{"id":66489,"date":"2026-08-13T16:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/s-applied-materials-beats-estimates-amid-geopolitical-tensions\/66489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T16:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:38:15","slug":"s-applied-materials-beats-estimates-amid-geopolitical-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/s-applied-materials-beats-estimates-amid-geopolitical-tensions\/66489\/","title":{"rendered":"S&#038;P 500 Hits Record as Inflation Cools; Applied Materials Beats Estimates Amid Geopolitical Tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>U.S. stocks reached record highs<\/strong> as July wholesale inflation (PPI) decelerated to <strong>4.7% year-over-year<\/strong>, reinforcing bets that the Federal Reserve will pause rate hikes in September.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applied Materials (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMAT\">AMAT<\/a>)<\/strong> shares rose after reporting Q3 revenue of <strong>$9.12 billion<\/strong> and adjusted EPS of <strong>$3.50<\/strong>, both beating analyst estimates, while providing a strong Q4 outlook.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lam Research (<a href=\"\/stock\/LRCX\">LRCX<\/a>)<\/strong> announced a massive <strong>$3 billion investment<\/strong> over five years to expand its global lab network and increase experiment capacity by over 50%.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vice President JD Vance<\/strong> signaled a focus on energy security regarding the conflict with Iran, stating the primary goal is maintaining <strong>affordable gasoline prices<\/strong> for Americans.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tyson Foods (<a href=\"\/stock\/TSN\">TSN<\/a>)<\/strong> is shuttering multiple beef plants in Illinois and Utah due to a tightening cattle supply, marking a significant retrenchment in its meat-packing operations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Market Rally Fueled by Moderating Inflation<\/h2>\n<p>Wall Street traders drove the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/sp500\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"snp500 today\">S&amp;P 500<\/a> to a new record<\/strong> and the <strong>Nasdaq 100 up 1.1%<\/strong> following data showing U.S. wholesale inflation cooled more than expected in July. The <strong>Producer Price Index (PPI)<\/strong> rose 4.7% from a year earlier, a sharp drop from June&#39;s 5.5% increase, while month-over-month prices remained unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>Money markets are now pricing in less than a <strong>40% chance of a rate hike<\/strong> in September as energy and food costs continue to retreat. Despite the optimism in equities, the U.S. Treasury sold 30-year bonds at the <strong>highest rate in 25 years<\/strong>, indicating that investors still demand high compensation for financing the national deficit.<\/p>\n<h2>Semiconductor Sector Strength<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Applied Materials (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMAT\">AMAT<\/a>)<\/strong> delivered a robust Q3 earnings report, posting revenue of <strong>$9.12 billion<\/strong> against expectations of $9.02 billion. The company\u2019s semiconductor systems division led the way with <strong>$7.04 billion<\/strong> in revenue, and management issued an optimistic Q4 revenue forecast of up to <strong>$10.75 billion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In a major expansion move, <strong>Lam Research (<a href=\"\/stock\/LRCX\">LRCX<\/a>)<\/strong> unveiled plans to invest <strong>$3 billion<\/strong> over the next five years. The capital will be used to bolster its global lab network, aiming for a <strong>50% increase in experiment capacity<\/strong> to meet the growing demands of the semiconductor industry.<\/p>\n<h2>Geopolitical Tensions and Energy Security<\/h2>\n<p>In a pre-recorded interview on Fox News, <strong>Vice President JD Vance<\/strong> addressed the ongoing conflict with Iran, emphasizing that the administration&#39;s top priority is keeping <strong>oil and gasoline cheap<\/strong> for American consumers. Vance noted that the U.S. has &quot;a lot of tools at our disposal&quot; to compel action from Iran and stabilize the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously, the U.S. military is rotating its naval presence in the Middle East, replacing the <strong>USS Abraham Lincoln<\/strong> with the <strong>USS George Washington<\/strong>. This move comes amid reports of supply shortages and strain on sailors after the Lincoln spent over <strong>250 days at sea<\/strong> without a port call.<\/p>\n<h2>Corporate Movers and Earnings Highlights<\/h2>\n<p><strong>CBOE Global Markets (<a href=\"\/stock\/CBOE\">CBOE<\/a>)<\/strong> rewarded shareholders by increasing its quarterly cash dividend by <strong>19% to $0.86 per share<\/strong>. Meanwhile, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/AMD\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"stock: AMD\">AMD<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMD\">AMD<\/a>)<\/strong> successfully raised <strong>$4.75 billion<\/strong> in its largest-ever U.S. dollar bond offering to strengthen its balance sheet.<\/p>\n<p>In the EV and AI space, <strong>Faraday Future (<a href=\"\/stock\/FFIE\">FFIE<\/a>)<\/strong> reported a Q2 operating loss of <strong>$34.8 million<\/strong> but set a target for <strong>2,000 EAI Robot unit shipments<\/strong> by the end of 2026. <strong>Veritone (<a href=\"\/stock\/VERI\">VERI<\/a>)<\/strong> posted Q2 revenue of <strong>$24.26 million<\/strong> and expects to reach operating profitability as early as the first half of 2027 through aggressive cost-cutting measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways U.S. stocks reached record highs as July wholesale inflation (PPI) decelerated to 4.7% year-over-year, reinforcing bets that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[18060,191,21590,326,828,1578,2206,3710,3764,4223,4459],"class_list":["post-66489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-ffie","tag-tsn","tag-veri","tag-amd","tag-amat","tag-cboe","tag-lrcx","tag-federal-reserve","tag-ppi","tag-inflation","tag-geopolitical-risk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}