Stock market news for July 1, 2026

Stocks were lower on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed marginally lower, down almost 14 points, to finish the day at 52,305.24. However, it sailed to a new intraday record of 52,742.66 earlier in the session.

The S&P 500 finished down 0.2% to end the day at 7,483.23. The Nasdaq Composite shed nearly 0.7% to close at 26,040.03.

— Liz Napolitano

The reusability of SpaceX’s new super-heavy rocket is the linchpin of the technology conglomerate’s future success, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

Ives began formal research coverage of Space Exploration Technologies on Wednesday with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of $190, touting its “vertically integrated” business segments – rocket launches, internet connectivity and computing infrastructure. Ives’ price target implies more than 11% potential upside in SpaceX, based on Tuesday’s close.

The backbone of that integration is the reusability of the SpaceX Starship rocket, which was still in a test phase as of May but could connect the company’s segments and allow significant savings in overhead costs.

Read the full story.

— Tobias Burns

Lockheed Martin is a winning name despite investors’ concerns that the company could come under pressure following a potential political shift in the U.S. this fall, according to Citi.

The bank upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. It also raised its price target to $582 from $571, implying 14% upside from Tuesday’s close.

“Investors might be reluctant to buy the dip on defense because of top-down concerns regarding ‘Peak Defense’ and a possible ‘Blue Wave’,” analyst John Godyn said Wednesday in a note to clients. “We believe LMT is a good example of a defense stock that historically bounces back consistently and sharply after moves lower.”

The analyst added that the defense contractor has historically bounced back from sector lows. He also noted that the company has strong fundamentals while its missile and fire control segment is growing quickly.

Lockheed Martin is up 7% this year, slightly underperforming the S&P 500.

General Motors’ shares slipped on Wednesday after the company said it saw sales stagnate due, in part, to lower-than-expected electric car demand.

The Detroit-based automaker’s U.S. sales fell 4.2% in the second quarter as year-over-year demand for its all-electric vehicles and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks declined.

GM reported that it sold 714,896 vehicles from April through June, down from 746,588 units during the second quarter of 2025. Its sales through the first half of the year were 1.3 million, down 6.8% compared with a year ago.

The second quarter sales were slightly better than a forecast last week by Cox Automotive, which expected GM’s sales to decline 7.2% through the first half of the year, including a 5.1% fall during the second quarter.

Read the full story.

— Michael Wayland

Bending Spoons — the owner of AOL, Vimeo and other bygone brands of the internet — popped on its first trading session in the U.S. market.

Shares of the Italian software company were last up 42%.

The stock debuted Wednesday on the Nasdaq. It opened at $31 per share, or modestly above its IPO price of $29 per share.

— Liz Napolitano

On Wednesday, 32 stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week highs.

Tickers that hit this milestone included:

• Live Nation Entertainment trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in December 2005
• Monster Beverage (formerly Hansen Natural) trading at all-time high levels back to its listing on the NASDAQ in 1992
• Globe Life trading at all-time high levels back to when Torchmark Corp was initially formed in 1980
• PNC Financial Services Group trading at all-time high levels back through our records to 1983
• Travelers trading at all-time highs back to its spin-off from Citi in 2002
• Quest Diagnostics trading at all-time high levels back to its spin-off from Corning in 1996
• Humana trading at levels not seen since January 2024
• Moderna trading at levels not seen since September 2024
• Stanley Black & Decker trading at levels not seen since November 2024
• Palo Alto Networks trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in July 2012

Just five stocks traded at new 52-week lows:

— Christopher Hayes and Lisa Kailai Han

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday:

Meta Platforms — Shares of the social media giant surged 11% on news that Meta is building out a new cloud business. The company will sell its excess artificial intelligence computing power to outside customers, CNBC confirmed. Bloomberg first reported the news.

General Mills — The maker of Bisquick and Cheerios jumped more than 6%. General Mills posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 95 cents a share on revenue of $4.61 billion, topping the FactSet consensus call for 80 cents per share and $4.59 billion in revenue. The company also announced plans to generate $3 billion in cumulative cost savings through fiscal year 2030.

