mixed trend on Wall Street; Chip stocks are recovering

17:15

Wall Street moves to trade in a mixed trend. For now, the Nasdaq is up about 0.6%, the S&P 500 is up about 0.3% and the Dow Jones is down about 0.2%.

17:00

Trading on Wall Street continues to go up, although they moderate a little. The Nasdaq is now up about 0.5%, the S&P 500 is up about 0.3% and the Dow Jones is trading steady.

Analyst Adam Crisapoli from Vital Knowledge commented on the climate in the markets and was quoted by CNBC as saying that “Investors still do not think that Trump has the tolerance for a tangible escalation of the activity of American forces in the Middle East, and if this is the case, then some type of diplomatic solution is inevitable.”

16:40

company Kamada controlled (38%) by the Fimi Foundation, signed an agreement to sell plasma to an international company for $50 million over three years. Kamada, which develops medicines based on human plasma, which in the past purchased plasma from other sources, has in recent years established two facilities in Texas where it produces plasma from paid donors, with a capacity that is expected to reach 50,000 liters per year. Part of this plasma is allocated to products that the company manufactures itself such as drugs for rabies, CMV or viral jaundice, and now it will be able to sell the excess for an additional fee.

The first revenues from the agreement are expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 and are already included in the company’s forecasts for 2026, which should reach 200-205 million dollars, another record year for the company in the area of ​​revenues. Kamada predicts that EBITDA, the profit before depreciation and amortization, will also grow this year at a double-digit rate to 50-53 million dollars.

At the same time, yesterday Kamada signed a four-year collective agreement with its workers’ council, this time without labor disputes and strikes as we have seen in the past, which harmed the company’s operations. The new agreement stipulates wage increases of up to 20%, with preference for disadvantaged groups of workers. At the same time, welfare budgets will be increased, and among other things, Sibus cards will be distributed to all employees, most of whom are factory and marketing workers.

16:35

Wall Street opens the new trading week with rising rates. The technology-biased Nasdaq index jumps about 1%, the S&P 500 adds about 0.6% to its value and the Dow Jones advances about 0.2%.

The positive trend comes against the background of easing the increases recorded earlier in oil prices, which climbed over 2% at the start of the day. In addition, it was reported that a senior Iranian official said that the policy mediators proposed to the US and Iran to besiege the fire for ten days, although at this time it is not known that this proposal is under any discussions.

Chip stocks are recovering slightly from the sharp declines they recorded last week. The basket fund SOXX which tracks the broader chip sector, is up more than 2%. The basket fund DRAM which specifically tracks memory stocks, is also climbing more than 2%.

16:15

The chip giant AMD Climbing more than 4% in early trading, after announcing that it is preparing to ship its new AI chip system, called Helios, to a growing list of customers, which now includes Microsoft.

CNBC reported that this is the first competitor to the popular Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems of Nvidia and it aims to present the first real competition in years to the chip maker with the highest value in the world.

As mentioned, Microsoft announced today that it will use the Helios system in its data centers, thus joining Meta, OpenAI, Oracle and others in the race to obtain as much computing power as possible. AMD will begin shipping the systems to customers, including Microsoft, later this year. Details regarding the financial terms or the scope of the computing capacity were not disclosed.

15:07

Ahead of the second quarter reports, Cantor Investment Bank lowers the target price for the stock Wix from 70 to 65 dollars, but remains with the “excessive yield” recommendation.

The new target price reflects a 26.3% premium over the stock price on Nasdaq. Wix’s stock has weakened by 50.5% since the beginning of the year amid fears of AI’s effects on its business, but has risen by 22.3% in the last month (compared to 4% in the software’s shares, IGV), and the value of the Internet company from Israel reaches $2.15 billion.

Analyst Deepak Mativanan from Cantor expects to see signs of stabilization in order growth in the upcoming reports (to be published on August 4), and mentions that the company recently lowered its annual revenue forecast following a reorganization (which included laying off 20% of employees) and a significant slower than expected in its partner business. The company then noted that Base44 in the field of vibe-coding continues to perform according to expectations.

In the analyst’s estimation, “Despite the headwinds in the short term, we continue to believe that Base44 reflects a significant opportunity to accelerate growth rates and fight competition from AI in building websites in the medium-long term.”

14:59

In Europe, the positive trend continues, while in New York contracts the increases continue. The Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges rise by about 0.5%.

London is down 0.1% and investors are still unimpressed by Andy Burnham who took over as British Prime Minister, becoming the country’s seventh Prime Minister in a decade. As soon as he took office, investors and market observers began to wonder what his government’s economic policy would look like.

In the Eurozone, the focus of attention this week will be the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. After his decision in June to raise the interest rate by 25 basis points to a level of 2.25%, it is widely believed that the Board of Governors will leave the interest rate unchanged this time.

However, the recent recovery in energy prices, after the decline recorded before the war, continues to support expectations for further interest rate hikes, with markets currently pricing in an increase of approximately 40 basis points by the end of the year. Although leaving the interest rate unchanged is the most likely scenario this week, inflation is still expected to remain above the target, so the possibility of another interest rate increase later this year is still on the agenda.

14:37

stock Domino’s Pizza Soared more than 6% in early trade after reporting a surprise increase in US same-store sales in the second quarter. Sales rose 0.1%, while analysts had expected a 0.3% decline.

The company’s CEO, Russell Weiner, noted that Domino’s recorded strong growth in the number of orders both in deliveries and self-pickup, which brought millions of new customers to the brand. According to him, the new customers strengthen the company’s loyalty program, support the chain’s growth and help increase its market share.

