Markets Close in the Green; Nasdaq at Fresh Highs

Markets fought out of a red opening today to flat levels mid-day, and finally to higher closes, albeit modest ones, across the board. The Dow finished up +88 points, +0.20%, the S&P 500 is +8, +0.14% — not quite to new record closing highs — the Nasdaq +54 points, +0.27% — and this is a new all-time closing high — and the small-cap Russell 2000 closed at its session high: +14 points, +0.67%.

We’re not seeing any major economic reports today nor significant Q2 earnings results this Monday; we get started with these on Tuesday ahead of the open. So we’ve been reliant on news reports today to find our way forward…

Meta Platforms META announced today it is scaling up its AI data center operations to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, with multiple multi-gigawatt clusters including its “Prometheus” data center and “Hyperion” center, which will reportedly be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts (GW) over the next several years. The energy required for these projects is reportedly more than is used by some entire countries.

Bitcoin had surged to $122.7K for the first time ever just before 8am ET today, but descended this peak somewhat by the market close. Currently, bitcoin is trading at $119.9K — still at the crest of the main cryptocurrency’s valuation. The promise of future Fed funds rate cuts as 2025 moves along is helping prod bitcoin valuation to record-high levels.

Oil prices, meanwhile, are still down in the mid-$60s tranche where they fell from near-term highs in late June. This time a year ago, oil prices were trading up around $80 per barrel. Occidental Petroleum OXY issued a note seeing lowered production and falling oil prices potentially having a detrimental effect on Q2 earnings, which OXY reports just about four weeks from now.
 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Tuesday

Our snooze alarms go off tomorrow, on what promises to be an eventful day in the market. Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers for June come out, including a new Inflation Rate. Last month, this ticked up from multi-year lows in April at +2.3% to +2.4% in May. Consensus is looking for a 30-basis-point (bps) jump to +2.7%, the highest level we’ve seen since February. The core CPI print is expected to notch back up to +3%, again the highest since the second month of 2025.

For Q2 earnings, we expect to see results from JPMorgan JPM, Citigroup C and Wells Fargo WFC ahead of the opening bell. JPM and WFC are expected to present earnings -0.2% year over year, while Citi is expected +0.1%. Investment banks BlackRock BLK and State Street STT are expected flat earnings year over year. The Bank of New York-Mellon BK looks to have grown +1.27% year over year on its bottom line.
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