What Happened Last Week · What Is Coming This Week
Fed on Hold, Mega-Cap Tech Splits; Eyes on Friday's Payrolls
Last Week
The Federal Reserve sat at the centre of the week. At the FOMC meeting on July 29 the policy rate was left unchanged at 3.50-3.75%, the fifth consecutive hold. What stood out was the direction of the dissent: Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan all voted for a quarter-point increase. The statement described growth and hiring as solid while repeating that inflation remains elevated relative to the 2% goal.
The real story was in earnings, and it produced a clean split across mega-cap technology. Microsoft rose sharply after Azure growth of 43% and a fiscal-2027 capital spending plan that the market read as demand-led, setting a record for single-day market value added. became the first company to clear $200 billion of quarterly revenue, with AWS growing 37%. fell after raising its capital expenditure target without a matching demand narrative, and sold off on Friday after weak revenue guidance in Tim Cook's final quarter as chief executive. The dividing line was not the spending itself but the evidence offered for it.
