Wall Street edged higher on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, as a strong earnings report from Coca-Cola offset renewed weakness in semiconductor stocks on the opening day of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.03%, or 537.24 points, to 52,747.32, the S&P 500 added 0.21% to 7,428.78, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.22% to 24,876.91 as chip names again lagged the broader tape. The session offered a snapshot of a market pulled in several directions at once, between strong consumer earnings, a shaky chip sector and a central bank about to make its rate call.
Coca-Cola Lifts Guidance
Coca-Cola reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 97 cents a share on revenue of 13.38 billion dollars, both ahead of Wall Street estimates, with global volume growth supporting a roughly 7% increase in net revenue. The company raised its full-year comparable earnings growth outlook to a range of 9% to 10%, up from its prior 8% to 9% guidance, and shares rose more than 5% on the results. The beat helped consumer staples lead sector gains for the session, and analysts at several major banks raised their price targets on the stock in response to the stronger outlook. Management pointed to broad-based volume growth across markets as evidence that demand remains healthy even as consumers stay selective about discretionary spending elsewhere.
Chips Extend Their Slide
Semiconductor stocks stayed under pressure a day after Nvidia's slump, with memory makers Micron and SK Hynix falling sharply amid concerns over Chinese competition in chip manufacturing and the financing structures underpinning AI data center spending. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped again, keeping a lid on the Nasdaq even as the broader market pushed higher. The divergence between megacap hardware names and the rest of the market has become a recurring feature of the summer, complicating the picture for traders who use the Nasdaq as a proxy for the broader technology trade, since strength in consumer and industrial names can now mask real stress lower down in the chip supply chain.
Fed Meeting Gets Underway
The Federal Open Market Committee began its scheduled two-day meeting on Tuesday, with a decision due Wednesday afternoon. Markets widely expected the Fed to hold its benchmark rate steady for a fifth consecutive meeting, though a divided committee had kept alive some debate over whether officials were moving cautiously enough given the inflation and labor market backdrop. Traders largely avoided large directional bets ahead of the announcement, focusing instead on the post-meeting statement and press conference for any shift in the tone of a committee that remains visibly split on the path forward.
Oil Extends Its Decline
Crude prices fell further as diplomatic signals around Iran continued to point toward de-escalation, extending the previous session's sharp drop. The move added a tailwind for transportation and consumer names while continuing to weigh on the energy sector, which remained among the session's weakest performers. Combined with the earnings and policy backdrop, the oil move underscored how many simultaneous threads traders were having to track into midweek, from corporate results to geopolitics to the outcome of the Fed's own deliberations.
Daily market analysis by BCM Markets.