US stock futures point higher for a second straight session as a blockbuster earnings season — headlined by Palantir's blowout quarter — keeps Wall Street's risk appetite intact, even as crude oil rebounds on fresh reports of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. The Dow closed at a record high on Monday, and for now investors are treating the latest Middle East flare-up as an energy story rather than a growth-and-inflation threat.

Futures now

Ahead of the 9:30 a.m. ET open, S&P 500 futures were up ~0.3%, Nasdaq-100 futures ~0.9% and Dow futures ~0.8%, per Yahoo Finance. The single biggest overnight driver is earnings momentum — with roughly 85% of S&P 500 companies beating estimates this season, the bid is bottom-up rather than macro-driven.

Pre-market movers

• Palantir (PLTR) +~17% — blockbuster Q2 results and a raised full-year outlook on accelerating enterprise-AI demand.
• Caterpillar (CAT) +~9% — sales and revenue topped $20B for the first time; a direct AI build-out beneficiary.
• Wayfair (W) +~19% — comfortably beat Q2 earnings expectations.
• ON Semiconductor (ON) +~7% and Micron (MU) +~5% — chip names lifted by AI data-center demand optimism.
• GameStop (GME) −~12% — meme-stock profit-taking.

Earnings today

The main event lands after the close: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reports, and SpaceX (SPCX) delivers its first quarterly results as a public company — a fresh read on both AI-chip demand and investor appetite for Elon Musk's newly listed rocket-and-AI venture.

Macro today

A lighter, second-tier data day — exactly the releases most briefs skip:

• 8:30 a.m. ET — June Trade Balance: consensus about −$76.5B vs −$77.6B prior. A wider deficit trims Q3 GDP math.
• 10:00 a.m. ET — June JOLTS job openings: ~7.4M expected vs 7.6M prior. A soft print feeds the cooling-labor, rate-cut narrative; a hot one pushes back on it.
• 10:00 a.m. ET — June Factory Orders: −0.8% MoM expected vs −1.3% prior — a gauge of manufacturing demand.

Rates, dollar & commodities

The US 10-year yield sits near 4.67% and the dollar index (DXY) near 99.97 (Trading Economics). Gold futures rose ~0.4% to about $4,108/oz and silver jumped ~2.3% to roughly $59, per TheStreet. Crude rebounded Tuesday on the fresh Hormuz attack reports after sliding Monday on Iran de-escalation hopes; WTI last around $77/bbl (Trading Economics).

Overnight global

Asia closed mostly higher on AI and semiconductor buying — Japan's Nikkei 225 +0.32% to 63,957 and South Korea's KOSPI +1.62% to 6,359 (Trading Economics / News On Japan).

What to watch at the open

Watch whether the Palantir-led AI bid broadens beyond a handful of mega-caps, and how equities absorb the 10 a.m. JOLTS print. Oil is the swing factor — if Hormuz headlines escalate, an energy-price spike could finally test the market's "earnings over geopolitics" calm heading into tonight's AMD and SpaceX reports.

As of 9:20 a.m. ET, Aug 4, 2026. Sources: Yahoo Finance, TheStreet, Benzinga, Trading Economics. Automated US market brief for discussion and education only — not investment advice. Verify before acting.