The Dow and S&P 500 indexes closed lower on Thursday, pausing after a strong start to the week, as investors digested the latest round of corporate earnings and looked for signs of progress toward a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran.

A robust earnings season, which has tempered some concerns about the massive spending by AI-related companies, and growing optimism over ‌the potential end ⁠of hostilities ⁠in the Iran war helped propel both the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 to record highs earlier this week. Oil prices rose, with U.S. crude settling up 2.75% at $77.29 ​a barrel and Brent settling at $82.49 per barrel, up 3.83%. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that an Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a ​preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other “hostile” vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“You’re seeing perhaps more muted response to macro news than you would otherwise see, probably due to the fact of the summer and a little bit of fatigue, there’s a ​little bit of headline fatigue, specifically around Iran,” said Robert Bernstone, head of trading at ⁠SummitTX Capital in ‌New York.

“Iran is having less of an impact right now, to be clear, I’m not saying it ​has no impact … ​tweets are something, headlines are something, but we really want to see the devil is in the ⁠details.”

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 13.56 points, or 0.18%, to end ​at 7,709.99 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 10.99 points, or 0.04%, to 26,352.45. The Dow ​Jones Industrial Average fell 453.64 points, or 0.83%, to 53,895.48.

The recent indications of movement toward a peace deal helped push crude prices lower earlier in the week and, in turn, eased inflation worries and expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve, which also served to push U.S. Treasury yields lower.
WESTERN DIGITAL, SANDISK DROP Data storage company Western Digital tumbled and memory chip maker Sandisk dropped in the wake of quarterly results. Both companies have surged this year, however, with Sandisk up more than 400% and Western Digital up about ‌160%. AppLovin plunged after the marketing platform missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue, while Datadog plummeted after the cloud security firm said it expects revenue growth to slow in the third quarter. Both stocks were among the biggest ​drags on the ​benchmark S&P index.

Of the 382 companies ⁠in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Wednesday morning, 84.8% have topped analyst expectations, according to LSEG data, well above the 68% average beat rate since 1994.

SPACEX LOCKUP PERIOD ENDS

SpaceX shares erased losses from earlier in the session and closed higher, defying expectations that they would be pressured by insider selling, as the lockup period for early investors holding the stock expired. On the data front, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week. The report came ahead of closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures for July due on Friday, which will shape expectations for the Fed’s path of interest rates at a time when Chairman Kevin Warsh has scaled back on forward guidance from the central bank.

It’s so interesting to me how these socialists who are taking over the Democratic party, are hiding behind the veil of affordability. They don’t want to tell you that their agenda is all about unaffordability, or in short wrecking the whole economy. 

Think of this, they will tax all manner of wealth and income. Indeed, take candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who basically want to liquidate any of your gains from successful wealth and work. And they say it all the time. In fact, Mr. Mamdani just yesterday talked about how in New York City apartments, it’s the people who live there who own it, not the owners who own it — that by the way is communism.

And then there’s the Medicare for All idea which is nothing but a euphemism, not simply for the takeover of the healthcare system, but basically for an economy-wide takeover. They want the government to run the economy. Period. Full stop.

Of course they want to defund the police and ICE, and they want open borders, and rampant illegal immigration, and then the even nuttier stuff of abolishing the senate, changing presidential elections. The insanity grows the more you listen.

Back to affordability, though. The socialists had a leg up on their program during the Biden years. Don’t forget the Green New Deal, and the phony Inflation Reduction Act, and Covid spending long after Covid was gone. Their giant spending bills and their attempted regulation of the economy, led to a 9 percent inflation peek, the highest in four years. And overall, the consumer price index cumulatively rose by 21.4 percent. Okay.

So Messrs. El-Sayed and Mamdani and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they had their chance. They got about half the socialism during the Biden years that they would ever do if they won a national election, and look what they did. Is that affordability? Remember, 21 percent inflation. Real wages fell during their period, actually fell. That’s not affordability. So there’s a lesson to be learned here. 

Their affordability mantra is a coverup for a state-run economy and soaring inflation, which is by the way according to polls, working folks including average minority working folks are not voting for them. They went for Trump in 2024.

So that’s a lesson for the GOP. Hone in on the differences between free enterprise capitalism, which rewards success, and puts more money in your pocket, letting you keep more of what you earn, and that is real affordability. 

By contrast, this new Democratic Party socialism will take money out of your pocket, will lead to rapid inflation from the government’s takeover of the economy, will rob you of your success, and devalue the human dignity of work, enterprise, and initiative.

Think of it this way, socialism is a discouragement to the individual, the economy, and the nation. And antisemitism is perhaps the driving force behind the entire socialist movement. Free market capitalism is an encouragement to the individual, the economy, and the nation. Those are the differences in affordability. Democratic party socialism is unaffordable. And free market capitalism is surely worth fighting for.

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