Stock Market Today: Major Indexes Mostly Rise After Softer-Than-Expected Inflation Data; IBM Weighs on Dow

Major stock indexes were mostly higher on a busy Tuesday after the June Consumer Price Index data came in softer than expected, but IBM shares weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the company issued preliminary results well below expectations. 

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite and benchmark S&P 500 were up a respective 0.7% and 0.2% in recent trading, but the blue-chip Dow was down 0.2%.

Consumer prices rose 3.5% year-over-year in June, below economists’ expectations of a 3.8% increase and down from a 4.2% rise in May, as energy prices retreated. “Core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, came in at 2.6% when economists expected the reading to have held steady at 2.9%.

“If you were looking for runaway inflation in this report, you didn’t get it,” Jamie Cox, Managing Partner for Harris Financial Group, said in written commentary. “It’s pretty clear any recent rise in inflation was related to energy prices and wouldn’t be long-lasting.”

According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, traders now see a 12% likelihood that the Fed will raise interest rates by a quarter-percentage point at the central bank’s policy meeting in two weeks, down from 37% immediately before the CPI report.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages, initially fell to 4.56% from 4.60% immediately ahead of the reading, but recently was back to their prior level, down two basis points from Monday’s close.

Before the bell, IBM (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna warned in a letter to investors that the tech giant’s second-quarter software and infrastructure results were worse than expected as clients shifted spending “toward servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases.” Shares of IBM, which will hold its earnings call on July 22, sank 25%.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) all reported rising second-quarter profit before the bell Tuesday. Goldman Sachs shares led the Dow with a 7% advance.

Also Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh began two days of testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, vowing to make inflation “a thing of the past.”

Yesterday, the three major indexes all finished lower, as U.S.-listed shares of South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix (SKHY) and other memory stocks weighed on markets.

SK Hynix shares, which had jumped 13% in their first day of trading here on Friday before sinking more than 9% yesterday, made another big move Tuesday, soaring 18%. Fellow memory chipmakers Micron Technology (MU), Sandisk (SNDK), Seagate Technology Holdings (STX), and Western Digital (WDC) also were up after falling yesterday, while the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) was 6% higher after a 9% drop.

The Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks were mixed. Apple (AAPL) shares were down 1% after rising to an all-time high Monday. Nvidia (NVDA) led the septet’s gains at around 2.5%.

Oil prices, which soared 9% yesterday as President Donald Trump said the U.S. was reinstating a blockade of Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, pared further gains Tuesday after Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was abandoning a demand that nations pay the U.S. a 20% protection fee to transit the strait. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, recently were up 1.8% to $79.60 a barrel, while Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, were up 2.6% to $85.50 a barrel.

Bitcoin was trading around $64,800, up from overnight lows around $61,800. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was 0.3% lower at 100.91. Gold futures rose 1.6% to $4,070 an ounce.

JULY 14, 2026 AT 04:18 PM GMT

Tech Leads S&P 500 Sector Gains Despite IBM

The S&P 500 Information Technology Sector is the top performer of the 11 industries tracked by the benchmark index—no thanks to IBM.

The sector is up 1% in early afternoon trading, even though IBM (IBM) shares are plunging 25%.

CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) is the top performer in the sector, up about 9.5%.

Just five of the 11 sectors are in the green. Health Care leads declines at 1.9%.

JULY 14, 2026 AT 03:27 PM GMT

Jamie Dimon Says the US Economy Is Showing ‘Resiliency’—But Risks Threaten ‘Meaningful Disruptions’

A swirling mix of forces could force “meaningful disruptions” to the U.S. economy, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

Dimon, in a Tuesday statement that accompanied his bank’s latest quarterly financial results, said the economy remained “resilient” while faced with risks that are “swirling before the surface.” His latest statements extend a theme on which Dimon has commented for months; in April, for example, the JPMorgan chief (JPM) cited “an increasingly complex set of risks.”

“The U.S. economy has demonstrated notable resiliency this year, with stronger business investment and hiring,” Dimon said in Tuesday’s release. “This strength is being supported by several tailwinds, including AI-driven capital investment, fiscal stimulus and the benefits of more efficient regulation. However, several risks are shifting below the surface like tectonic plates, including geopolitical tensions and wars, sticky inflation, large global fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices.”

Those forces, Dimon said, “may remain manageable, but they could also cause meaningful disruptions when they shift or collide.”

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison

JULY 14, 2026 AT 02:51 PM GMT

IBM Stock Plunges Over 20% After Weak Q2 Results; CEO Admits Tech Giant ‘Faltered’

IBM stock is getting hammered and dragging other software stocks down with it after the tech giant warned clients are pulling back spending.

