Headlines · 2026-08-03

U.S. President Donald Trump said he had called off planned strikes on Iran and that negotiations with Tehran would begin Monday, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program on the agenda. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate both fell sharply in early trading on the news, according to CNBC and NBC.

The backdrop is a renewed focus on the security of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global energy shipments, after weeks of market volatility tied to the conflict. Trump also said Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar had urged Washington to hold off, but Iran has not confirmed any direct talks with the United States.

The move eased pressure on energy-sensitive sectors such as airlines, chemicals and shipping, while trimming some of the geopolitical premium that had been built into crude. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said there were no negotiations with the U.S. at present and that Tehran was only discussing the strait with Oman.

Pre-open market reports put Brent around $83 a barrel and WTI near $79, based on CNBC, NBC and The National. Those levels were lower by roughly 5% to 6% from prior quotes cited in the same reports.

Trump said any framework would include the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but Iranian officials pushed back on the idea that a deal with Washington had already been reached.

President Donald Trump said he canceled scheduled military strikes against Iran and that Washington and Tehran would resume talks on Aug. 3. The announcement immediately pushed crude prices lower as traders unwound part of the geopolitical risk premium.

Reuters said Trump framed the move as a chance to secure a deal, while FX168 reported the discussions are tied to the future of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's foreign ministry said the strait's conditions would not return to pre-conflict levels, underscoring that major differences remain.

Brent crude briefly fell 7.3%, WTI opened more than 8% lower, and European natural gas prices dropped as much as 6.3%. The move reflects how quickly energy markets are repricing supply disruption risks in the Middle East.

For equities, lower oil can support airlines, transport names and some chemical stocks, but the repeated back-and-forth around the Iran situation keeps energy shares volatile. Traders are now focused on whether the talks can ease pressure on shipping routes and broader regional supply chains.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran have reached a “deal” on Hormuz and that talks will begin on Aug. 3, adding that a denuclearization pact would follow. His comments came after he said he had called off a planned major strike on Iran.

Tehran’s language was far more cautious. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran is discussing a new shipping lane with Oman, but that the arrangement does not mean the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was also quoted as saying talks with Oman on joint management of the strait are in their final stage.

The Strait of Hormuz carries about 20% of seaborne crude oil and LNG flows, making it one of the most important chokepoints for global energy markets. Oil prices fell more than 4% in early Monday trading as traders priced in less immediate supply risk.

Energy stocks, crude benchmarks and tanker-related names are the most exposed to any shift in Hormuz risk premia. Trump said Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar had urged him to cancel the strike, but Iran has not publicly confirmed any final agreement on the strait.

AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb have held preliminary discussions about a possible combination that could value the merged company at about $400 billion, according to multiple reports citing people familiar with the matter. The structure of any deal remains unclear, and the talks could still fall apart.

The reported approach is notable because the two companies overlap in oncology, cardiovascular disease and immunology, while also bringing complementary pipelines. AstraZeneca’s growth has been driven by cancer drugs, while BMS faces patent-expiry pressure on key products, making any tie-up strategically significant but potentially complex.

Shares of AstraZeneca fell as much as 7% in London after the report, while Bristol Myers rose in premarket trading in New York. Investors appear to be weighing the size of the transaction, possible antitrust hurdles and whether a cross-border merger would make strategic sense for AstraZeneca.

Neither company confirmed the report. AstraZeneca declined to comment, and Bristol Myers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FactSet's July 24 update shows that among S&P 500 companies that have reported Q2 results so far, 86% have beaten EPS estimates, with earnings coming in 39.3% above expectations overall. Revenue has also topped forecasts: 80% of reporting companies beat on sales, and revenue has come in 2.8% above estimates in aggregate.

Alphabet is the biggest driver behind the outsized numbers. FactSet said Alphabet posted Q2 GAAP EPS of $9.11 versus a $2.88 estimate, helped by about $98 billion in gains, and that excluding Alphabet would cut the S&P 500's blended Q2 earnings growth rate to 25.9% from 37.9%.

