What moved
- S&P 500 closed up 0.89% at 7,509.21; Nasdaq Composite led with a 1.29% gain to 25,837.21; the Dow added 0.74% to 52,224.82.
- FTSE 100 finished 0.58% higher at 10,585.91; the DAX rose 0.66% to 25,011.35; the CAC 40 added a more modest 0.28% to 8,363.14.
- In Asia, the Nikkei 225 was the outlier, down 0.90% to 66,232.19, while the Hang Seng jumped 2.32% to 25,132.29 and mainland China's Shanghai Composite climbed 2.66% to 3,864.37 on a semiconductor rebound.
Why
Earnings did most of the work. Of the S&P 500 names that have reported so far, the overwhelming majority have beaten on the bottom line, and Tuesday's crop reinforced it: Northrop Grumman beat comfortably and raised its 2026 sales guidance, Danaher topped both revenue and profit estimates and lifted its full-year outlook, and 3M's own beat had already lifted the stock sharply. That earnings resilience gave the tape permission to look past a rougher macro backdrop.
The other engine was chips. Semiconductor names sold off hard in China on Monday before staging a sharp rebound Tuesday, and that recovery carried into US trading ahead of this week's Alphabet and Tesla results, pulling the Nasdaq's gain well clear of the Dow's.
None of that fully squares with oil. Brent pushed above $91 and WTI rose above $84 as the US and Iran traded further strikes and Houthi threats to Saudi shipping raised fresh Red Sea supply-risk concerns — a genuine geopolitical shock that equities mostly shrugged off, even as gold jumped in tandem, a combination that does not fit neatly into a single risk-on story and is worth flagging rather than papering over.
Sentiment & risk appetite
The VIX fell 9.49% to 16.88, a sharp de-risking in equity volatility, but the MOVE index still rose 2.51% to 72.66 — bond-market anxiety is not falling in step with stock-market calm. Within the S&P, Technology led sector gains while Consumer Staples and Communication Services lagged, a reminder the rally has a definite lean even as the Russell 2000's 1.42% advance shows it wasn't confined to megacaps. Outside the US, PrimerIQ's own breadth data show advancers beating decliners comfortably in the UK, Europe and Asia, arguing this was a broader risk-on day than the US sector split alone suggests.
Economic calendar
Tuesday's US data calendar was empty of top-tier releases, leaving earnings to do the talking. The next major catalyst is the Federal Reserve's rate decision on Wednesday 29 July at 2:00pm ET, with Chair Powell's press conference to follow at 2:30pm ET — markets are effectively in a data lull until then, save for the daily drip of second-quarter earnings.
Earnings
Northrop Grumman, Danaher and Hasbro all reported before Tuesday's open. Northrop beat estimates comfortably and raised full-year guidance on strong weapons demand; Danaher topped both revenue and EPS forecasts and lifted its outlook, though its shares slipped in early trading regardless; Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast unit drove a strong beat even as its Entertainment segment kept shrinking. The heavier reporting load, including Chubb and Marsh & McLennan, lands after tonight's close.