Stock Market This Week (July 6–10, 2026): Iran Strikes Rattle Dow, Nasdaq Hits New Highs
The S&P 500 gained 1.23% to close at 7,575.39 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.74% to 26,281.61 during the July 6-10, 2026 trading week, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.50% after the collapse of the Iran ceasefire sent WTI crude toward $71 a barrel and pushed the 10-year Treasury yield up 7 basis points to 4.56%.
The Week At A Glance
Mega-cap tech and chipmakers carried the S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq Composite (QQQ) to gains this week even as an Iran ceasefire collapse hammered industrial and rate-sensitive names in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA). The S&P 500 added 92.16 points, or 1.23%, closing Friday at 7,575.39 and pushing its year-to-date gain to 10.66%. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 448.94 points (1.74%) to 26,281.61, now up 13.08% on the year. The Dow was the week's laggard, shedding 263.06 points (-0.50%) to 52,637.01 — still up 9.52% YTD — after a 576.76-point (-1.09%) Wednesday plunge tied to Iran headlines. The Russell 2000 (IWM) was essentially flat, down 2.25 points (-0.08%) to 2,977.81, but remains the year's best-performing major index at +19.98% YTD.
VIX & Positioning
The VIX opened the week near 15.57, spiked to roughly 16.9 on Thursday as the Iran ceasefire fell apart, then dropped 6.3% Friday to close at 15.84 — a roughly 15.5-to-17 range that ended the week close to unchanged. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 7 basis points, from 4.49% to 4.56%, touching a seven-week high of 4.58% intraweek. The 2-year yield moved in lockstep, up 7 basis points to 4.21% from 4.14%. The US Dollar Index slipped roughly 0.8%, from about 101.50 to 100.70. WTI crude (CL=F) closed Friday at $71.41 a barrel, up roughly 5% on the week — its second straight weekly gain — as strikes near the Strait of Hormuz and Washington's revocation of an Iranian oil-sales waiver stoked supply fears. Gold (GC=F) finished near $4,105 an ounce, little changed on net despite intraday whipsaws, as progress on a broader diplomatic track capped the safe-haven bid even as headlines worsened mid-week.
Weekly Sector Performance
Energy and tech led; defensives and materials brought up the rear as the Iran shock reshuffled positioning.
| Sector ETF | Sector | Weekly % Change | YTD % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| XLE | Energy | +3.49% | +21.0% |
| XLK | Technology | +2.87% | +33.0% |
| XLC | Communication Services | +1.86% | -6.5% |
| XLF | Financials | +0.16% | -1.3% |
| XLY | Consumer Discretionary | +0.10% | -1.75% |
| XLRE | Real Estate | -0.51% | +11.1% |
| XLU | Utilities | -0.77% | +5.6% |
| XLP | Consumer Staples | -1.02% | +10.0% |
| XLI | Industrials | -1.08% | +20.0% |
| XLV | Health Care | -1.77% | -7.0% |
| XLB | Materials | -2.15% | +9.0% |
Energy's 3.49% weekly pop tracked the crude spike directly; tech's 2.87% gain came on chip-sector optimism. Health care and materials were the week's weak spots, with XLV dragged lower in part by AstraZeneca's Phase 3 miss.
Biggest Stock Movers This Week
SK Hynix (SKHY) made history Friday, pricing 177.9 million ADRs at $149 to raise $26.5 billion — the largest foreign IPO ever on a US exchange. Demand ran roughly 7x available shares, and the stock closed its debut session up 13% near $168, with regular ticker trading set to begin Monday.
NVIDIA (NVDA) rose 3.7% on reports that Chinese authorities may allow domestic AI firms to purchase limited volumes of H200 chips, reopening a market Washington had restricted.
AstraZeneca (AZN) dropped 8% premarket after its heart-disease drug candidate missed its Phase 3 primary endpoint, the week's biggest single-name health care casualty.
