced a challenging period recently. "Tesla is heading into one of the most important stages of its growth cycle with the autonomous and robotics future now on the doorstep and cannot have Musk spending more and more time creating a political party which will require countless time, energy, and political capital," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who rates the stock as Outperform.

🟢 July 23: Existing home sales and expected earnings from AT&T (T), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), GE Vernova (GEV), General Dynamics (GD), Hasbro (HAS), Hilton Worldwide (HLT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Chipotle (CMG), CSX (CSX), IBM (IBM), T-Mobile (TMUS), and Tesla (TSLA).

🟢 July 24: ECB interest rate decision, June new home sales, and expected earnings from American Airlines (AAL), Dow (DOW), Honeywell (HON), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Union Pacific (UNP), Intel (INTC), and Newmont Mining (NEM).

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