Daily Briefing — July 21, 2026 | Earnings, a Fragile Ceasefire, and the Fed's Hawkish Turn

Markets head into the biggest earnings week of the summer against a genuinely tense backdrop. US strikes on Iran continue into a tenth night, even as reports of a proposed ten-day ceasefire ease oil prices and lift US futures. We cover why Alphabet, Tesla, and Intel's earnings this week are being read as a referendum on the entire AI infrastructure spending cycle, the semiconductor sector's slide into a bear market despite strong underlying results from names like Samsung, and the Federal Reserve's marked shift toward a more hawkish stance as inflation runs persistently above target ahead of the July 29...