Top U.S. Stories

  • Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan on July 29, the second such attack this month after one on July 14. U.S. Central Command said all incoming missiles were intercepted with no casualties or damage, but President Trump vowed the U.S. would “hit back hard” at Iran (Reuters via Jiji). Why it matters: the renewed attacks show the earlier “ceasefire” between the U.S. and Iran remains fragile, keeping oil markets on edge over supply risk.
  • President Trump met separately with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on July 28, on the sidelines of the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral. Zelenskyy said the two had a “good” meeting covering Patriot missile licenses and reviving peace talks with Russia (NPR). Why it matters: the Patriot licensing question is central to Ukraine’s air-defense capacity as the war enters its fifth year.
  • The Trump administration is pressing ahead with a 100% tariff on branded pharmaceutical imports, with a reduced 15% rate for Japan, the EU, South Korea and Switzerland; generics face a separate phased schedule (Nikkei). Why it matters: higher import costs on drugs could feed into U.S. consumer prices and complicate the inflation picture the Fed is watching.
  • U.S. stocks rallied hard on July 30, snapping the Nasdaq’s six-day losing streak, after Microsoft posted a blowout earnings report driven by Azure cloud growth.
  • Wildfires forced evacuations on Crete as blazes spread across the Greek island, while a major wildfire continued to affect the Bordeaux region of France (AP).

Markets

U.S. stocks staged a sharp rebound on July 30: the Dow closed at 52,208.06, up 613.92 points (+1.19%); the S&P 500 rose 1.66% to 7,437.63; and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.78% to 25,122.18, ending a six-session slide. Microsoft’s earnings, showing strong Azure cloud growth, led the rally. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed at 61,867.43, up 433.24 points (+0.71%) on July 30. Oil rose for a fourth straight session to around $84–85 a barrel on renewed Iran-related supply concerns. The dollar traded around ¥162.94 per the Frankfurter reference rate (July 30 basis), with Tokyo market spot rates running near the ¥163 handle — a historically weak yen level.

The Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting concludes on July 31, with the decision scheduled for release that day (BOJ). Ahead of the meeting, reporting indicated that the BOJ was expected to keep its policy rate at 1.0% and could raise its fiscal 2026 GDP growth forecast (Investing.com).

Stocks in Focus

  • Microsoft — shares surged after Azure cloud growth drove a blowout quarterly report, pulling the broader tech sector higher.
  • Energy shares — drew renewed interest as crude prices climbed on the back of Iran’s missile strike on the U.S. base in Jordan.

Not investment advice — for informational purposes only.

Compass Insight

Three forces are running in parallel today: a natural disaster whose toll keeps climbing, a geopolitical flashpoint that refuses to stay contained, and a central bank choosing patience over urgency. Kumamoto’s earthquake death toll rose to 34 as search efforts continued, with the mall explosion alone confirmed at seven deaths — a reminder that initial disaster tallies tend to worsen before they stabilize. The BOJ’s rate hold paired with an upgraded growth outlook signals policymakers still favor a gradual tightening path, which does little to arrest the yen’s slide toward historic lows. For households, a persistently weak yen combined with firmer oil keeps import-driven costs — energy, fuel, imported food — under upward pressure. For portfolios tied to U.S. tech, single-name catalysts like Microsoft’s earnings are proving capable of swinging broad indices in either direction within a day. Near term, whether the Iran-Jordan exchanges escalate further or cool off will likely set the tone for oil and risk assets. Over the medium term, the pace of BOJ policy normalization and the scale of Kumamoto’s economic disruption are worth watching closely.

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Auto-generated and AI-written. Not investment advice.