Financial Markets Daily Report
24 July 2026
Risk-off sentiment took over yesterday's session. Oil and gas surged amid escalating tensions in the Middle East (eg., the Houthis attacked two Saudi Arabian tankers in the Red Sea), sending global stocks lower and triggering higher sovereign yields across the board. In FX markets, the U.S. dollar index strengthened towards a one-month high.
Stock market weakness was compounded by investors' negative reception of the first Q2 tech earnings reports. Alphabet reported earnings growth above 20%, but its stock price dropped 7.1% as investors worried about higher capital spending forecasts. Tesla reported a negative free cash flow and sank 14.5%.
The ECB left its key rates unchanged (depo at 2.25%) and signaled that the burden of proof for determining future moves will be on the data (see our take; markets are betting strongly on a September hike). This morning, the Trump administration set tariffs between 10% and 12% on 60 countries (incl. the EU, the UK and Mexico) as a separate 10% global levy expired.