NORTHWARDBy Prajwal Giri
Markets
All three major indices closed sharply higher Tuesday. The S&P 500 jumped 1.79% to a record 7,736.52, the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.59% to 26,584.99, and the Dow rose 1.71% (907 points) to 54,085.88. The rally followed comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the U.S. is in talks with Iran and "there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — oil sold off hard on the news, with WTI crude down 5.69% to $75.77 a barrel and Brent down 5.26% to $79.36.
Palantir had its best day in over two years after Q2 results it called "otherworldly": revenue up 93% year-over-year to $1.94 billion (vs. $1.80B expected), adjusted EPS of $0.41, and U.S. commercial revenue up 149%. The company raised full-year U.S. commercial guidance to over $3.42 billion and adjusted free cash flow guidance to $4.5–4.7 billion. The stock surged 12% on the print.
Coherent Corp. climbed 12.4% to $323.86 on reports the U.S. may restrict Chinese optical transceiver imports, adding roughly $7 billion in market cap. Amazon slipped 2% after Jeff Bezos filed to sell about $4 billion in shares. After the bell, investors were watching first-ever quarterly results from newly public SpaceX alongside AMD's Q2 report, with AMD expected to post revenue near $11.2 billion (up 46%) and non-GAAP EPS of $1.67.
Tech
OpenAI cut prices on GPT-5.6 Luna and Terra and added a Fast mode for GPT-5.6 Sol, citing efficiency gains in serving, speculative decoding, and context management. Separately, ChatGPT is retiring the standalone DALL·E GPT on August 30, 2026, pushing users toward ChatGPT Images for generation and editing. In a notable hire, 2026 Fields Medal winner Jacob Tsimerman is taking leave from the University of Toronto to join OpenAI's AI safety work.
Chip and AI-infrastructure names stayed in focus ahead of AMD's earnings, with data software, processors, launch services, and satellite connectivity all in play as SpaceX posted its first quarterly report as a public company. Apple, meanwhile, added a cap and 30-day cool-off period to its internal security-research submission portal and rolled out a redesigned accessories browsing and buying experience on the Apple Online Store and in the App Store app.
Not financial advice — for informational purposes only.