Q2 Earnings Step Up, Markets Look to Break Losing Streak

2026.07.20 14:36 (GMT+0)

Q2 Earnings Step Up, Markets Look to Break Losing Streak

Monday, July 20th, 2026

We take a break this week from major economic prints, focusing instead on Q2 earnings season, which shifts to a faster gear this week. Major indexes, off more losses on Friday — between -0.77% (Dow) and -1.4% (Nasdaq) — are all down month to date thus far, with the Dow looking to break a three-week losing streak.

Presently, the Dow is up +80 points, with the S&P 500 +32 and the tech-strong Nasdaq +270. The small-cap Russell 2000 is +6 points at this hour. Spot oil prices are up into the $80s per barrel on the continued conflict in and around Iran, although the Islamic nation did bring up the possibility of a peace deal being reached with the U.S. again this morning. Bond yields are at +4.57% on the 10-year and +4.20% on the 2-year.

Domino’s Mixed in Q2, Shares Up in Pre-Market

Quick-service restaurant (QSR) giant Domino’s Pizza DPZ reported mixed Q2 results this morning. Earnings of $4.07 per share came in 4 cents shy of the Zacks consensus, while revenues of $1.19 billion in the quarter improved over the $1.17 billion anticipated. It’s the third-straight earnings miss for Domino’s, but shares are up +6% at this hour in pre-market trading.

Beneath the headlines, Domino’s numbers look a little nicer: while same-store sales grew only +0.1%, below expectations, supply chain revenues grew +6.5%, indicating renewing growth. Another 209 stores were opened over the past quarter, 26 in the U.S. Importantly, Domino’s shares have sold off -22% year to date, so some investors see a bargain at these levels.

Leading Economic Indicators After Today’s Open

The June print on U.S. Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) is expected to tick down for the first time in three months after today’s open, to 0.0% from +0.1% reported for May. These gains were entirely from improvements in the Finance sector, between stock market gains and high interest rates. Nevertheless, we appear to be clear of the trough LEI numbers were wallowing in a year ago: between May and November 2025, U.S. LEI clocked -1.3% negative growth.

Q2 Earnings Outlook This Week: Here Come the Heavy Hitters

We don’t get Q2 earnings figures for most of the “Mag 7” stocks this week, but we get a taste: Alphabet GOOGL and Tesla TSLA report Wednesday after the closing bell, the former of which carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) into the trading week. (Tesla is a Zacks Rank #3 [Hold].) IBM IBM, also a Zacks Rank #3, also reports that afternoon.

Tuesday morning brings us results from General Motors GM and 3M MMM, among others. Thursday presents defense giant Lockheed Martin LMT and Intel INTC, while Friday has American Express AXP and NextEra NEE. Meta Platforms META, Microsoft MSFT, Apple AAPL and Amazon AMZN report earnings next week.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research

Domino’s Mixed in Q2, Shares Up in Pre-Market

Leading Economic Indicators After Today’s Open

Q2 Earnings Outlook This Week: Here Come the Heavy Hitters

Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge Gains

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