Analysis
By Change Research Team — August 7, 2026
Stocks hit new highs, oil went up and down more than once, and a wave of tech earnings kept investors busy. Here's what happened this week.
STOCKS HIT NEW HIGHS TO START THE MONTH
Markets started the week strong, carrying momentum from last week's Big Tech earnings. Good results from Palantir and Caterpillar pushed the S&P 500 to a new all-time high on Monday. The Dow also closed at a record, helped by Amazon's market value crossing $3 trillion for the first time. On Tuesday, stocks kept climbing: the S&P 500 rose about 1.8% and the Nasdaq jumped over 2.5%, as falling oil prices gave investors another reason for optimism.
THE JOBS REPORT: WHY EVERYONE WAS WATCHING
Jobs data was the big story this week, because it helps decide what the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) does next with interest rates.
On Wednesday, a private payroll processor released an early read showing only 44,000 new jobs added in July, the weakest reading in six months and much lower than the roughly 75,000 expected. That set the stage for Friday, when the government released its own official jobs numbers for July. Economists had expected around 83,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate holding at 4.2%.
This report matters more than usual. Just over a week earlier, the Fed voted to keep interest rates unchanged, but the vote wasn't unanimous. Three Fed officials wanted to raise rates instead. A weak jobs report would make a rate hike less likely; a strong one could support the case those three officials were making. The official numbers are due out later today, worth watching once they land.
OIL: UP, DOWN, AND UP AGAIN
Oil prices moved a lot this week, largely because of tension around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that a large share of the world's oil passes through.
Early in the week, Iran and Oman announced a deal on a shipping route through the strait, and oil prices fell on hopes that tensions were easing. By midweek, though, Iran made clear the deal wouldn't fully reopen the strait, and reports of explosions near a tanker and an attack claimed by Houthi militants kept things tense.
By Friday, prices were rising again. Iran said it had struck "hostile targets" near the strait, and its proposed terms for the waterway were strict: no US or Israeli ships allowed at all, and other countries it considers unfriendly would have to pay to pass through, with steep penalties for breaking the rules. The back-and-forth is a reminder that oil prices here are being driven more by geopolitics than by usual supply and demand.
GOLD: A QUIET RALLY IN THE BACKGROUND
While stocks and oil grabbed the headlines, gold had a strong week of its own. Prices climbed for four straight sessions, rising nearly 6% to a seven-week high above $4,300 an ounce by Thursday. The move was driven by a mix of factors: falling Treasury yields, a weaker dollar, and reduced expectations for a Fed rate hike this year, all of which make gold more attractive to hold. Markets are now pricing in only one Fed rate hike by year-end, down from two as recently as last week. Strong central bank buying has also kept underlying demand solid throughout the year.
EARNINGS: A BUSY WEEK FOR CHIPS AND SPACE
With most of the big tech giants having already reported last week, this week's focus shifted to chip and AI-related companies, plus a few consumer names.
AMD had a strong quarter. Earnings came in at $1.66 per share on $11.5 billion in revenue, both ahead of expectations, with sales tied to AI data centers more than doubling from a year ago.
SpaceX reported its first results ever as a public company, and investors reacted in two different directions on the same day. Revenue beat expectations, and profits (measured by EBITDA) more than tripled from last year. The stock jumped over 9% during the day on the good news, but then dropped about 8% after hours once investors saw how much money the company is spending, over $18 billion in one quarter alone, to build out its infrastructure. The stock is still trading well below where it opened when it went public in June.
SanDisk, which makes memory chips, also beat earnings expectations. But its stock still fell about 5% on Thursday, because the company's forecast for the current quarter came in lower than analysts wanted, even though this past quarter's profit margins were the best on record. It's a sign that investors are holding AI and chip companies to a very high standard right now, good results aren't always enough if the outlook disappoints.
A few other names had mixed weeks: Datadog beat expectations and raised its outlook, but the stock still fell about 17% after a huge run-up earlier this year. Intel jumped 11% on a strong earnings report. And McDonald's rose slightly even though its results were mixed.
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT WEEK
- How markets react to Friday's jobs report, and what it means for whether the Fed raises rates in September
- Whether the situation around the Strait of Hormuz calms down or gets worse
- Two more inflation reports (CPI on August 12, PPI on August 13), which will help set expectations before the Fed's next meeting
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
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