Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTBy Sinéad Carew and Marc JonesThu, July 16, 2026 at 10:45 PM GMT+2 4 min readBy Sinéad Carew and Marc JonesNEW YORK/LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - Equity indexes around the world fell on Thursday as investors offloaded heavy-weight chip stocks while the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields rose after the latest economic releases and as the Middle East war intensified.Chip stocks fell from Asia to the U.S., as higher-than-expected 77% earnings growth from Taiwanese chip manufacturing giant TSMC was not enough to impress investors who have heavily leaned into technology stocks related to artificial intelligence.The U.S. second-quarter reporting season started off well, with analyst expectations for quarterly earnings growth increasing to 24.8% on Wednesday from 23.7% last week, according to LSEG. But high expectations could result in short-term weakness, said Tony Welch, chief investment officer at SignatureFD."When you've a lot of optimism in the market you need everything to go right. Any piece of negative news can throw the market off," he said. "There's a lot of confidence built in right now. It's not a bad thing in itself but it does create a high hurdle for market prices to keep going higher."On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 105.67 points, or 0.2%, to 52,552.97, the S&P 500 fell 38.63 points, or 0.5%, to 7,533.77 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 387.28 points, or 1.5%, to 25,881.95.MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 6.49 points, or 0.6%, to 1,121.65. The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.16%.South Korea's technology-heavy KOSPI index fell more than 6%, while Japan's Nikkei closed nearly 3% lower. The Philadelphia semiconductor index tumbled 4.3%, its second straight daily loss."That tells you the AI trade isn't being priced on growth anymore. It's being priced on perfection. Any earnings report that's merely great, instead of flawless, gets sold," said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera in El Segundo, California.OIL EASES EVEN AS WAR ESCALATESIran and the United States exchanged fire on Thursday, intensifying attacks that have persisted since the weekend, largely unraveling the truce that paused fighting last month. While the two countries wrestle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran signalled that it could prod Houthi allies in Yemen to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, another key oil route.Still, oil futures edged lower, with U.S. crude settling down 0.8%, or 65 cents, to $78.95 a barrel while Brent settled at $84.23 per barrel, down 0.85%, or 72 cents.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info