Tuesday, July 28, 2026

The S&P 500 inched 0.24% higher to $740.86, but tech-heavy QQQ dropped 0.97% to $675.49. Our 524-stock AI infrastructure universe fared worse, with decliners outnumbering advancers 362 to 158 and an average move of -2.52%—trailing the broader market by 2.76 percentage points. Building names were the relative haven at just -0.36%, while compute & silicon stocks tumbled 4.68% on the day. CLS (Celestica Inc.) surged 10.0% on a strong earnings beat, whereas AMKR (Amkor Technology) plunged 24.7% despite also clearing consensus. Today brings the heaviest earnings calendar of the week, headlined by STX (Seagate Technology), GLW (Corning Inc), BE (Bloom Energy), KLAC (KLA Corporation), CORZ (Core Scientific), and CARR (Carrier Global); later this week the spotlight shifts to MSFT (Microsoft), AMZN (Amazon), ARM (Arm Holdings), LRCX (Lam Research), VRT (Vertiv), and ETN (Eaton). On the macro front, the July consumer confidence reading hits at 10:00 a.m., interspersed with OPEC headlines and the June goods trade balance.

NUE (Nucor Corporation) earned $4.84 per share in its second quarter, comfortably above the $4.46 estimate. Shares rose 7.2%, reversing a portion of their recent slide, as the steelmaker’s non‑residential construction volumes benefited from industrial and data‑center project activity.

CLS (Celestica Inc.) delivered Q2 EPS of $2.54 compared with the Street’s $2.29, a $0.25 beat. The stock jumped 10.0%—the best single‑session move in the universe—reflecting optimism around the company’s AI‑driven networking and compute assembly operations.

AMKR (Amkor Technology) posted Q2 EPS of $0.70, $0.23 ahead of consensus, but the shares cratered 24.7%. The decline was the steepest across the 524‑name universe and occurred despite the headline beat, suggesting the market found reasons for caution beneath the printed number.

SANM (Sanmina Corporation) reported $3.31 per share, a $0.54 beat, yet its stock dropped 17.5%. The contrast with the Celestica performance underscores an uneven landscape in the server‑and‑networking segment.

APLD (Applied Digital) recorded a loss of $0.39 per share, missing the consensus estimate of a $0.09 loss. The miss highlights the expense of ramping high‑power‑density HPC hosting facilities.

Meta Platforms is partnering with BlackRock to develop a data center in El Paso, Texas. The joint venture, disclosed this morning, brings the financial backing of the world’s largest asset manager to a hyperscale campus in a high‑growth region. The announcement underscores the growing role of non‑traditional capital sources in funding AI infrastructure.

Core Scientific and AMD announced an infrastructure partnership. The collaboration will place AMD Instinct GPUs inside CORZ (Core Scientific)’s data centers, offering scaled AI compute capacity to enterprise and cloud customers. It marks one of the more significant AMD‑centric deployments in the colocation/HPC hosting market.

Galaxy Digital acquired a 500‑acre campus in McGregor, Texas, to expand its data‑center footprint. The acquisition adds another large‑scale site to the pipeline of AI and digital‑asset hosting facilities in the state, further concentrating power and construction demand in the ERCOT region.

Corning released second‑quarter results, pointing to progress on its Springboard plan. The company highlighted traction in optical connectivity products tied to data‑center fiber and specialty glass for advanced packaging. The details arrive on a busy reporting day for the optical supply chain.

Axcelis Technologies completed a successful evaluation of its Purion XEmax ion implanter at a leading semiconductor foundry. The qualification clears a path for potential volume tool orders at a manufacturing node that feeds advanced logic and AI accelerator chips.

Today’s reports from Seagate, Corning, Bloom Energy, and KLA will provide a real‑time pulse on the hardware layers of the AI stack. Seagate’s nearline HDD demand and Corning’s optical sales will be scrutinized for what they say about cloud storage and interconnect deployment. Bloom Energy’s readout is a direct window into fuel‑cell‑based on‑site power at data centers, while KLA’s results and guide will frame expectations for wafer‑fab equipment spending into the second half.

Tomorrow brings the triple‑header of Microsoft, Arm Holdings, and Lam Research. Microsoft’s Azure capex commentary is a bellwether for near‑term compute capacity spend; Arm’s royalty trajectory will speak to the breadth of AI endpoint and edge‑chip designs; Lam Research will offer its outlook on etch and deposition tool demand, with implications for the logic and memory build‑out.

Amazon reports on Wednesday, joined by ETR, WEC, and AEP on the utility side. Amazon’s AWS capex intentions, alongside its custom silicon and networking efforts, are a critical signpost for the pace of cloud‑infrastructure investment. The trio of large‑cap utilities—Entergy, WEC Energy, and American Electric Power—will each update on the transmission and interconnection projects that underpin large‑scale data‑center loads.

Thursday’s highlight is Eaton, which closes the week with its quarterly results. Eaton’s electrical‑segment orders and backlog will be parsed for evidence that data‑center construction and power‑management demand are maintaining momentum into the second half of the year.