4 Big Tech earnings reports, a Fed meeting, and $100 oil: It’s the busiest week of the quarter
Jake Conley· Breaking Business News Reporter
Sun, July 26, 2026 at 3:30 PM GMT+5:30
11 min read
As another frenetic week in the markets comes to a close, investors prepare to step into a new five-day stretch that might get even busier, with a ream of Big Tech earnings, a Fed decision, and rapidly worsening conditions in the Middle East all front and center
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed out Friday 0.1% in the green for a loss of 0.6% on the week. The Dow (^DJI) gained 0.6% on Friday to close the week 0.4% down. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) 0.6% on Friday, losing 2.1% on the week
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Earnings from four of the “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech leaders headline the week: Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) on Wednesday, then Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN) on Thursday
As was true for earnings last week from Alphabet and Tesla, there’s one big question looming over the Magnificent Seven’s second quarter reports: How much are you spending, and, crucially, what are you getting for it? Can you show real return on investment?
But it’s not all about the Magnificent Seven as investors step into the busiest week of the quarter
AstraZeneca kicks things off on Monday, followed by reports from SK Hynix (SKHY) (the company’s first since listing in the US), Visa (V), Coca-Cola (KO), and Boeing (BA) on Tuesday. Lam Research (LRCX), General Dynamics (GD), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Starbucks (SBUX) follow on Wednesday, before Mastercard (MA), Shell (SHEL), and Anheuser-Busch (BUD) on Thursday. Rounding out the week on Friday are the US energy giants, ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), alongside pharmaceutical giant AbbVie (ABBV) and power stalwart Eaton (ETN).
Pulling attention away from the corporate world for a brief few hours on Wednesday will be the Federal Reserve’s June rate decision. Though the committee is widely expected to hold rates steady, with markets betting on a hike to come in the fall, recent escalations in the Middle East have made the meeting look more lively than it did last week
The final major storyline for investors to follow is the rapidly worsening situation in the Middle East, where attacks in the Red Sea by the Houthis sent oil prices (BZ=F, CL=F) soaring past $100 once more. With no diplomatic solution in sight, inflationary pressures are likely to once again begin capturing significant attention
Google’s disappointment sets a nervous stage for the rest of Big Tech
If there’s any kind of preview for the Big Tech earnings bonanza awaiting investors this week, it’s the aftermath of Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) second quarter report just days ago
Revenue and profit beat expectations. Margins were solid. Google Cloud growth accelerated sharply, by roughly 82% year on year. Search growth was resilient despite competition from the likes of OpenAI’s (OPAI.PVT) ChatGPT and Anthropic’s (ANTH.PVT) Claude