14:08

It seems that the volatility in chip stocks will continue today. Now, in early trading they are rising – the SOXX stock index signals an increase of over 2% in leading memory chip stocks – and in particular Micron, SK Hynix and SanDisk.

Nasdaq contracts are up about 0.5%, with the S&P 500 and Dow not far behind.

13:19

US government bond yields are slightly higher at the start of the week, as investors continue to monitor developments in the Middle East and their implications for markets.

The yield on 10-year US government bonds, which is considered the main benchmark for funding costs in the American economy, rose by more than one basis point to 4.56%.

At the same time, the yield on the two-year bond, which more closely reflects market expectations for the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy, remained almost unchanged at 4.18%. The yield on the 30-year bond rose more than one basis point to 5.08%.

The increase in yields reflects caution on the part of investors against the background of the escalation in the Middle East, when in the bond market, yields and prices move in opposite directions – that is, an increase in yields indicates a decrease in bond prices.

12:33

Oil prices erased the gains recorded in the morning after Iran signaled that it was ready to resume contacts with the United States based on its national interests. As a result, the price of Brent oil retreated from a level of more than $90 per barrel and traded around $88, while WTI oil fell by about 0.5% to $82 per barrel. The move came despite security tensions, after the US military confirmed that a third American soldier Killed in the last operation in the area, and at the same time remains were found near the scene of the Iranian attack in Jordan.

10:36

Trading in Europe opened this morning with declines, Frankfurt shed about 0.5%, Paris and London with similar declines.

The Irish low-cost company Rainier warned that European airlines are expected to face a “challenging winter”, after reporting a 34% drop in profits in the first quarter. According to the company, the crisis in the Middle East caused consumers to postpone booking flights, which hurt demand. The stock falls by about 6%.

Rainier’s net profit in the April-June quarter amounted to 538 million euros, compared to 820 million euros in the corresponding period last year.

The company stated that approximately 20% of its fuel consumption is not protected through hedging transactions, and was therefore exposed to the sharp increase in fuel prices. At the same time, ticket prices fell by 6%, while operating expenses jumped by 11% to 3.81 billion euros, partly because the price of fuel for that part that is not hedged more than doubled during the quarter.

The bottom line: Rainier has been hit by a combination of weaker demand and higher fuel costs – a combination that weighs on profitability and leads it to warn of a challenging period for the European airline industry.

08:42

On Wall Street this morning, contract increases of up to 0.4%.

After a stormy week that ended in declines where the markets were affected by a renewed escalation in the Middle East and the sharp sell-off in chip stocks that lost about 3 trillion dollars in the last month, investors are entering a busy week, centered on the report season.

The bulk of the declines were absorbed last week by the SOXX exchange fund, which tracks chip stocks. The fund shed 10% and had its worst week since March 2025. Streaming giant Netflix also fell after disappointing quarterly results.

● After a 20% drop from the peak: “The chip market is just looking for reasons to blow hot air”

On Wednesday, two giants, Alphabet and Tesla, will publish their results, reports that may set the tone for trading in the entire market. Intel’s report will be published on Thursday, which will provide a snapshot of the chip sector after the latest upheaval, IBM will also report this week after the stock plunged following a pessimistic letter from CEO Arvind Krishna.

The main issue that will be in focus is whether the technology giants will be able to justify their high value. Since June 22, more than 3 trillion dollars have been wiped off the value of chip stocks in the world, and a large part of the money has flowed into the “Magnificent Seven” stocks.

Now, investors will examine both sides of the AI ​​chain: on the demand side, Alphabet and Tesla, which are major consumers of chips and artificial intelligence, and on the other hand, the supply on the part of Intel, one of the largest chip suppliers.

6:30

Oil prices are rising this morning (Monday), after another night of fighting between the US and Iran that increased fears of disruptions in energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced tonight that two oil tankers exploded after trying to pass through the southern route of the strait. “The strait will not be safe for the passage of petrochemical products or ‘a single drop of oil and gas’ as long as US operations in the region will continue.”

● How will the chip shares in Tel Aviv react to the landslide, and the sector that is heating up on Wall Street
● Exclusive | “If Nir Tsuk was in Israel, it would have been closed”: behind the scenes of the collapse of the Isracard and Ash Bank deal

A barrel of Brent oil rises by about 2.3% and reaches $90.2 per barrel. At the same time, American WTI oil climbs by about 2.1% to a price of $83.5 per barrel.

The latest escalation came after the US military confirmed that a third US soldier had been killed in the latest operational activities, while investigators located unidentified remains near the site of the Iranian strike in Jordan, which earlier killed two US soldiers and left one missing.

In the main stock exchanges in Asia this morning, a mixed trend is maintained, in the shadow of the fears of the escalation of tensions in the Middle East. The South Korean Kospi index falls by 4.1%, while the Hang Seng index rises by about 2.1% and Shanghai climbs by about 1.2%. The markets in Japan are closed for a holiday.

The South Korean stock exchange activated the “Sidecar” mechanism this morning, and temporarily froze trading against the backdrop of the sharp drop recorded in the country’s stocks. The sales sidecar mechanism is activated when futures contracts on the index fall by 5% or more for at least one minute, leading to a trading halt for 5 minutes.

The futures contracts on the leading indices on Wall Street are trading unchanged this morning, after the three main indices recorded weekly losses.