A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap: 1. SpaceX $SPCX reported Q2 2026 revenue of $7.8B, up 92% YoY, with EPS of -$0.09 vs -$0.24 expected. EBITDA jumped 191% YoY to $3.5B, driven by strong growth across Space, Connectivity, and AI. Space revenue rose 29% YoY to $962M, Connectivity revenue grew 66% YoY to $4.3B, and AI revenue surged 247% YoY to $2.6B. Starlink subscribers doubled YoY to 12.0M, backlog reached $47.5B, and cash plus marketable securities stood at $100B. SpaceX’s CFO said revenue growth accelerated across all business segments, with strong operating leverage and margin expansion led by new AI compute agreements. 2. AMD $AMD reported a strong Q2 2026, with revenue up 50% YoY to $11.5B and adjusted EPS up 246% YoY to $1.66. Data Center revenue more than doubled, rising 107% YoY to $6.72B, while adjusted EBITDA reached $3.3B and free cash flow came in at $1.6B. CapEx was $808M as AMD continues scaling for AI demand. CEO Lisa Su said the company delivered record revenue and profitability, with accelerating EPYC demand, growing Instinct deployments, and Helios beginning to ramp, positioning AMD for substantial revenue and earnings growth as AI drives broader compute demand. 3. $PLTR Palantir has it's best day since April 2025, closing +29%. Remarks from Wall Street today: “Palantir remains our highest-conviction idea following another significant beat-and-raise, with accelerating sovereign AI demand increasing our confidence in the durability of its growth profile.” “Palantir has solved the critical context/semantic layer problem that is key to unlocking value for mission-critical business processes.” “The high-touch deployment model (FDEs) that once drew criticism increasingly appears to be the blueprint for enterprise AI adoption.” “None are considering moving AI apps/agents off of Foundry/AIP to AI-native alternatives.” “Bear case on AI-native competition likely overstated.” Comments came from Rosenblatt, Truist, and Morgan Stanley. Citigroup raised its target to $245 from $200, Piper Sandler reiterated Overweight with a $230 target, Mizuho raised to $215 from $185, Goldman Sachs raised to $204 from $183, and DA Davidson raised to $200 from $175. 4. Rocket Lab $RKLB was awarded a $397M U.S. Space Force contract to build, launch, and operate Flatellite spacecraft for the Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator program. The satellites will be designed to track airborne threats in real time from space, using advanced sensors, secure communications, and low-latency data links. Rocket Lab will launch the spacecraft on its upcoming Neutron rocket and operate them from secure facilities, highlighting the company’s vertically integrated model across satellite design, manufacturing, launch, and mission operations. CEO Peter Beck said the program supports the Space Force’s layered, resilient tracking architecture and strengthens real-time battlespace awareness in contested environments. 5. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVDA with 2.6M contracts, $PLTR with 2.0M contracts, $TSLA with 1.6M contracts, $SPCX with 1.5M contracts, $AAPL with 1.3M contracts, $INTC with 1.1M contracts, $AMZN with 991K contracts, $MSFT with 811K contracts, $AMD with 678K contracts, and $MU with 676K contracts. 6. Anthropic has reportedly signed a $10B compute deal with Nvidia-backed Volta Infra, securing capacity from a Norway data center operated in partnership with Bitdeer $BTDR. The deal adds to the growing wave of large-scale AI infrastructure commitments as frontier model labs continue locking up long-term compute capacity. 7. Secretary of State Rubio said Iran and Oman are making progress in talks, including discussions around reopening the Strait of Hormuz, though he emphasized that nothing is final yet. Rubio said officials are hoping an agreement can be reached very shortly, while Treasury Secretary Bessent said a deal with Iran could be announced as soon as tomorrow. Oil fell about 4% on the headlines as markets priced in lower near-term disruption risk. 8. Barclays says S&P 500 earnings are coming in well ahead of expectations, with 85% of companies beating Q2 EPS estimates versus the long-term average of 76%. Revenue is up 11.2% YoY, while EPS has jumped 25.1%, led by Big Tech. Despite the strong numbers, Barclays notes that both beats and misses are seeing negative stock reactions on average, a rare setup that suggests much of the good news was already priced in. 9. The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a ban on U.S. imports of new Chinese data center components, targeting optical transceivers used to move data across fiber-optic networks inside AI data centers. The FCC is said to be working on the measure, with officials hoping to publish it this year, though the restriction could still be modified or shelved. The move is aimed at preventing Chinese technology from becoming entrenched in critical U.S. infrastructure. Photonics and optical names benefited on the report, including $AAOI, $AEHR, $LITE, and $COHR. 10. The WSJ reported today that hedge fund Situational Awareness built a $45B AI-focused powerhouse before scrambling to raise cash after its aggressive AI bets soured in July. Heavy borrowing reportedly triggered lender demands, forcing the fund to sell the bulk of its public stock portfolio to Citadel. Some backers had warned founder Leopold Aschenbrenner about the risks of using significant leverage before the unwind. Aschenbrenner said in his offering document: “There are no limits on the types of securities in which SALP may take positions on behalf of its clients, the types of positions that it may take, the concentration of its investments or the amount of leverage that it may use." Investors were concerned about his communication approach and lack of disclosures with them as the fund continued to use heavy amounts of leverage. 11. Elon Musk said $SPCX SpaceX has decided to build exclusively on Nvidia $NVDA, calling Vera the “best architecture” and the “best AI computer.” Musk said SpaceX deeply values its partnership with Nvidia and expects to surpass 2 GW of compute by year-end, with capacity closer to 10 GW than 5 GW by the end of 2027. The comments are another major endorsement of Nvidia’s AI platform as hyperscalers and frontier AI companies continue locking in massive compute commitments. Elon also said there is a possibility the company will get to $1T in revenue by 2030 and a "non-zero" chance it happens in 2029. 12. The S&P 500 $SPY closed at its highest level on record, adding roughly $1.2T in market cap today as the market pushed further into all-time-high territory. WALL STREET IS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
