Traders trade at the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Thursday, July 16, 2026.

Futures linked to the Nasdaq-100 fell on Tuesday, the first day of trading, amid declining semiconductor shares as investors considered the recent flood of companies’ earning results.

Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index
fell 1.2%, while S&P 500 futures
fell 0.2%. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 310 points, or 0.6%, due to earnings reports of Sherwin-Williams
and Coca-Cola.

SMH was down 3% amid drops of 5% each from Micron and Western Digital. Seagate Technology and Astera Labs also declined on Monday.

Wall Street has seen volatile trade over the past couple of sessions. While the Dow climbed by more than 260 points, the S&P 500 eked out a modest gain. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite ended lower yesterday due to an unwinding of semiconductor stocks that has dragged down the tech-heavy index, impacting Asian markets as well with South Korea’s Kospi Index briefly trading suspended amid a fall of 11%.

The market anxiety is driven by uncertainty ahead of an important week for equities featuring earnings reports from Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft among others. In the semiconductor sector, demand is reliant on continued spending by the hyperscalers despite poor performance from the mega-caps. Apple also releases its results during the week.

Wednesday brings a Federal Reserve rate decision where investors are expecting the central bank to remain unchanged. However, the markets want more information about the path that the central bank is taking regarding monetary policy. Fed Funds Futures were pricing a 25 basis point increase in rates in September, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

“We are calling for no change,” stated Padhraic Garvey, Americas Research Head at ING, in a note on Tuesday morning. “Inflation expectations are subdued enough to satisfy us. In addition, the configuration of the curve is not right for a rate hike cycle. Precisely, the 5-year part is expensive to the curve.”

“It is quite uncommon for the Fed to begin a rate hiking cycle with the 5-year part expensive to the curve. If our assessment is wrong and the Fed hiked (whether this time or the next time), then we believe that any rate hikes made will be subsequently unwound, thus ending up with a lower funds rate compared to now within 12 months.”

Traders were also keeping an eye on oil prices after Iran started discussions with Saudi Arabia and Omani authorities to restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil prices continued to slide, with Brent losing more than 2% to $86.39 a barrel and WTI down 1.9% to $81.03.

Coca-Cola Surpasses Expectations, Raises Yearly Forecast

Coca-Cola
reported earnings in the second quarter of Tuesday, exceeding estimates due to increased demand and driving volume growth globally.

Earnings were 97 cents per share compared to the estimated earnings of 93 cents per share. Earnings per share for the period under review are 13.38 billion compared to 13.16 billion estimated.

In addition, the company revised its outlook for the year, estimating 9% to 10% comparable earnings per share growth, compared to an earlier estimate of 8% to 9%.

“We had another good quarter because we remain focused on evolving consumer and customer needs,” Henrique Braun, Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company. “Despite continued dynamism in the consumer environment, we leveraged our portfolio of leading brands and system capabilities to capture value share, growing revenues, profits and earnings while making long-term investments.”

Largest moving stocks in the pre-market

Get ahead of the pack with the companies in the news pre-market.

Coca-Cola – Stocks gained 2% after the beverage maker beat earnings expectations and raised its full-year guidance. Coca-Cola reported adjusted EPS of 97 cents compared to analyst expectations of 93 cents, according to LSEG. Its revenue of $13.38 billion beat expectations for revenue of $13.16 billion.

Sherwin-Williams Company – Stocks increased almost 6% following the release of better-than-expected results from its second quarter. For the second quarter, Sherwin-Williams recorded an adjusted $3.70 per share profit on revenue of $6.79 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $3.52 per share on revenue of $6.6 billion. Sherwin-Williams also raised its full-year earnings guidance.

Johnson & Johnson – Stocks increased more than 2% after the healthcare giant reached an agreement to pay $5.5 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits over allegations that some of its talc products led to ovarian cancer.

Wells Fargo upgrades Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss has been giving Wells Fargo the upside it hoped to get. Currently, the bank analysts have turned cautious about the apparel company, with its share prices down by more than 2%.

Wells Fargo has lowered the apparel company’s stock to equal weight from overweight. The bank analysts maintained the price target of $25, which represents a 2% drop in value from where the shares closed on Monday. According to analyst Ike Boruchow, although the prospects of the company are bright, good news is currently factored into the stock price.

“We are not making any changes to our estimates or PT ($25) as our LT view of LEVI remains constructive,” Boruchow stated in a note on Tuesday. “We see more of the upside now reflected in current expectations and valuation, while 2H execution risk has increased and warrants moving to an EW rating.”

And now for the latest before the opening bell on Wall Street

American stock futures showed mixed performance before Tuesday’s opening of the market as Dow Jones futures climbed by 121 points, or 0.23 percent, while those for the S&P 500 and the technology-focused Nasdaq
were falling.

American technology stocks were falling on Tuesday before the opening of the market session following falls from their Asian counterparts as Micron Technology
fell by 4.5 percent, and Marvell and Advanced Micro Devices both fell by 3 percent.
Oil futures
continued losing positions as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell by $81.17 after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had “good talks” with Iran.
LVMH
lost ground on Tuesday amid reports of second quarter profits from the French luxury conglomerate behind brands like Louis Vuitton, Moët & Hennessy, Dior and Tiffany.

Buzzfeed up 13% premarket after plans announced to cut 35% of staff

BuzzFeed
soared 13.3 percent in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the firm announced that it was cutting back its staff by 35 percent to increase profits and decrease costs. It marks the first move of its parent company, Byron Allen.

In its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the digital media firm noted that the layoffs will be carried out to reduce operational costs. The layoffs will affect employees and contractors working in its international offices. It will result in savings of $29 million to $32 million from the layoffs.

It’s estimated that it will cost the company between $6.5 million to $8.5 million mainly in its third quarter of 2026.

BuzzFeed said that it will stimulate cash flow by restructuring its organization.

Micron falls 4% before market opens amid concerns over spreading problems in semiconductors industry

Micron Technology shares
were expected to be more than 4% lower in pre-market action, following a global decline in semiconductor stocks which is likely to spill over to the U.S.

Nvidia
was down by 1.2%, with Intel
and AMD
both falling by more than 3%. This came after a flurry of selling activity in Asia.

SK Hynix stock was down by 14.65% and Samsung Electronics
was more than 13% lower on Thursday’s closing in South Korea.

Futures contracts for the Nasdaq tech-heavy market
were underperforming the general market, being down by 0.73% compared to the S&P 500
which was nearly unchanged.