The S&P 500 has continued its bullish run this week, growing by 0.59%, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 touching their all-time highs. Despite macro uncertainty due to tariff tensions, investor optimism remains high, driven by resilient earnings, optimism around digital asset regulation, and sustained AI enthusiasm.
Among the week’s standout developments was President Trump’s plan to open the 401(k) and IRA markets to cryptocurrency investments, gold, and private equity. The move would radically transform the future of 401(k)s and IRAs, shifting the way American savings are managed. While no formal policy has been implemented, Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week. The move would also be beneficial to private capital groups, such as Blackstone and Apollo, which have indicated that access to 401(k) retirement plans could attract hundreds of billions of dollars in new industry assets.
BlackRock echoed the growing institutional embrace of digital and private assets in their Q2’25 earnings call. The world’s largest asset manager mentioned growing demand and AUM for such assets.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve made headlines again. President Trump reportedly considered firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, later mentioning it is “highly unlikely”. Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to lower US interest rates in a series of highly critical outbursts, which continued on Wednesday when the president called him a “knucklehead” and claimed he was “doing a lousy job”. Treasury yields have continued to climb, with Powell reiterating that he wants to see inflation sustainably below 2% before implementing any rate cuts. The most recent CPI print came in at 2.7%, still trending down but leaving the Fed in wait-and-see mode.
Weekly Earnings Roundup: Surprises & Misses
Several major companies released their earnings last week, including JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE), PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), American Express (NYSE: AXP), and 3M Company (NYSE: MMM). Below is a quick look at some of the most notable names.
BlackRock AUM touched a record high, coming in at $12.53 trillion. Revenue came in at $5.42 billion, lower than average analysts’ expectations of $5.46 billion. Share price slumped after the company reported a large institutional client pulled $52B from an index strategy.
Citigroup Q2’25 results surpassed earnings expectations, with net income coming in at $4.02 billion, climbing 25% from the same quarter last year. Revenue came in at $21.67 billion vs $20.98 billion estimate, while EPS was $1.96, higher than the $1.60 expected.
Elevance Health share price declined as the company cut its profit outlook to $30 per share from a range of $34.15 to $34.85 for the year due to higher medical costs in Affordable Care Act plans and lower reimbursement from Medicaid. EPS for Q2’25 came in at $8.84, lower than expectations of $8.94.
Taiwan chip manufacturer TSMC reported a 61% YoY rise in profit, hitting a record high and beating estimates, as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong. Revenue came in at $31.7 billion, representing a 38.65% increase from the same period last year and exceeding expectations.
Top Gainers
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) rallied by 7% after Wells Fargo raised its price target and optimism around the company’s plans to restart exports of its MI308 chips to China once it receives final approval from U.S. authorities.
Warner Bros (NASDAQ: WBD) share price jumped by 6% following the success of the latest Superman movie.
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) share price increased by 7% and touched an all-time high ahead of its Q2’25 earnings report on 04-Aug’25, impacted by investor optimism.
Top Losers
Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) share price slid by 8% after Goldman Sachs downgraded peer memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix over growth concerns in the memory chip market. The negative sentiment toward SK Hynix has spilled over to Micron, which competes in similar memory chip markets.
Despite strong earnings and raising revenue guidance, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) share price declined by 3% as investors felt the revenue forecast was driven more by a weaker dollar, with no impact from an operational perspective.
Chipmaker ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) also observed a similar drop of 8% in share price despite beating earnings expectations after warning it may not achieve growth in 2026 due to geopolitical uncertainty.
Upcoming Earnings: Key Stocks to Monitor
The current week includes earnings reports from some big names in the tech industry, including the likes of Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Domino’s Pizza (NASDAQ: DPZ), SAP (NYSE: SAP), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), IBM (NYSE: IBM), ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), and T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS).
Alphabet and Tesla are likely to be major sentiment drivers. Investors will dissect ad trends, AI innovation, and regulatory pressures in Alphabet’s call, while Tesla faces scrutiny over EV demand softness and margin pressures.