A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY

A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY.

Here's a full recap:

1. Citadel bought the bulk of Situational Awareness’ public-equities portfolio after the firm’s assets reportedly fell from $45B to around $10B, with the fund said to have been running roughly 4x leverage. Goldman was involved in the sale talks, while Millennium also submitted a bid. The context is brutal: Citadel itself helped fuel surprise rate-hike fears into FOMC, the market then sold off aggressively, and high-beta semiconductor names saw extreme drawdowns that compounded pressure across the space. With Situational Awareness heavily levered into that unwind, margin pressure appears to have forced the fund to unload public assets at distressed levels. Citadel then stepped in as the buyer, effectively taking the other side of the liquidation after helping spark the narrative that contributed to the selloff. The private Anthropic stake remains, and Situational Awareness will continue operating as a private investment firm with a reported $5B stake in Anthropic. Semis rebounded and had their best day in a year as the market may have interpreted the liquidation as a bottoming event to the structural deleveraging that took place.

2. Amazon $Amazon(AMZN.US) reported a strong Q2’26, with revenue up 20% YoY to $200.6B vs $196.47B expected and operating income up 43% YoY to $27.5B vs $23.53B expected. AWS revenue grew 37% YoY to $42.2B vs $40.5B expected, with AWS operating margin reaching 39.4% vs 33.8% expected. North America revenue came in at $116.2B, while International revenue rose 15% YoY to $42.2B. EPS was $5.75, helped by a $53.4B non-operating gain primarily tied to Amazon’s Anthropic investment. Q3 revenue guidance of $197B–$202B came in below the $204.07B estimate, while operating income guidance of $22.5B–$26.5B was roughly in line. Management said AWS posted its fastest growth in 18 quarters, with both AI and chips surpassing $25B run rates, while advertising grew 26% YoY.

3. Apple $Apple(AAPL.US) reported Q3’26 revenue of $109.42B vs $108.85B expected, up 16.4% YoY, with EPS of $2.02 vs $1.89 expected, up 28.7% YoY. iPhone revenue grew 21.7% YoY to $54.25B, Mac revenue jumped 28.7% YoY to $10.35B, and Products revenue rose 18.1% YoY to $78.68B. Services missed estimates at $30.74B, while Greater China also came in below expectations at $18.82B, though still up 22.4% YoY. Operating income beat at $35.7B, net income reached $29.79B, and 9-month operating cash flow rose 43.1% YoY to $117B. Apple also declared a $0.27/share dividend and said its active device installed base hit a new all-time high across all major product categories and regions.

4. Tesla $Tesla(TSLA.US) is reportedly considering a separation of its China business ahead of a potential SpaceX $SpaceX(SPCX.US) deal, per WSJ. Advisers have discussed options including a spinoff, sale, or closure, while executives have been told to prepare for a possible split, though plans remain early and could change. A standalone China unit would create a regulatory firewall between Tesla and SpaceX, a major U.S. defense contractor, helping address concerns around Chinese customer data, dual-use technology, and Beijing oversight. China represented about 18% of Tesla’s sales in the first half of 2026 and includes two major Shanghai factories, while SpaceX generated 20.9% of its 2025 business from the U.S. government.

5. The top 10 most active options today by contracts traded were $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) with 2.8M contracts, $Microsoft(MSFT.US) with 1.9M contracts, $Tesla(TSLA.US) with 1.6M contracts, $Amazon(AMZN.US) with 1.2M contracts, $Apple(AAPL.US) with 1.0M contracts, $Meta Platforms(META.US) with 1.0M contracts, $Micron Tech(MU.US) with 984K contracts, $Intel(INTC.US) with 753K contracts, $SpaceX(SPCX.US) with 685K contracts, and $IREN(IREN.US) with 569K contracts.

6. OpenAI reportedly cut prices for GPT-5.6, per Axios. Pricing for GPT-5.6 Luna was reduced by roughly 80% to $0.20 per million input tokens, while GPT-5.6 Terra pricing was cut by 20% to $2 per million input tokens.

7. U.S. Q2 advance GDP came in at 1.5% vs 2.0% expected, while initial jobless claims were 197K vs 200K expected and continued claims came in at 1.782M vs 1.795M expected. Inflation was largely in line, with headline PCE at 3.7% YoY and -0.1% MoM, while core PCE came in at 3.3% YoY and 0.1% MoM vs 0.2% expected. Personal spending rose 0.3% MoM vs 0.4% expected, personal income increased 0.2% vs 0.3% expected, and real personal spending matched estimates at 0.4% MoM.

8. AUM in South Korea’s leveraged ETFs has fallen by $37B, or roughly 70%, from its all-time high just over 30 days ago, bringing total assets down to about $16B, the lowest since early April. The unwind follows a massive 500% surge since the start of 2026, with domestic-listed funds driving most of the decline and making up around 70% of total leveraged ETF assets. The collapse in leveraged products comes as Korea’s KOSPI rebounded nearly 15% alongside a broader rally in global chip stocks.

9. DeepSeek is reportedly targeting a 1GW AI data center buildout, with plans for a new campus in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, while also leasing additional capacity, per Bloomberg. At least part of the compute is expected to come online by late 2027 or early 2028, though it remains unclear which chips will power the project. The buildout would be larger than any AI facility currently operated by a Chinese company, but still below the 3GW and 5GW AI campuses being developed in the U.S. Chinese rival

Source: amit