Progress Software — Shares rallied more than 18% after the company reported second-quarter results that beat expectations. Progress earned an adjusted $1.62 per share on revenue of $253.5 million. Analysts expected a profit of $1.49 per share on revenue of $242.7 million. Earnings guidance for Q3 also topped estimates.

Datadog — The cloud stock gained more than 2% after Datadog disclosed it acquired Adaptive ML, an AI startup that works on the deployment of specialized agents. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Read the full story.

— Davis Giangiulio

Shares in Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer tumbled as much as 5.3% in early trading Wednesday, extending its decline to a sixth straight trading day.

Walmart rallied almost 2% on June 23, when it announced the acquisition of Vibe.co, a self-serve, connected TV advertising platform designed to simplify advertising for small- and mid-sized businesses and mid-market brands, for an undisclosed amount.

But the stock has fallen ever since.

The Bentonville, Arkansas behemoth is now down more than 20% since its 52-week high, reached in mid-May. Walmart jumped in the three years ending in 2025, soaring 136%, and 184% from the end of 2022 through the all-time high in May, when it traded at $134.20.

Shares listed in Europe closed broadly lower on Wednesday, as geopolitics and monetary policy remained in focus.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally ended the session 0.3% lower, with most sectors and major regional bourses in negative territory. London’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.1% at the closing bell, while France’s CAC 40 shed 0.7%.

“Stocks across Europe and the US took a step back as investors continued to fret about the prospect of the Fed pushing up interest rates,” Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said in a Wednesday afternoon note.

“Markets are currently pricing in a 29.4% chance of a US interest rate hike at this month’s Fed meeting, down from a 34.2% probability a week ago. Theoretically, that should be positive for equities, yet what’s troubling investors is the prospect of a rate hike at the end of the year. Fed chair Kevin Warsh seems determined not to engage in a constant narrative about the direction of interest rates, but investors continue to hunt for any morsel of information.”

— Chloe Taylor

Shares of Meta popped more than 10% on Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported that the company is building out a new cloud business that could help recoup some of the billions of dollars it’s poured into AI infrastructure.

The company is debating whether it will offer access to AI models that are hosted on its infrastructure, or whether it will sell access to raw computing power, according to Bloomberg.

— Ashley Capoot, Yun Li

Small-cap stocks kicked off the new trading month and quarter on a high note.

The Russell 2000 hit a new all-time high on Wednesday. The small cap-focused index is now on track to record its sixth straight positive session.

The index added more than 21% in the first half of 2026, its biggest gain in the first six months of a year since 1991.

— Alex Harring, Nick Wells

Shares of Nike are falling after it reported a sales decline of 12% in the Greater China market in its quarterly financial report released Tuesday, even while it beat earnings and revenue estimates. Analysts on Wall Street broadly are still skeptical of CEO Elliott Hill’s turnaround plan. 

UBS reiterated its neutral rating, and cut its price target slightly. In a Tuesday note, analyst Jay Sole wrote that there doesn’t appear to be a reason to buy the stock right now. “Despite the pullback in Nike’s stock price, we still don’t see a good entry point,” Sole said. “Nike’s stock price is still not cheap at ~27x our FY27 EPS estimate, in our view, and this suggests a solid rebound remains priced in.”

Bank of America also reiterated its neutral rating, and lowered its price target. Analyst Lorraine Hutchinson wrote that the weak China sales were countered with an inflection point in margins. Goldman Sachs analyst Brooke Roach, who also has a neutral rating on Nike, wrote that investors will need to have patience with Nike’s turnaround plan.

Bernstein, meanwhile, reiterated its overweight rating on the stock, though also slightly lowered its price target. Analyst Aneesha Sherman said the long-term outlook for the company is strong. “Nike remains challenged near-term with modest revenue declines as Mgmt controls promotions and low-quality sales, but more optimism into calendar 2027 on innovation, cost mgmt, full-price selling, and margin recovery,” she wrote in a Wednesday note. 

