CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Mixed July; Amazon Soars, Oil Higher • 7/31/26

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

CNBC Business News Update with Jessica Ettinger - Markets & Business News With Expert Analysis From Top Business Names. Visit CNBC.com For More. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Monday morning after a winning Friday for stocks, the final day of July trading. And it was a mixed month for the major averages with the Dow, the index in the green for July, the others in the red. Amazon had its best week in 10 years. Microsoft had its best week in 25 years. Google Parent Alphabet recovered all of its post-earnings losses. Checking the markets on Friday, the Dow was up to. 276 points. That was a half percent. It was led higher by shares of Amazon, which soared up 15%. The S&P 500 index up 52 points. That was 7 tenths of a percent. And the NASDAQ was up 251 points. That was 1%. And for those major averages, year to date, they're all up 9%. Where do we finish it up, S&P? Just about 7,500. Exactly. We got there first. I keep pointing it out. May 14th for a month, I've been saying maybe that was consequential. I think the question now is, have we spent enough time around here and kind of churned and de-risk parts of this market where it's reloaded a little bit now that we're most of the

way through earnings? CNBC's Mike Santoli. Gold had its first positive month in five in July. Shares of Apple tanked. They were down 7% on Friday while, as we told you, Amazon shares soared. investors are picking AI winners after earnings. Amazon surging even after raising its spending outlook, while Apple shares down more than 9%.

The quarter itself was mostly better than expected. Revenue in EPSB with substantial growth in both iPhone and Mac, but Apple guided current quarter growth below the street, and Tim Cook's final earnings call as CEO did little to answer whether this is simply revenue delayed by supply constraints or the beginning of a lower margin, lower multiple chapter for the company. McKenzie Seagalos. Here's a take on Amazon now from CNBC's David Faber and mad money host Jim Kramer. Something in Andy Jassy did, CEO of Amazon, which made people very much at ease.

He actually talked about a line of sight, not to profitability, but great profitability, how big it will be. And I felt great after I listened to it. Right. AWS is now 169 billion annualized run rate business. It had its fastest growth in 18 quarters and the fifth consecutive quarter of accelerating. That's just amazing for a huge business. Meanwhile, Amazon did get $600 million in Trump tariff refunds. The company says it will pass along some of that to some of its customers. Consumer sentiment came in a touch better for July, while Americans are expecting inflation above 4%. Headline number midmonth was 54. point four. This comes in at 55.2. Now let's go to the inflation numbers embedded in University of Michigan.

The one-year inflation indicator, 4.2. Mid-month read remains exactly the same. Pretty much sideways moves on inflation. Rates are elevated. Look at crude oil again to the upside. CNBC's Rick Santelli oil was higher. Friday, U.S. crude was back above $85 a barrel. U.S. crude soaring up 21% in the month of July as the U.S. and Iran war escalated. On the coming week's watch list, we get a big July jobs report at the end of the week. SpaceX will also release its first earnings report as a publicly traded company. And during the week, we get earnings from big names like Caterpillar, McDonald's, and Disney. Details on all these stories and a lot more at cnbc.com. I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.