America’s largest oil companies reported a blockbuster quarter after the Iran war caused a historic dislocation in global markets that sent energy prices soaring. At ExxonMobil, profits more than doubled from a year earlier to their highest level since 2022, while Chevron CVX reported its highest quarterly earnings on record. Exxon said high oil-and-gas production and its nearly two dozen refineries from Texas to Singapore pushed earnings to $14.5 billion. The total was its highest since the peak of an energy crisis kicked off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Chevron reported earnings of $12.1 billion that rose nearly fivefold from the same period last year, driven by record oil-and-gas production and refining throughput. Both companies raked in cash as the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz waterway between Iran and Oman cut off a big chunk of the world’s fuel supplies. U.S. oil prices climbed as high as $112.95 a barrel in the quarter, and gasoline prices surged to the highest levels in four years. “While we didn’t anticipate the current situation, we were prepared for it. In our markets, disruption is inevitable,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in a conference call with analysts Friday.

Europe
After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, European stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Friday. French consumer price inflation accelerated to 2.1 percent in July from 1.8 percent in June, according to preliminary estimate from INSEE. The rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 1.8 percent. Elsewhere, U.K. house prices grew at a slower pace in July as geopolitical tensions and fears of interest rate hikes weighed on property demand, data from mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society revealed. House prices registered an annual increase of 1.8 percent after rising 2.2 percent in June. Prices were expected to grow 1.9 percent. The pan-European STOXX 600 Index jumped as much as 1 percent in early trading but turned lower as the day progressed, closing down by 0.1 percent at 649.19. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index also dipped by 0.3 percent, although the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent. German sensor and radar maker Hensoldt plunged by 5 percent amid profit taking after recent strong gains. Sportswear maker Puma also showed a significant move to the downside after posting lower sales for the second quarter. Building materials group Holcim also declined despite the company surpassing its second quarter earnings forecasts. GKN Aerospace owner Melrose Industries also tumbled after it warned of additional exceptional costs linked to chemical tank incident at its Garden Grove facility in the United States. On the other hand, France's Saint-Gobain soared by nearly 7 percent after confirming its 2026 outlook. Engie also surged by 4 percent.

United States
U.S. stocks rose despite a rout in Apple shares as Amazon's earnings kept the artificial-intelligence recovery rolling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 276.97 points, or 0.53%, to 52485.03. The broad S&P 500 gained 52.09 points, or 0.70%, to 7489.72 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 251.68 points, or 1%, to 25373.85. Overnight, the Korean market has become a proxy for sentiment on AI. This week, sentiment on AI swung from profound doubt to profound relief following strong earnings from Microsoft and Amazon. Even after the relief rally the Kospi is hovering around bear-market territory, roughly 20% below its June peak. Another psychological boost to the AI trade came from a firesale deal. Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge-fund firm Situational Awareness was down around 67% for July due to heavy losses on AI stocks when Citadel, a larger firm, swooped in to buy its publicly traded portfolio. When Citadel's veteran portfolio managers saw value in Situational's holdings, other investors were willing to bet on tech stocks again. Not all tech stocks joined the rally, however, as traders picked winners and losers of the AI boom. Apple shares fell by 7.4% to $308.91 after the iPhone maker's sales projection lagged Wall Street targets, and the company said it was still struggling to meet demand because of chip shortages. Shares of memory-chip maker Micron Technology fell 5.9% to $823.03 after Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said rising costs of these chips were an issue amid a scarcity of suppliers. In contrast, Amazon shares leapt after the online megastore's cloud-computing unit saw an acceleration in quarterly revenue growth. Like Microsoft, Amazon is selling computing power to AI companies and building its own data centers at the same time. Amazon rose 15% to $271.58, the largest percentage increase since 2012.

Asia
Asian stock markets opened lower at the start of the week. Whilst losses are largely within fairly narrow limits, the South Korean stock market is seeing a sharper decline. This follows a slight correction after Friday’s rally, which had driven the Kospi up by 18 per cent. The index is down by 5.0 per cent. At the end of last week, it recorded its biggest single day rise since October 2008. Shares in the two heavyweight index, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, are down by 8.3 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively, after soaring by 26.8 per cent and 30 per cent on Friday.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries have moved sharply lower, extending the downward move seen over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, surged 8.2 basis points to 4.745 percent.

Analysis
UBS raises its target price for Redcare Pharmacy to EUR 74 (60) – Neutral
UBS raises its target price for Bachem to CHF 88 (80) – Buy
UBS raises its target price for ING to EUR 33.20 (31.50) – Buy

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