Private payrolls grew by 98,000 in June, below the Dow Jones consensus of 110,000 and down from 122,000 in May, according to ADP.

“The pace of hiring is telling a story of both supply and demand. We know it’s taking people longer to find work, but there also are signs of labor supply constraints in certain industries,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist. “For now, the overall effect is a slowdown in job creation.”

Read the full story here.

— Jeff Cox

Raymond James is initiating coverage of the footwear brand Birkenstock on the first day of July. The analysts gave it a $52 target price, which implies upside of 20.1%.

“We view BIRK as a more durable growth story than the market appreciates,” they wrote. 

The analysts are bullish on the brand, saying it has ” significantly outpaced” its competitors. They expect revenue will be up by 11% in the 2026 fiscal year and 12.8% for the 2027 fiscal year. 

The company can grow by expanding across the Americas and Asia-Pacific, they wrote. 

— Ananya Chetia

Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:

Shutterstock, Getty Images — The stocks tumbled after Getty called off a proposed merger with Shutterstock due to demands from a U.K. regulator. Shutterstock fell sharply, off more than 30%, while Getty declined 4%.

Salesforce, ServiceNow — Shares of the software companies were up after Guggenheim upgraded both to buy, believing that artificial intelligence won’t be a death knell for the companies and attractive valuations in the stocks. ServiceNow rose more than 5%, while Salesforce was up nearly 4%.

Sandisk, Micron Technology — Shares of the memory players were lower in the first day of trading for the third quarter, after both more than tripled in the second quarter that concluded on Tuesday. Sandisk tumbled 3.5%, while Micron was off about 2.5%.

Read the full list here.

— Davis Giangiulio

Overall mortgage demand flattened last week, as interest rates continue to hover in a narrow range. Borrowers are also pulling back from riskier loans, as they are offering smaller advantages.

Total mortgage application volume increased 0.04% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, decreased to 6.57% from 6.59%, with points increasing to 0.65 from 0.63, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.

Read the full story here.

— Diana Olick

Euro zone annual inflation came in at 2.8% in June, below consensus estimates of 3.0% and down from 3.2% year-on-year in May, as energy price pressures caused by the Iran war appeared to ease.

The European Central Bank last month raised its key interest to 2.25% — its first hike since 2023 — in a bid to combat growing inflationary pressure in the euro zone, which it said would average 3% in 2026.

Euro zone bond yields fell in response to the inflation print, with traders trimming bets on ECB rate hike expectations. Markets are now pricing just 23 basis points of monetary tightening by the end of 2026.

— Hugh Leask

Stock media company Shutterstock plunged in premarket trading after its $3.7 billion merger with Getty Images collapsed due to an obstacle posed by a U.K. regulator.

Its competitor, Getty, said that it doesn’t accept the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority’s merger condition, which would require Shutterstock to sell its editorial business, in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Getty’s board of directors decided unanimously on Tuesday not to proceed with the sale and to terminate the merger agreement by July 6. Shutterstock fell 28%, and Getty declined nearly 6% before the markets opened.

The companies announced merger plans in January to create a stock image giant as the industry faces heavy competition from generative AI products such as OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney, which can create images based on simple requests from users.

Additionally, the rise of mobile photography over the years has driven down demand for stock images.

— Sawdah Bhaimiya

Asia markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 ending the session 0.59% higher at 70,474.96, while South Korea’s Kospi declined 2.04% to 8,303.41.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.64% to 8,722.90, while the mainland’s CSI 300 declined 0.41% to 4,958.98.

— Justina Lee

European stock markets have started the new month in negative territory.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.19% shortly after 8:00 a.m. in London (3:00 a.m. E.T.), with most regional sectors and major bourses trading in the red.

In Frankfurt, the DAX was up 0.12%. London’s FTSE 100 was seen 0.28% lower, while in Paris, the CAC 40 was down 0.35%, as the FTSE MIB slipped 0.42% in Milan.

A majority of European sectors edged lower, though chemicals led gains, advancing almost 1.1% in early dealmaking, as Europe’s automakers rose 0.42%.