The earnings strength continues to center on AI-exposed megacaps such as Nvidia, Broadcom, Microsoft and Alphabet. FactSet also put the S&P 500's forward P/E at 20.1, slightly above its five-year average of 19.9, suggesting valuations remain firm even as estimates rise.

A separate 24/7 Wall St. report, citing FactSet, said the S&P 500's blended net profit margin for Q2 stands at 15.7%, the highest since 2009. It also noted that without Alphabet, that margin would fall to 14.4%, underscoring how concentrated profit growth remains in a handful of large-cap names.

SpaceX has scheduled its first quarterly earnings report for after the market close on Aug. 4, followed by a live webcast. It will be the company’s first earnings release as a listed business and the first major milestone under its staged lock-up structure.

The backdrop is a record-sized June IPO that raised $85.7 billion at $135 a share. Reports say SpaceX stock later ran up to an intraday high of $225.64 before giving back nearly half of that gain.

Investors are watching not only the numbers but also the supply overhang. Under the lock-up terms reported this week, up to 20% of eligible locked shares — as many as 911.5 million shares — can begin to unlock two trading days after the first earnings release.

That makes the report important for SPCX trading as well as for investors tracking satellite-internet and space-exposure names. The quarter’s revenue, margins and guidance for Starlink will help determine how the market absorbs the coming increase in float.

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Reuters, citing two sources, said China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is considering a second 12-inch DRAM fab in Beijing’s Yizhuang district and is in early financing talks with a local government-backed tech and manufacturing hub. The sources said CXMT is seeking at least 60 million yuan in support, though the size and structure of any package could still change.

The plan would expand CXMT’s footprint in the capital, where it already operates a DRAM fab. Reuters has also reported new plants under construction in Shanghai and Hefei; if those projects come online, total capacity could exceed 600,000 wafers a month.

For the market, the move underscores CXMT’s push to increase output in the global memory cycle and could add more demand for China’s semiconductor supply chain. CXMT remains the world’s fourth-largest DRAM producer, while Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron still account for close to 90% of global share in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.

CXMT and the Beijing municipal government did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters said Beijing and Shanghai have previously provided support to CXMT, highlighting intensifying local-government competition around strategic chip projects.

Alibaba on August 3 unveiled Qwen3.8-Max, calling it the most capable model in the Qwen family so far. The company said the model has 2.4 trillion total parameters and 95 billion active parameters, and that open weights will be released next week.

Alibaba said the model is designed to improve coding, office work, research and long-horizon tasks. In its launch materials, the company also highlighted examples such as autonomous coding, paper reproduction and simulated e-commerce operations.

For investors, the release adds another milestone in Alibaba’s push into AI infrastructure and enterprise tools. The main read-through is to Alibaba’s Hong Kong- and U.S.-listed shares, alongside cloud, AI application and compute-related suppliers that may benefit from greater model usage.

Alibaba’s own blog and multiple media reports broadly agree on the core launch details, including the parameter count and the planned open-weight release. Some benchmark labels and pricing references differ across reports, so the company’s original material remains the primary reference.

Cointelegraph, citing Glassnode data, said Bitcoin’s three-month futures basis has trailed the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield since February, a 157-day stretch that is now the longest since the 2022-23 cycle low. The report said bitcoin-futures activity has also slowed in recent months.

The setup matters because cash-and-carry traders earn the spread by buying spot and shorting futures. Coindesk, also citing Glassnode, said that strategy used to deliver annualized returns above 20% in prior bull markets, but is now running near 3%, below the roughly 3.8% average yield on 2-year Treasuries.

That gap reduces the incentive for leveraged desks to deploy capital into crypto, which can weigh on futures volume, hedging activity and order-book depth. It also helps explain why some traders are watching for tighter liquidity conditions rather than chasing carry.

