Weekly Market Commentary: Equities Decline As Tech Volatility Continues

Sunflower Bank Weekly Market Commentary: July 20, 2026

Each week, our Wealth Management team analyzes the U.S. stock market and bond market activity and news of the previous week, summarizing their findings into a weekly market update report. The key points of this week's commentary, "Equities Decline As Tech Volatility Continues," include:

• Equity markets declined last week as a sharp selloff in semiconductor stocks weighed on the major benchmarks. The S&P 500 fell -1.5%, the Nasdaq 100 dropped -4.1%, and international equity indexes also came under pressure.
• Shares of semiconductor stocks sold off sharply as investors questioned the sustainability of massive AI-related capex spending. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell -10%, its third weekly decline in four weeks. Although sentiment has soured in the space, fundamentals remain strong.
• Economic data last week was highlighted by June CPI and PPI, which came in cooler than expected. Following the June inflation data, traders walked back rate hike expectations. Per interest rate futures pricing, market participants now expect a 25-basis point hike in the October-December timeframe, whereas pricing last week indicated the market expected a hike as early as September.
• 2Q26 earnings season began in earnest last week. Most companies have so far beat expectations, and analysts now expect EPS for S&P 500 constituents to grow +24.7% year-over-year in Q2, up from +23.2% before the reporting season began.

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