— Hugh Leask

Volkswagen‘s troubles signal an “acceleration” of the challenges faced by Europe’s carmakers.

That’s the view of Thomas Besson, head of automotive research at Kepler Cheuvreux, who said the continent’s carmakers are facing relatively limited growth in global demand, with margins under pressure as Chinese manufacturers grab an increasingly larger share of the market.

“We are seeing substantially more competition than expected from Chinese automakers because their home market is much softer than expected,” Besson told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Wednesday.

“We’ve seen international automakers losing share at relatively rapid pace over the last three years constantly.”

European autos were among the continent’s worst-performing sectors during the second quarter, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Autos Index shedding 5.08% during the three-month period. Volkswagen was down 18.87% in that time.

Volkswagen last month announced its intention to cut 100,000 jobs and close production at four German plants in the next few years.

However, Besson said the German car giant also has plans in place to bolster its offering in the Chinese electrified market, which could allow it to take a bigger share in the growing market segment.

— Hugh Leask

Gold and silver have entered July in negative territory as investors continue to retreat from precious metals amid ongoing interest rate uncertainty.

Gold futures fell 1.19% to $3,990.70, while spot gold was 0.80% lower at $3,975.30. The slide comes after the three-month period to the end of June proved the worst quarter for bullion since the second quarter of 2013.

Investors are also fleeing silver. Silver futures were last seen 2.63% lower at $57.91, and spot silver shed 1.94% early Wednesday, trading at $57.47.

The reversal comes as traders anticipate global central banks to hike rates in response to rising inflation caused by the Middle East conflict — making non-yielding assets such as precious metals comparatively less attractive than Treasuries and bonds.

— Hugh Leask

Indonesia’s benchmark Jakarta Composite Index rose 1.39% on Wednesday after a court sentenced former Education Minister and Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim to 10 years in prison in a corruption case that revived concerns about governance risks and sent a chill through parts of the investment community.

Makarim was found guilty in a case linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country’s education digitalization program that ran from 2019 to 2022.

Makarim, who served as education minister from 2019 to 2024, was also ordered to pay 809.6 billion rupiah ($55,870) in restitution or face an additional five years in prison. Prosecutors had sought an 18-year jail sentence, a 1 billion rupiah fine and 5.6 trillion rupiah in restitution.

— Lee Ying Shan, Lim Hui Jie

Fable 5 will again be available to global users on the Claude platform, Claude.AI, and Claude Code starting Wednesday, according to a statement by Anthropic.

The AI model will also be included for up to 50% of weekly usage limits through July 7 for users of the Pro, Max, Team, as well as selected enterprise plans, the company said.

Anthropic also said it has restored access to Mythos 5 for some U.S. organizations, following government approval granted on June 26. It will also continue to work with the U.S. government to expand access to Mythos 5 for more domestic and international partners through its Glasswing program, its cybersecurity initiative that provides selected organizations with access to advanced AI models for defensive security testing.

Anthropic will also re-enable access to Fable 5 on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry as soon as possible.

—Justina Lee

South Korea posted massive export growth in June, with shipments increasing 70.9% from a year earlier and marking its fastest rate of growth since 1978.

The figure sharply beat the 61% growth expected by Reuters-polled economists.

Imports expanded 30.1% to $66.10 billion in June, beating expectations of 26.3%.

South Korea’s trade balance widened to $36.15 billion, up from $27.04 billion in May.

— Lim Hui Jie

Oil rose Wednesday, recovering from earlier losses after Brent crude posted its biggest monthly decline since March 2020.  

Brent crude futures for September gained 0.52% to $73.33 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for August advanced 0.66% to $69.96 per barrel.

“With tensions easing and the Strait of Hormuz operating more normally, traders shifted their focus back to underlying supply-demand fundamentals, driving oil prices to their lowest levels in months,” according to a report by Phillip Capital.

Both Brent and WTI are still elevated as the U.S. war with Iran disrupted production as well as distribution.