Separately, Cointelegraph said Coinbase has added 2,763 BTC since Jan. 1 and more than 5,535 BTC since last August. Those holdings shifts suggest institutions remain active, even as the market’s arbitrage economics have become far less attractive.

South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 6,257.45 on Monday, down 5.12% from the previous session. During the day, the benchmark slid as much as 6.0% intraday before trimming some losses.

The sharp reversal came after last week’s record-setting rebound, as investors took profits and reassessed the market backdrop. A shift in sentiment around U.S.-Iran tensions also kept attention on oil prices and interest-rate expectations.

Heavyweight chip names led the decline: Samsung Electronics fell 8.76% and SK hynix dropped 8.79%, while LG Energy Solution and Samsung Biologics also weakened. Foreign investors sold a net 2.8264 trillion won and institutions sold 1.9477 trillion won, offset only partly by 4.6531 trillion won of net retail buying.

By contrast, KOSDAQ rose 2.44%, underscoring a split between large-cap profit-taking in Korea’s main board and stronger appetite in smaller growth names. Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hyundai Motor and KB Financial Group were among the KOSPI’s few notable gainers.

Tesla’s July registration data across Europe showed a stark split: France rose 86% year over year and Denmark gained 52%, while Norway plunged 97%, Sweden fell 60% and Spain dropped 81.3% to 131 vehicles. The figures were reported by multiple wire services and industry groups tracking national registrations.

The divergence underscores how uneven Tesla’s European performance can be from one market to the next. In mature EV markets such as Norway and Sweden, monthly swings are often amplified by delivery timing, incentives and competition, making the data a key read-through on brand momentum.

For investors, the numbers matter because Tesla’s shares often react to regional registration trends ahead of broader quarterly delivery updates. The market is also waiting for Germany and the UK, two of Europe’s biggest auto markets, to get a clearer view of whether July’s moves were local distortions or a wider demand shift.

So far, no fresh public response from Tesla has addressed the July country-by-country registration swings. Spain’s industry data also show Tesla’s registrations were still up 19.8% in the first seven months of 2026, suggesting the July drop does not automatically define the full-year trend.

Ripple said it has invested in ZILO and Licuido to strengthen regulated tokenized-asset issuance, transfer agency and collateral mobility on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The company said RLUSD will act as the settlement asset for delivery-versus-payment transactions, allowing tokenized funds to function as collateral immediately after issuance.

The move fits Ripple’s broader institutional tokenization strategy. ZILO focuses on transfer agency and fund administration, while Licuido operates a tokenization and trading platform; Ripple has also previously announced tokenization partnerships with Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton and DBS.

For the market, the main relevance is to XRPL, RLUSD and the wider tokenized-capital-markets stack rather than any listed equity. Ripple said XRPL has processed more than 4 billion transactions and has over 7 million active wallets, though those figures describe overall network usage, not institutional fund adoption.

Ripple did not disclose investment size, ownership stakes or financial targets. Public reporting also notes that Licuido’s regulatory setup is tied to an FCA-authorized principal firm, so the announcement should be read as infrastructure expansion rather than proof of scaled commercial adoption.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1% in July, while the equal-weight S&P 500 ETF RSP outperformed the Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ by 7.6 percentage points, according to MarketWatch and Dow Jones Market Data. The gap marked a record monthly spread and underscored how far performance had broadened beyond a handful of megacap names.

Seasonality is now working against the tape. Schaeffer's Research said August and September have been the weakest two-month stretch on average since 1975, and Carson Group noted that when both June and July are soft, the rest of the year has historically struggled more often than not.

The internal rotation was visible across the market. MarketWatch reported that chip stocks fell 20.6% in July, while the Roundhill Memory ETF DRAM sank 31.8%, even as the broader equal-weight benchmark held up better than the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100.

For traders, the takeaway is less about a forecast than about positioning and volatility. If megacap tech pauses again, the market may keep rewarding breadth, defensive pockets and non-tech cyclicals over the narrow AI trade.