Market Minute ⏱️ 7/27/26: Markets Breathe Easier Amid Mideast Calm

Mike Larson | Editor-in-Chief

Stocks are jumping, while oil is slumping to start the week. Gold and silver are rising along with Treasuries, while the dollar is flattish. Bitcoin is hovering in the mid-$60,000s.

Markets are breathing easier after President Trump reportedly delayed a major escalation in the US-Iran war. Stocks are up, oil is down, and risk-on proxies are rallying after three nights of relative calm in the Middle East. Still, it’s unclear how long the respite will last – which reportedly stemmed in part from US concerns about depleted supplies of anti-missile defense systems.

Crude Oil, S&P 500 E-Mini Futures (1-Day % Change)

US companies aren’t the only ones raising billions of dollars in blockbuster Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)! China’s CXMT Corp. raised 66.6 billion yuan ($9.8 billion) in that country’s second-largest IPO ever. Then its shares soared 466% on the Shanghai exchange. The company is the world’s fourth-largest maker of DRAM chips, which are in high demand due to the AI boom and related tech infrastructure buildout.

The blockbuster $81 billion Paramount Skydance Corp. (PSKY) deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (WBD) is on hold – with no telling exactly when it’ll be consummated. Federal and state legal challenges have led Paramount to potentially delay closing until mid-2027, something that is driving up legal and other deal-related costs.

Lastly, the Federal Reserve will meet this week to chart a course forward on interest rates. Futures markets are only pricing in a 33% chance they’ll hike rates by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4% at this meeting. But that climbs to 56% for the meeting that ends Sept. 16. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is intentionally providing less forward guidance about the Fed’s intentions than past central bank leaders. That means market volatility around Fed meetings could be higher in 2026 and beyond.

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