Key points
- Nasdaq-100 futures fell close to 1% before Wednesday's open on an Iran oil spike, new tariffs and chip-stock fear, worse than Dow and S&P 500 futures, both down under 0.4%.
- Stocks opened lower but climbed steadily through the first half hour of trading, and by mid-morning the Nasdaq-100 was back to nearly flat versus Tuesday's close.
- Brent crude jumped more than 3%, near $94 a barrel, as the US struck Iran for an 11th straight night, and Trump added new tariffs on Brazil and Canada overnight.
- Alphabet and Tesla, both down more than 1% premarket, had erased most of that loss by mid-morning too, hours before they report earnings after today's close.
Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ=F) fell close to 1% before Wednesday's opening bell, worse than Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, down 0.14%, or S&P 500 futures, down 0.34%. An Iran oil spike, fresh tariffs and chip-stock jitters were doing the damage, all at once, hours before Alphabet and Tesla report earnings tonight. But stocks didn't stay down. The index opened lower, then climbed steadily through the first half hour of regular trading, and by mid-morning had clawed back almost all of its loss.
Stocks clawed it back after the open
The low point came in the hour before the bell. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the most-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq-100, bottomed out around $700.55 shortly before 9 am ET, down about 1.2 percent from Tuesday's close of $708.97. It opened the regular session at $703.56, still down more than half a percent, then rose in a fairly steady climb through the first 30 minutes of trading. By 10 am ET it traded near $708, within a few cents of flat versus Tuesday's close. Alphabet and Tesla told the same story: both were down more than 1 percent premarket and had erased most of that by the same point Wednesday morning.
The Iran war is pushing oil higher again
The US military said it struck Iranian military targets overnight for an 11th consecutive night, and Kuwait's air defenses intercepted Iranian drones Wednesday morning. That kept a run of bad news going for oil markets: crude already settled at a five-week high Tuesday after Iran hit US facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan in response to an earlier round of strikes.
The bigger worry is shipping. Yemen's Houthi movement, aligned with Iran, said it would target vessels carrying Saudi oil through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia. That route has grown more important since traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell sharply after a ceasefire between the US and Iran collapsed earlier this month. Brent crude climbed past $94 a barrel Wednesday, a gain of more than 3%. WTI crude gained almost as much, trading near $87. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress this week the war has cost the US $37.5 billion so far. That's up nearly $8 billion from the last public estimate. We covered the oil market's reaction to this war before, including the weekend Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed.
Trump piled on new tariffs overnight
Trade policy added its own pressure. A new 25% tariff on many Brazilian goods took effect Wednesday, part of a dispute the White House says is rooted in Brazil's treatment of US tech and payment companies, restrictions on American ethanol, and weak intellectual property protection. The tariff exempts some consumer staples, including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice, along with some energy and aerospace products, a sign the administration is trying to limit the hit to US grocery prices.
Separately, Trump announced a 50% tariff on a range of Canadian goods Monday, from hockey equipment and beer to milk and dairy products, set to take effect August 19. The US Trade Representative's office said the tariffs apply to close to $20 billion of Canadian imports, about 5.2% of the $382 billion in goods the US imported from Canada last year. The White House frames it as retaliation for Canadian tariffs on US autos and a Canadian boycott of US alcohol.
A third tariff move landed overnight too: a planned 100% tariff on imported generic drugs starting in August 2028, rising to 200% in 2029. "This is done in order to RESHORE Generic Pharmaceutical Production into America, with a penalty to those Companies that decide not to build Plant and Equipment within the stated period of time given to them," Trump wrote on Truth Social. Major US drugmakers were little changed on the news, since companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have already struck deals to build US production in exchange for tariff relief.
Chip stocks are still the shakiest part of the market
The clearest sign of nerves is sitting in semiconductors. Options traders are pricing in far bigger swings for chip stocks than for the broader market. The gap between the Cboe SMH Volatility Index, which measures expected 30-day moves in the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), and the regular Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) reached close to 47 points recently and remains near 45, according to Yahoo Finance's analysis of Cboe data. That is a wider gap than during the April 2025 tariff selloff, when the VIX itself spiked past 50 but the chip volatility premium was less than half its current size. Fear, in other words, is concentrated in chips this time, not spread across the whole market. It made for an odd contrast the same week Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's signed leather jacket sold at auction for $960,000, on the same day chip stocks fell into a bear market.
Not every chip name is struggling. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) closed up 7% Tuesday, gained another 12% in premarket trading Wednesday after a blowout earnings report showed a record $60 billion order backlog and a raised gross margin outlook, and kept climbing after the open, up more than 20% on the day by mid-morning. That kind of split, one AI supplier surging on hard numbers while the sector's options market braces for more turbulence, is what a rotation looks like from the inside. We covered chip stocks' first back-to-back gain in two weeks yesterday, in Micron, SK Hynix and AMD's rally on July 21.
Alphabet and Tesla report tonight, the first real test
Alphabet (GOOGL) and Tesla (TSLA) both report second-quarter results after Wednesday's close, the first two of the "Magnificent Seven" megacap stocks to report this earnings season. Both stocks were down more than 1% in premarket trading before recovering with the rest of the market, with investors weighing whether Alphabet's cloud and AI monetization can justify its rising spending, and watching Tesla's capital spending as it pushes further into robotics and automation. IBM and ServiceNow (NOW) report the same evening. We laid out the full stakes for this earnings stretch, including IBM's 20% crash after its own warning, in this week's earnings preview.
Gold, silver and bond yields are moving too
Money is shifting outside stocks as well. Gold traded near $4,100 an ounce Wednesday, up about 0.5%, and silver jumped close to 4.4% to near $58.86 an ounce, both drawing support from the same Middle East uncertainty and higher oil prices pushing on the rest of the market. The 10-year Treasury yield rose for a second straight session to near 4.63%, as investors priced in renewed inflation risk from the oil spike. The Japanese yen slid past 163 per dollar, a fresh four-decade low, adding currency pressure to an already crowded list of cross-currents.
Sources
- Yahoo Finance, stock market live blog, July 22, 2026
- CNBC, oil prices and Iran strikes, July 22, 2026
- CBS News, Canada tariff list
- US News, Brazil tariff details
- Related coverage: This week's earnings stakes for Alphabet, Tesla, Intel and more
- Related coverage: Chip stocks' first back-to-back gain in two weeks
- Related coverage: Futures down, oil up after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz
- Intraday QQQ, Alphabet and Tesla price action via Robinhood market data, July 22, 2026
- Gold, silver, Treasury yield and yen data via Yahoo Finance and Trading Economics, July 22, 2026
This is general market commentary and opinion, not investment advice. Prices can move significantly, or reverse again, as the trading day continues. Markets can go down as well as up, and you can lose money. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.
