Market Update Into July 20th:

3 mins read

Markets turned bearish last week, capped by a broad tech selloff on Friday after China released its K3 Kimi AI model. Inflation data came in cooler than expected, with CPI dropping 0.4% and PPI falling 0.3% MoM, pulling rate hike odds lower and popping the market higher midweek. Oil prices kept climbing as geopolitical tensions stayed hostile, adding a wrinkle to an otherwise dovish CPI print. On the earnings front, the major banks delivered big beats, with $JPM, $GS, and $BAC all showing strength for the financial sector. $NFLX also reported earnings after Thursday’s close, missing on revenue and guiding Q3 below consensus, piling pressure on communication services into Friday’s bell. In other news:

Looking ahead, earnings season is back in full swing with heavyweights like $TSLA, $GOOGL, and $INTC all on deck. The economic calendar runs light, with new home sales and Friday’s PMI the only notable prints. With the charts flashing bearish signals, let’s see how they’re setting up.

Weekly Analysis

SPY (SPDR S&P 500)

$SPY closed the week in the red at $743.29 (-1.54%), still chopping within the range it’s held since June. It has been coiling within a cup just ~2% below its all-time highs, with volume steadily declining as price tightened. Then Friday brought a gap down on the K3 Kimi news alongside July’s OpEx, spiking volume. As $SPY works within this range, upcoming earnings and geopolitical tensions could be the catalysts to send it to new highs or break it down lower.

QQQ (Invesco QQQ Trust)

$QQQ had a brutal week and closed at $695.33 (-3.89%), as tech sold off on Friday. The Nasdaq just broke out of a rare diamond pattern to the downside on strong volume, with the weekly MACD on the brink of a bearish crossover. Bears are in control heading into a wave of tech earnings. Can the bulls find a bid?

IWM (iShares Russell 2000)

$IWM ended last week lower as well, closing at $294.04 (-1.25%) as small-caps outperformed the rest of the pack. It looks the most bullish by far of the major indexes, trading at the support of an ascending channel. With inflation finally cooling and rate hike odds fading, $IWM just needs to hold this support for the bulls to stay in control.

Earnings

Notable Results

GS (Goldman Sachs)

EPS: $20.98 vs $14.10 est
REV: $20.338B vs $16.052B est

UNH (UnitedHealth Group)

EPS: $6.38 vs $4.85 est
REV: $112.032B vs $110.766B est

MS (Morgan Stanley)

EPS: $3.46 vs $2.81 est
REV: $21.348B vs $19.277B est

C (Citigroup)

EPS: $3.15 vs $2.67 est
REV: $24.766B vs $23.471B est

WFC (Wells Fargo)

EPS: $1.96 vs $1.71 est
REV: $22.622B vs $21.796B est

TSM (Taiwan Semiconductor)

EPS: $4.31 vs $3.77 est
REV: $40.200B vs $39.760B est

BNY (Bank of New York Mellon)

EPS: $2.46 vs $2.20 est
REV: $5.698B vs $5.377B est

BLK (BlackRock)

EPS: $13.91 vs $12.55 est
REV: $7.084B vs $6.677B est

ASML (ASML)

EPS: $8.82 vs $7.98 est
REV: $10.841B vs $10.280B est

JPM (JPMorgan Chase)

EPS: $6.14 vs $5.59 est
REV: $58.020B vs $49.393B est

PNC (PNC Financial Services)

EPS: $4.85 vs $4.43 est
REV: $6.875B vs $6.399B est

GE (General Electric)

EPS: $2.02 vs $1.85 est
REV: $13.349B vs $11.788B est

BAC (Bank of America)

EPS: $1.21 vs $1.11 est
REV: $31.558B vs $30.324B est

PLD (Prologis)

EPS: $1.63 vs $1.53 est
REV: $2.183B vs $2.155B est

PGR (Progressive)

EPS: $4.86 vs $4.59 est
REV: $21.573B vs $21.619B est

ABT (Abbott Laboratories)

EPS: $1.31 vs $1.28 est
REV: $12.593B vs $12.510B est

JNJ (Johnson & Johnson)

EPS: $2.90 vs $2.85 est
REV: $25.310B vs $25.049B est

NFLX (Netflix)

EPS: $0.80 vs $0.79 est
REV: $12.560B vs $12.579B est

What’s Happening Now

GS Goldman Sachs
GS and MS dominated Q2 2026 financials earnings lineup, posting massive EPS surprises of 48.8% and 23.1%. Both were fueled by revitalized investment banking revenues and a fundamental fee boost from underwriting the historic SpaceX IPO. However, traditional lenders like JPM and BAC also posted solid beats while leading the broad XLF sector ETF to ATH.

MS Morgan Stanley
Next week, MS and GS both show 80% average win-rates with dual +2.3% average gains via 15Y of seasonality data. Morgan Stanley’s M&A advisory revenues recently hit $798 million, driven by deals across industrials, technology, and healthcare while potentially hinting at underlying macroeconomic strength. Amid the recent corporate uptick, however, MS executives signaled that current M&A volumes versus the total market still hover near “multi-year lows.”

XLK Technology Sector
Over the past year, tech and energy (XLE) led all market sectors, while defensive XLP and consumer-heavy XLY were relatively modest in return. Recently, a major rotation has emerged: tech momentum slowed, down slightly over the past 1M, yet healthcare (XLV) and financials (XLF) caught relative bids. On the 3M timeframe, however, all three (tech, healthcare, and financials) have boomed +8-15%.

Believe it or not, this is just a fraction of what happened in the markets last week. For a full rundown delivered straight to your inbox every weekend, sign up for The Official Trendspider Newsletter!