U.S. stocks finished mostly higher on Friday, July 31, 2026, recovering from early indecision to post solid gains across all three major indexes.
The Nasdaq (NDAQ) led the advance, jumping 251.68 points or 1 percent to close at 25,373.85, building on the strong momentum generated during Thursday’s session.
The S&P 500 advanced 52.09 points or 0.7 percent to 7,489.72, while the Dow climbed 276.97 points or 0.5 percent to 52,485.03.
For the week, the Nasdaq surged by 1.5 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Dow both shot up by more than 1 percent.
The standout performer of the session was Amazon (AMZN), which soared 15.3 percent to a two-month closing high after reporting better-than-expected second quarter revenue and cloud growth.
Amazon’s rally powered retail stocks broadly higher, driving the Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index up by 6.6 percent to a two-month closing high.
Crude oil prices also shaped market sentiment, with U.S. crude oil futures rising more than 1 percent after initially spiking more than 3 percent following Iran’s claim that it attacked two tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military escort.
The pullback in oil prices from their session highs helped stabilize broader market sentiment, even as treasury yields surged sharply higher during the day.
The ten-year yield bounced back to its highest levels since early 2025, rising 8.2 basis points to 4.745 percent, as traders reacted to both the oil price spike and hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve officials.
Minneapolis Fed President Tushar Kashkari noted that inflation has been elevated relative to the central bank’s 2 percent target for more than five years, explaining his vote to raise interest rates by a quarter point earlier in the week.
“If inflation remains elevated, in my view, a potential series of small policy moves would be better than waiting and eventually concluding that even bolder actions were necessary,” Kashkari said.
He added, “On the other hand, if inflation durably fades, a strategy of small policy steps would allow the FOMC to slow or pause subsequent adjustments without unnecessary impact on the real economy.”
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack also issued a statement supporting the rate increase, arguing the Fed needs to act decisively to return inflation to its 2 percent target.
“The longer that high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down,” Hammack said. “I preferred to move at our recent meeting because I did not see the current policy stance as appropriately restrictive.”
Oil service stocks gained alongside crude prices, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index rising 2.5 percent, and networking stocks added 2.2 percent as measured by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Gold stocks fell sharply, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index lower, while biotechnology stocks also saw considerable weakness, with the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index plunging by 2.9 percent.
In overseas markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index soared by 4 percent and South Korea’s Kospi skyrocketed by 17.9 percent, while European markets turned mixed with the U.K.’s FTSE 100 falling 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 rising 0.3 percent.