Mixed signals surrounding the developments regarding the Iran-U.S. peace talks are also being assessed by markets amid a fragile interim peace deal reached by both countries earlier this month.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said talks between the two countries would take place in Qatar’s capital on Tuesday. He also claimed on social media that Tehran had “requested a meeting” following an exchange of U.S. airstrikes over the weekend.

However, an Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson reportedly denied that talks were scheduled over the coming days. The spokesperson added that while there is an Iranian technical delegation’s visit to Qatar this week, it was unrelated to U.S. officials visiting the country.

—Justina Lee

The Japanese yen weakened to a new 40-year low against the dollar at 162.68, data from LSEG showed, extending its decline on Tuesday.

Martin Schulz, chief economist at Fujitsu, said the yen’s weakness reflected a combination of broad U.S. dollar strength, the Bank of Japan lagging other major central banks in raising interest rates and investors extending carry trades.

While Japanese authorities had intervened in the currency market earlier this year, those efforts would have only a limited impact without closer coordination between the Finance Ministry and the BOJ, Schulz told CNBC.

While Schulz cautioned that the currency’s depreciation “might not be a good thing in the longer run,” he added it was currently helping manufacturers as the weak yen “helps profits tremendously.” Schulz also noted that stronger retail sales and a resilient domestic economy had also lifted business sentiment beyond what he had expected.

— Lee Ying Shan

Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed Wednesday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.79%, while the broader Topix gained 1.07%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.52%, but the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.42%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed, trading 0.05% lower.

— Lee Ying Shan

Optimism among large Japanese manufacturers climbed to its highest level in over six years over the past four years, according to the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey.

The Tankan, a closely watched poll that measures business sentiment among domestic companies, climbed to 22 for large Japanese manufacturers, up from 17 in the last quarter and beating the 16 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

A positive figure on the Tankan indicates that optimists outnumber pessimists, and vice versa.

Business sentiment among large non-manufacturing businesses stood at 37, a multi-decade high according to LSEG data, up from 36 in the first quarter. That also defied Reuters poll expectations of 35.

— Lim Hui Jie

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Wednesday, tracking gains in the U.S as Wall Street wrapped up a strong first half and second quarter.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 71,115 and the contract in Osaka last trading at 70,990 against the index’s last close of 70,062.32.

Futures for Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 were at 8,784 compared with its last close of 8,778.7.

— Lee Ying Shan

Shares of Constellation Brands added 4% in extended trading, after the beverage producer posted fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations.

In its last quarter, Constellation earned $3.43 per share on an adjusted basis, while analysts polled by LSEG had penciled in $3.20 per share. The company’s $2.43 billion revenue also exceeded the anticipated $2.39 billion.

Constellation’s beer revenue came in at $2.28 billion, higher than the $2.24 billion StreetAccount estimate.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives initiated coverage of SpaceX at an outperform rating and $190 price target.

Ives’ price forecast calls for upside of 11% from where the stock closed on Tuesday at $170.86.

“It’s much more of an AI play, and that’s our whole view from a data perspective,” Ives said on CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Tuesday afternoon. “This is one — today, from revenue — is super expensive, of course. When you go out next two, three years — if they execute — I can argue this becomes one of the best AI plays in the market, and that’s why we’re bullish here.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

Shares of Nike fell in Tuesday’s extended-trading hours, despite the athleisure brand posting a fiscal fourth-quarter beat on both the top and bottom lines. The stock was last down more than 2%.

In its last quarter, Nike reported adjusted earnings of 20 cents per share on $10.97 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected earnings of 13 cents and revenue of $10.86 billion.

But shares dropped after the company said that sales in the Greater China market declined 12% to $1.30 billion. Even so, Nike still beat expectations of $1.24 billion in revenue.

— Lisa Kailai Han and Laya Neelakandan

S&P 500 futures opened little changed on Tuesday night.

Shortly after 6 p.m. ET, futures tied to the broad market index and Nasdaq futures were trading around the flatline. Dow futures shed 0.2%.

— Lisa Kailai Han