Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Markets diverged Tuesday — the S&P 500 added 0.24% to 740.86, while the Nasdaq-100 shed 0.97% to 675.49. The 524 AI infrastructure stocks we track underperformed, with 158 advancing, 362 declining, and an average move of -2.52%, 2.76 points behind the SPY. The building segment held up best at -0.36%, while compute & silicon slumped 4.68%. Celestica surged 10.0% to lead all gainers; Amkor Technology tumbled 24.7% to the bottom. Today’s macro calendar is dominated by the FOMC rate decision and press conference at 6 p.m. ET, while a dense earnings slate brings pre‑market releases from Amphenol, Flex, and Generac, and after‑close numbers from Arm Holdings, Lam Research, and Microsoft.

TER (Teradyne, Inc.) delivered a $0.38 beat, with Q2 EPS of $2.47 vs. the $2.09 consensus. The result reflected sustained demand for system-on-chip and memory test systems tied to AI silicon.

GLW (Corning Inc) posted EPS of $0.78, beating the $0.755 consensus by $0.025, as optical‑fiber and precision‑glass demand from data centers and telecom networks held firm.

KLAC (KLA Corporation) edged past the Street with EPS of $1.05 on a $1.00 estimate, underscoring continued investment in advanced process control for leading‑edge logic and memory nodes.

STX (Seagate Technology Holdings plc) delivered the biggest positive surprise of the evening — EPS of $5.71, far above the $5.10 estimate, driven by cloud and hyperscale demand for high‑capacity nearline drives.

CARR (Carrier Global Corporation) reported EPS of $0.86, beating the $0.817 consensus by $0.04, with management pointing to robust orders for data center cooling and building automation systems.

BE (Bloom Energy Corporation) produced a standout beat — EPS of $0.78 vs. $0.39 expected — powered by accelerating fuel‑cell deployments for data center and utility customers.

CORZ (Core Scientific, Inc.) was the glaring miss: a loss of $3.32 per share against an estimate of just -$0.06. The shortfall raises questions about the economics of its Bitcoin‑mining-to‑AI‑colocation pivot.

Flex detailed leadership for its planned cloud and power infrastructure spin‑off. Alongside its Q1 FY2027 print, FLEX named executives for the new company — to be called Flex Cloud & Power Solutions — and reiterated its timeline for separation by calendar‑year end. The standalone entity will focus on liquid cooling, power modules, and integrated rack‑level solutions for hyperscalers, placing it squarely at the center of the AI data center buildout.

Baker Hughes landed a major power generation order for data centers. BKR (Baker Hughes Co) announced this morning that Dynamis Power Solutions awarded it a “major” gas‑turbine order, with units specifically earmarked for data center and oil & gas customers. The deal highlights the accelerating use of on‑site gas‑fired generation as a bridge for AI data centers awaiting grid interconnection.

Microsoft and Meta report after the close — the week’s key hyperscaler updates. Both MSFT (Microsoft Corporation) and META (Meta Platforms) are expected to show capex growth in excess of 30% year‑on‑year, with Azure infrastructure and Llama‑scale training clusters driving the spend. Any change in the pace or composition of that investment will ripple directly through server, networking, and power‑equipment supply chains.

Arm Holdings reports today — a critical readout for edge‑AI silicon adoption. ARM (Arm Holdings) is forecast to post EPS of $0.40. The key metric is royalty revenue growth, particularly from v9 architecture chips going into AI PCs, smartphones, and custom Arm‑based data center processors like AWS Graviton and Google Axion. An acceleration there would signal broadening AI silicon adoption beyond the GPU.

Lam Research’s update comes amid elevated memory capex. LRCX is expected to deliver $1.69 in EPS. Commentary on DRAM spending — especially linked to HBM capacity expansions — will be parsed for clues about wafer‑fab equipment demand through 2027. Lam’s readout often sets the tone for the broader semi‑equipment complex.

Vertiv reports today — direct barometer of data center power and cooling. VRT has an EPS estimate of $1.43. The stock has been under pressure in recent weeks, and the print will provide updated order‑book color on liquid cooling, UPS, and switchgear demand from the hyperscale buildout.

Tomorrow, Amazon and AEP give back‑to‑back reads on power demand. AMZN (Amazon) reports Thursday, and the focus will be AWS growth and capex plans for 2027. The same morning, AEP — a utility with multiple large‑scale data center interconnection projects — reports Q2, offering a direct look at how grid operators are accommodating AI load growth.