PREMARKET NEWS REPORT 24/07 - All the market moving news in one short report.
**Continued escalation in Iran:**
* BREAKING: Iran is preparing to expand the war significantly as soon as Trump carries out his announced Iranian infrastructure strikes in the coming days, including by striking Tel Aviv directly and instructing the Houthis to fully close Bab el-Mandab to all ships, per two Iranian officials to NYT.
* BREAKING: Iran directly rejects Trump’s latest ceasefire proposal carried to Tehran by Iraqi PM al-Zaidi following his recent White House visit, with Iran not interested in any temporary deal that leaves the Strait of Hormuz control unresolved or gives it away, per NYT.
**Other general/Macro news:**
* JAPAN PM SANAE TAKAICHI IS CONSIDERING A CABINET RESHUFFLE AS EARLY AS AUGUST OR SEPTEMBER, KYODO REPORTS.
* Polymarket traders now see 2 Fed hikes as the most likely outcome for 2026, with the odds at 39%.
* UK JULY COMPOSITE PMI RISES TO 52.1; EST 49.8
* UK JULY SERVICES PMI RISES TO 51.8; EST 49.4
* EUROZONE JULY COMPOSITE PMI RISES TO 51.9; FORECAST 50.2
* EURO AREA JUNE 1-YEAR CPI EXPECTATIONS FALL TO 3%; EST. 3.2%
* EURO-ZONE BUSINESS ACTIVITY UNEXPECTEDLY JUMPS TO 5-MONTH-HIGH
Commentary from INTC earnings:
* Lip-Bu Tan: "we are seeing the strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years."
* Lip-Bu Tan: "Server CPU franchise growing faster than ever."
* Lip-Bu Tan: "YoY server growth was the strongest ever."
* "Dominant supply shortage across wafers, memory, and substrates."
* "Double digit unit growth for server CPU with momentum extending into 2028."
* "we now believe GPU:CPU ratio to be in parity and skew towards more CPU. CPU TAM expected to be a big number based on level of spend and LTAs we have in place."
* "challenge right now is how we can grow our supply to meet demand."
* Regarding 14A:
* "We made the decision in Q2 to fully committed to high volume ramp in 2028"
MAG7:
* META - Meta new $12B, nearly 1GW Texas data center deal is being discussed at yields above 7%, around 40bps higher than $META’s $27B Hyperion financing just 9 months ago. OTHER COMPANIES:
OTHER COMPANIES:
* AXP - reported 11% growth in U.S. consumer billed business, but younger customers grew much faster.
* AXP CEO: “Six months into the year, we’re seeing stronger momentum than we expected. We continued to attract a large number of new customers, particularly Millennials and Gen-Zs who represent greater lifetime value.
* SLB CEO - "The Data Center Solutions business remains on track to exceed $1B ARR by the EOY. As we broaden our offering and further diversify our customer base and geographic footprint, we expect to surpass $2B annualized revenue run rate as we exit 2027"
* BLSH - received antitrust clearance in the U.S., UK and Germany for its $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti. The deal is still subject to remaining approvals and customary closing conditions, with completion targeted for January 2027.
* CRM - secured a VA contract worth up to $1.6 billion to modernize veteran care and service delivery.
* AMD - CBRS - partnership on Fast Inference.
* AMD - Jefferies raises AMD PT to 640 from 515. Helios will begin ramping in September, with AI revenue likely well ahead of our $26 billion estimate next year. Our build points to $80–90 billion in calendar 2028, versus our prior $36 billion estimate, assuming multiple gigawatt deployments across the four lead customers. Both Anthropic and OpenAI discussed a rapid ramp-up of Helios, and the newly introduced ROCm .AI should make that process even easier. AMD matched NVDA in forecasting a $200 billion-plus server market spread across three tiers: headnode, agentic, and general-purpose servers, with agentic approaching 50% of the total addressable market in the out years. CXMT - For months, Chinese chip manufacturer, CXMT had been hiking prices on Huawei, one of the country’s biggest technology companies. The chipmaker held firm when Huawei demanded relief from the escalating costs, according to two people familiar with the matter.
* Also news on CXMT - They have been told by Chinese authorities to prioritise domestic output. This is a tailwind for US memory names at a time when companies like MU etc were seeking potential deals with CXMT, which may not be as viable anymore in light of that.