Finance

A historic tug-of-war occurred between two of the largest technology firms following their quarterly disclosures. Amazon's stock surged 15% on accelerating cloud-computing revenue, giving the retail and cloud giant its largest market-capitalization gain on record. Conversely, Apple's shares plummeted 7.4% after the company provided a disappointing revenue forecast, wiping out more than $350 billion in market value.

U.S. Treasury yields surged to multi-year highs at the end of July, with the 10-year note yield topping 4.7% and the 30-year bond yield reaching a 19-year high near 5.27%. Although the Federal Reserve opted to keep benchmark interest rates unchanged, three members of the policymaking committee dissented in favor of a rate hike. This internal division, combined with rising inflation pressures tied to ongoing geopolitical conflicts, fueled investor skepticism regarding the central bank's policy path.

Digital assets decoupled from the broader equities rally on the final day of July, with Bitcoin sliding below the $63,000 threshold and Ethereum experiencing a parallel retreat. In addition to geopolitical pressures and elevated energy costs, risk appetite in the crypto sector was heavily restricted by a lack of progress on the U.S. Senate's CLARITY Act. This regulatory stagnation triggered substantial liquidations of leveraged long positions and a notable drop in major exchange stocks like Coinbase.