Big Tech’s AI Divide Widens | Open Interest 7/31/2026

Financial Performance - Amazon reported a fifth consecutive quarter of cloud growth and plans to spend approximately $220 billion in cash capital expenditures in 2026, driven by higher memory costs up from a prior estimate of $200 billion [1][3][5] - AWS achieved its fastest growth since 2021, with a $25 billion run rate for its AI business and an additional $25 billion run rate for custom silicon compute capacity, contributing to a stock price surge of over 11% in pre-market trading [1][3] - S&P 500 companies achieved a 47% year-over-year earnings growth rate for the quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of exceeding high expectations [7] Market Dynamics and Industry Trends - Apple shares fell nearly 8% to 9% following an earnings report that missed expectations in China and services, alongside component shortages and memory price increases weighing on its forecast, with projected revenue growth guidance of 9% to 11% falling short of the street's 12% expectation [1][2][4][9] - Exxon missed profit forecasts by 1.3% due to scheduled refinery maintenance preventing the company from fully capitalizing on surging oil prices, whereas Chevron beat estimates [1][2][5] - A hedge fund, Situational Awareness, experienced a dramatic deleveraging and unravelling, plunging in assets from $45 billion to roughly $10 billion before Citadel's Ken Griffin acquired a bulk of its public stock portfolio [1][2][67][69] Macroeconomic and Regulatory Developments - South Korean authorities proposed new regulatory measures to curb leveraged ETF trading fervor, including capping portfolio allocation at 25%, increasing account limits, and requiring investor education [25][27] - U-Michigan consumer sentiment ticked down slightly to 55.2% from 55.4%, with one-year inflation expectations unchanged at 4.2% and the five-to-ten-year outlook remaining at 3.3% [36][37] - Federal Reserve speakers, including Lorie Logan, indicated that monetary policy remains moderately restrictive to guide inflation back to the 2% target without requiring further immediate tightening [39][40]