It was a green day on Wall Street yesterday

August 4th, 2026

Good morning!

It was a green day on Wall Street yesterday - the Dow closed at an all-time record high.

• Amazon (AMZN +4.58%) also joined the $3T club! ([https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/03/amazon-amzn-stock-market-cap-earnings.html](https://)) - it’s now the 5th most valuable public company in the world.

Up next: We’re serving up earnings, AI breakthroughs, and how millennials could say hi to their first virtual friend Tom again.

STOCKS

• S&P: 7,600 (+1.48%)
• DOW: 53,178 (+1.32%)
• NASDAQ: 25,913 (+2.13%)

*Numbers as of market close on August 3rd

Profits For Palantir

Palantir (PLTR +2.10%) told Wall Street yesterday how it did ([https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/palantir-stock-jumps-after-otherworldly-quarter-as-us-commercial-business-booms-122817775.html](https://)) last quarter.

The results: Its revenue jumped 48% last quarter to $1B, way more than Wall Street expected.

• Its Foundry AI platform is winning big government and commercial deals.

Several other companies have reported success with AI last quarter too, like Amazon and Microsoft (MSFT +4.93%), as AI starts paying the bills.

Drug Giant Rumor

Word on the Street is that big pharma brand Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY +0.24%) is thinking about buying AstraZeneca (AZN -6.88%).

• But it’s just a rumor - both companies have denied the talk as of today.

A merger this size would reshape the drug industry - and the reported deal amount could be as high as $400B ([https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/03/astrazeneca-bristol-myers-squibb-merger-talks.html](https://)).

GLOBAL SCOOP

• STOXX 600 (E.U.): +0.45%
• CSI 300 (CHN): -0.98%
• FTSE 100 (U.K.): -0.09%

*Numbers as of 5:00 PM ET on August 3rd

Alibaba's AI Play

Shares of Alibaba (BABA +4.13%) were buzzing yesterday after the company unveiled its most powerful AI model yet.

It jumped over 3% at one point after its Qwen30-Max launch ([https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/alibaba-nyse-baba-launches-qwen3-130620319.html](https://)).

Breakdown. The new model reportedly beats top rivals on coding and reasoning tests, drawing developer attention.

• The U.S. has put pressure on Chinese AI, threatening bans of software and chips to slow China's progress.

Hydrogen Comeback

The U.S.-Iran war took the air out of hydrogen production worldwide - but other countries are starting to produce more.

Global investment company Essar is pouring $4.3B into turning its Stanlow refinery in the U.K. into a hydrogen hub.

Who cares? Hydrogen is used in more than just balloons - it helps keep chips for AI cool too.

[https://www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/hydrogen/597285/essar-pitches-the-north-west-to-be-home-of-5000-clean-jobs-push/](https://)

ECONOMY

• US10YEAR: 4.67% (-0.06%)
• GOLD: $4,110 (+0.09%)
• BRENT CRUDE: $83.75 (-4.75%)

*Numbers as of 4:00 PM ET on August 3rd

Wildfire Bonds Heat Up

Insurance-linked bonds tied to wildfires are on pace for a record year.

• Wildfire cat bond sales hit $2B so far in 2026. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/wildfires-fan-record-sales-of-catastrophe-bonds-to-backstop-risk](https://)

Why? Insurers want to offload wildfire risk after devastating California fires, and investors want the big yields.

Bonds are debt - so homeowners and cities will have the cash they need to fight fires, but also growing debt over time.

Travel Boom Loses Steam

American summer travel abroad is cooling off as ticket prices climb.

International flight bookings dropped 8% year over year.

• Airfare to Europe jumped 12%, and a weaker dollar makes trips pricier.

Plus, the U.S.-Iran war has made jet fuel costlier - with Delta (DAL +4.75%) and United (UAL +5.82%) saying these prices could stick around for a while.

REAL ESTATE

• 30-year: 6.82%
• 15-year: 6.32%

Homebuilders Hit The Brakes

Residential construction spending fell for a fourth straight month in June, sliding to an annual pace of $889.3B.

That's 4.7% below last year BTW…

• Single-family spending took the bigger hit with mortgage rates sitting above 6.5% for the past 11 straight weeks.

Now, the slow sales have builders cutting back on new starts and permits.

Fraudster Freelancers

Fraudsters are now paying U.S. freelancers to post fake rental listings without telling them it's fraud.

The reason: Foreign postings trip a platform's fraud alarms right away, but a domestic gig worker doesn't.

• Consumers reported about 65,000 rental scams from 2020 through mid-2025, losing $65M.

Half of those in the year ending June 2025 began with a fake Facebook (META +6.02%) ad.

CRYPTO

• BTC: $63,662 (+0.26%)
• ETH: $1,875 (-1.02%)
• XRP: $1.08 (-0.40%)

*Numbers as of 4:00 PM ET on August 3rd

Bitcoin Bug

Attackers drained more than 1,000 Bitcoin from coldcard wallets in 41 minutes on July 30.

• A coldcard is a hardware wallet, a device that stores Bitcoin offline so hacker can reach it online.

The damage? Estimated losses are near $89M across about 1,200 wallets.

But a coding mistake in some versions made the recovery phrase guessable…

The Selling Continues

Two big names in crypto made waves yesterday.

• Strategy just sold about $105M of Bitcoin last week.([https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/strategy-sells-more-bitcoin-stock-124157954.html](https://))
• A crypto company linked to President Trump, American Crypto, posted a $47M loss last quarter.

What’s happening? The crypto market has been in a slump recently and some companies are selling to free up some cash.