Shares of International Business Machines (IBM) were down more than 20% in early trading after CEO Arvind Krishna blamed a weakening software environment for disappointing preliminary results. Other software stocks also slid, with Salesforce (CRM), Adobe (ADBE), Intuit (INTU), ServiceNow (NOW), and each 3% to 5% lower recently.

Krishna said in a letter to investors that the tech giant “faltered” in the second quarter as some of IBM’s customers cut back on software to focus spending on servers and memory products which have seen prices soar in recent months.

IBM said Tuesday that it expects second-quarter revenue to come in at $17.2 billion, up 1% year-over-year but below the $17.8 billion analysts had been expecting, per Visible Alpha estimates. IBM said it will likely report earnings per share of $2.27, well below the $2.60 analysts called for, while adjusted EPS is seen coming in at $2.93, closer to the $2.98 analyst consensus.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

JULY 14, 2026 AT 01:45 PM GMT

Gas Price Dip Gave Temporary Inflation Relief in June

A drop in gasoline prices in June gave consumers a significant, albeit likely short-lived, breather from high inflation.

The Consumer Price Index fell 0.4% in June, the largest single-month drop since the onset of COVID-19 in April 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. The decrease, mainly due to a 9.7% drop in gasoline prices, led to a 3.5% year-over-year increase in the index, down from a 4.2% annual increase in May.

The yearly number was below the 3.8% forecasters had anticipated, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. The core price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, stayed flat compared to May and was up 2.6% over 12 months, also lower than the 2.9% median forecast.

The unexpectedly cool inflation in June took some pressure off household budgets, which have been squeezed by price increases that have persistently overshot the Fed’s 2% target since 2021. However, the relief may not last: the dip in gasoline prices was due to a truce in the Iran war that collapsed this week. The fighting once again disrupted energy supplies from the Middle East, causing prices of crude oil and gasoline to rise sharply.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

JULY 14, 2026 AT 01:36 PM GMT

Some Experts Warn Trump Accounts May Not Be Worth It. Here’s What You Need To Know

Trump Accounts come with special tax benefits, but for many families, previously available investment accounts for children may be a better deal.

Launched earlier this month, Trump Accounts were established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a federal tax law passed in 2025.

Parents, employers, nonprofits, and philanthropists can all contribute to them. Parents’ contributions are made with after-tax dollars. At 18, the accounts convert to traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs). At that point, withdrawals of earnings, in general, are taxed at ordinary income tax rates.1

Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a right-leaning think tank, argues most parents would be better off putting the money in a 529 savings plan or even a custodial brokerage account instead.

“The treatment of the gains…is less favorable than basically doing anything else with them,” Michel said. “If you put after-tax dollars into a taxable brokerage account, the gains [are taxed] at a lower [long-term] capital gains rate. Or if you put money into a 529 savings plan, you face no tax at withdrawal.”

Read the full article here.

–Trina Paul

JULY 14, 2026 AT 12:04 PM GMT

Here’s How Much TSMC Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is scheduled to report its latest quarterly earnings early Thursday morning, with traders anticipating a big swing from the stock.

TSMC’s (TSM) U.S.-listed shares are expected to swing up to about 5% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that size from Monday’s close could see the company’s U.S.-listed shares climb as high as $444, approaching last month’s record high above $477, or slip below $400, giving back some of their recent gains.

Shares of the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer are up nearly 40% since the start of the year, as investors piled into the biggest hardware names benefitting from the AI boom.

However, the tech rally has stumbled recently amid renewed worries about an AI bubble and concerns about the sustainability of spending by big tech companies, though Wall Street analysts have largely remained bullish on the sector. TSMC remains a favorite on Wall Street, with all seven analysts tracked by Visible Alpha recommending buying the stock, and most seeing gains ahead.

TSMC reports revenue on a monthly basis, and on Monday said it earned 442.68 billion New Taiwan dollars ($13.79 billion) in June. That brings its second-quarter total to 1.27 trillion New Taiwan dollars, up from 933.79 billion New Taiwan dollars a year ago. Analysts are looking for TSMC to report earnings per American depositary receipt of 120.75 New Taiwan dollars ($3.76), according to Visible Alpha estimates.

–Aaron McDade

JULY 14, 2026 AT 10:50 AM GMT

Futures Mixed With CPI Report, Bank Earnings on Tap as Memory Stocks Rebound

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed down 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures ticked 0.1% lower.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%.

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