According to the Central News Agency (CNA), the Nasdaq Composite opened up 218.5 points (0.87%) on July 31, 2026, as easing concerns over AI investment returns and a reported 12% jump in Amazon shares offset a drop in Apple. The Dow rose 27.0 points and the S&P 500 gained 24.5 points at the open.
How did the broader U.S. market perform at Tuesday's open?
According to CNA, all three major U.S. indices opened higher on July 31, 2026. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up 27.0 points, or 0.05%, at 52,235.03 (E8). The S&P 500 opened up 24.5 points, or 0.33%, at 7,462.13 (E9). The Nasdaq Composite opened up 218.5 points, or 0.87%, at 25,340.711 (E10). CNA attributed the gains to easing market concern over AI investment returns, combined with a reported 12% surge in Amazon shares that offset weakness in Apple (E7).
| Index | Change | Level |
|---|
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | +27.0 pts (+0.05%) | 52,235.03 |
| S&P 500 | +24.5 pts (+0.33%) | 7,462.13 |
| Nasdaq Composite | +218.5 pts (+0.87%) | 25,340.711 |
What drove Amazon's stock surge?
CNA reported Amazon shares jumped 12% in early trading, tying the move to strong cloud-business revenue growth that helped offset Apple's decline (E7). A separate report from United Daily News (UDN) put the early gain higher, at 14%, attributing it to Amazon's cloud unit posting revenue above expectations for a fifth consecutive quarter and the company raising its full-year capital expenditure guidance — moves UDN said signaled robust AI service demand sufficient to support large-scale infrastructure investment (E2). The two outlets' figures diverge — 12% per CNA versus 14% per UDN — but both attribute the rally to the same underlying driver: cloud revenue strength tied to AI demand.
How did semiconductor and tech stocks diverge?
According to UDN, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) opened up 3.65%, briefly touching a gain of 5.16%, before the advance narrowed to 1.5%. TSMC's U.S.-listed ADR followed a similar pattern, rising as much as 2.45% before paring back to a 0.8% gain (E1). Apple moved in the opposite direction, falling 9% after the company posted better-than-expected results for the prior quarter but warned that memory and chip supply constraints would affect its iPhone, iPad, and Mac lines in the current quarter, with the impact expected to widen each quarter, per UDN (E3).
How did energy stocks perform amid geopolitical tensions?
UDN reported that U.S.-Iran hostilities and disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices higher, with West Texas Intermediate crude trading at about $84 a barrel intraday and Brent crude up 0.4% to $89.4 a barrel on July 31 (E5). Against that backdrop, UDN said ExxonMobil and Chevron posted sharply higher second-quarter profits, with their shares rising 2.6% and 0.1%, respectively, in early trading (E6).
How large are tech giants' AI capex plans?
UDN reported that Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet together project 2026 capital expenditures of $720 billion to $745 billion (E4). The figure was cited alongside Amazon's own capex guidance increase (E2), framing the sector-wide scale of AI infrastructure spending referenced in the cloud-earnings coverage.
What this means
The index-level opening gains (E7, E8, E9, E10) were not broad-based across tech: the Nasdaq's advance leaned heavily on Amazon's reported cloud-driven rally (E2, E7), while Apple's 9% slide on chip and memory supply warnings (E3) pulled in the opposite direction. The semiconductor sector showed a similar split pattern to the reported Amazon gain itself — SOX and TSMC's ADR both opened with sharp jumps that then compressed (E1), mirroring the gap between the 12% and 14% Amazon figures reported by CNA and UDN respectively. Separately, the energy-stock gains at ExxonMobil and Chevron (E6) tracked the Hormuz-related oil price move (E5), a dynamic distinct from and unconnected in the evidence to the AI-driven tech trading described elsewhere in the same day's session.