Market snapshot · September 18, 2026 close
S&P 500 (SPY) $761.69 −0.13% Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) $721.45 +0.60% Dow (DIA) $515.88 −0.48% Russell 2000 (IWM) $284.10 −0.52% 10-Year Treasury (IEF) $90.80 −0.49% Crude Oil (USO) $153.82 −0.93% Gold (GLD) $401.17 +0.74% US Dollar Index (UUP) $28.39 −0.02% Volatility (VXX) $17.76 +0.31% Semiconductors (SMH) $573.00 +2.17% Silver (SLV) $59.93 +1.65% Emerging Markets (EEM) $67.03 +0.19% Bitcoin (BTC) $81,055.00 +4.51% Ethereum (ETH) $2,630.20 +5.92% S&P 500 (SPY) $761.69 −0.13% Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) $721.45 +0.60% Dow (DIA) $515.88 −0.48% Russell 2000 (IWM) $284.10 −0.52% 10-Year Treasury (IEF) $90.80 −0.49% Crude Oil (USO) $153.82 −0.93% Gold (GLD) $401.17 +0.74% US Dollar Index (UUP) $28.39 −0.02% Volatility (VXX) $17.76 +0.31% Semiconductors (SMH) $573.00 +2.17% Silver (SLV) $59.93 +1.65% Emerging Markets (EEM) $67.03 +0.19% Bitcoin (BTC) $81,055.00 +4.51% Ethereum (ETH) $2,630.20 +5.92%
AEACapital Research

A student research journal by Aydin Ali

Market Wrap · August 4, 2026

Palantir Soars on Earnings, Semiconductors Rebound Broadly From July’s Selloff

August 4, 2026 · Indices, Palantir (PLTR), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX)

U.S. equities extended Monday’s rally on Tuesday, August 4. The S&P 500 (SPY) rose 1.80% to $771.33, the Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) jumped 3.40% to $723.85, the Dow (DIA) added 1.73% to $540.43, and the Russell 2000 (IWM) rose 1.85%. The Motley Fool’s market recap described the session as an 800-point, 1.5% Dow gain and a 1.9% Nasdaq gain with 22 of 30 Dow components higher. Crude oil (USO) was again the outlier, falling 5.19% to $115.78.

Palantir Technologies was the day’s clearest earnings-driven mover, closing up 29.45% at $162.66 following its latest quarterly report. The Fool’s earnings recap, headlined “Palantir Soars 27% and Caterpillar Helps Lift the Dow 800 Points,” attributed the move to faster-than-expected AI-platform adoption among U.S. commercial customers, and a separate Fool piece on the print cited a 134% growth metric in the report. Caterpillar, not a name in this book, jumped roughly 6.8% on its own Q2 beat, with 17% overall revenue growth and 29% year-over-year growth in its power and energy solutions division.

Semiconductors rebound, mostly without company-specific news

The broader semiconductor complex staged a sharp recovery from July’s selloff. The Fool’s recap noted the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) gained 6.3% on what it described as a sector-wide rebound with “no company-specific catalysts” for most constituents. In this book, Marvell rose 12.81%, Broadcom rose 6.61%, Micron rose 7.62%, and Arm rose 17.36% — the Fool’s figures for Marvell (+14.4%) and Broadcom (+6%) differ slightly from the close-to-close numbers here, likely reflecting different reference points intraday. AMD rose 7.0%, helped by a separate Fool piece reporting that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said CPUs are “as important as GPUs” for running AI agents, a comment the Fool tied to AMD’s server-CPU market-share gains. SpaceX rose 9.43% ahead of its first quarterly earnings report as a newly public company (the Fool put the move at 8.1%).

Sources: The Motley Fool, The Motley Fool, The Motley Fool. Price data via Massive Market Data. This article is educational and reflects my own analysis; it is not investment advice.