Penguin Solutions (PENG) surged 25.1% after reporting fiscal Q3 adjusted EPS of $0.84 against a $0.63 estimate, one of the week's sharpest earnings-driven rallies.
PepsiCo (PEP) reported adjusted EPS of $2.20 versus a $2.21 estimate — a one-cent miss — on revenue up 6.4% year-over-year to $24.18 billion, while affirming full-year guidance.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) posted $1.4 billion in pretax profit despite its highest-ever quarterly fuel expense, reaffirming full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $6.50 to $7.50.
M&A: Solstice Advanced Materials agreed to acquire Element Solutions (ESI) for roughly $14.5 billion in cash and stock — $10.00 cash plus 0.5 Solstice shares per ESI share, valuing the deal near $50.10/share, a roughly 15% premium — with ESI falling about 3% and Solstice shares down about 15% on deal-financing concerns. Separately, Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced a roughly $10 billion all-cash acquisition of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (CRNX) at $85.00 per share, expected to close in Q3 2026.
Macro & Policy
No CPI or PPI landed this week — both arrive next week (CPI July 14, PPI July 15) — leaving Wednesday's FOMC minutes as the week's dominant policy event. The minutes from the Fed's June 16-17 meeting, released Wednesday at 2:00pm ET, showed a surprisingly hawkish split under new Chair Kevin Warsh: the committee held rates unanimously at 3.50%-3.75%, but of 18 participants, 9 saw at least one more hike by year-end, 8 saw no change, and just 1 saw a cut, with several officials flagging AI capex, tariffs, and Middle East tensions as inflation risks. That hawkish read followed a soft June payrolls report from the prior week — just 57,000 jobs added versus roughly 115,000-117,000 expected, with unemployment ticking down to 4.2% from 4.3% — which had briefly fueled dovish rate-cut bets before the minutes reset the narrative. Fed Governor Christopher Waller spoke Monday in Rome on monetary policy, and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman addressed AI practices in banking Tuesday. The week's dominant headline was geopolitical: President Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" at the NATO summit in Turkey Wednesday, US forces conducted a second night of strikes on Iranian targets, Iran retaliated against US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, Washington revoked a waiver permitting Iranian oil exports, and tanker attacks were reported near the Strait of Hormuz — the combination that drove the Dow's Wednesday selloff, the crude spike, and the Treasury-yield jump before markets stabilized into Friday on signs of renewed diplomacy.
Q2 2026 Earnings Season Snapshot
Eighteen S&P 500 companies had reported second-quarter results through Friday, with 89% beating EPS estimates and aggregate earnings running 14.5% above estimates. FactSet's blended Q2 EPS growth estimate for the index was revised up to 23.6% from 23.2% at quarter-end on the strength of those early beats. Of the 111 S&P 500 companies that issued Q2 guidance ahead of the season, 63 — or 57% — guided positive, well above the five- and ten-year averages of roughly 41%. This week functioned as the season's soft-open, with PepsiCo, Delta, Levi Strauss, and Penguin Solutions reporting; the heavy hitters — the big banks — don't report until next week, when the real test of the quarter's 23%-plus growth estimate begins.
What To Watch Next Week (July 13-17)
- Tuesday, July 14: Bank earnings kick off in force — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are all slated to report Q2 results.
- Tuesday, July 14: June CPI hits at 8:30am ET alongside Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's congressional testimony — the first inflation print since the hawkish FOMC minutes.
- Wednesday, July 15: June PPI, plus earnings from ASML, Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines, and J.B. Hunt Transport; China releases Q2 GDP and the Bank of Canada delivers a rate decision.
- Thursday, July 16: Netflix reports Q2 results; June retail sales, weekly jobless claims, and the Philly Fed Index also land.
- Friday, July 17: June industrial production and capacity utilization, plus housing starts and building permits data.
- SK Hynix (SKHY) begins regular-ticker trading Monday following its record $26.5 billion Friday debut.