Before the Bell – Friday, July 24

Markets don't wait for Monday. News breaks on a Saturday morning, and most traders can do nothing but watch.

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Good morning. It has been a rough week, and yesterday was the roughest day of it. But inside a bad market there is almost always something to learn, and this week's selloff has a twist worth understanding: the spending that sank two giants is lifting other companies entirely.

Here is where the market finished on Thursday:

What drove it: The Alphabet and Tesla reports we have been tracking hit hard. Alphabet fell 7.1% and Tesla dropped 14.5% to its lowest level in about a year, and together they dragged the whole tech sector down. Per Investor's Business Daily, oil kept surging and interest rates rose too, adding pressure. The Nasdaq briefly fell below its June low during the day, a level worth keeping an eye on, since a decisive break below it would be a warning sign.

Beginner note: Here is the twist, and it is one of the most useful lenses in investing. Alphabet and Tesla fell because they told investors they will spend enormous sums building out artificial intelligence. But that spending is someone else's revenue. The companies that make the chips and the power equipment for all those AI data centers get paid when Alphabet and Tesla spend. So on the very same day, chipmaker Micron and power-equipment maker GE Vernova rose. When a big theme moves the market, ask two questions: who is paying, and who is getting paid? They often move in opposite directions.

The last stretch of a heavy earnings week:

$INTC ( ▼ 2.93% ) is a good one to watch today, and it comes with a built-in lesson. Intel is one of the oldest names in chips, and it has been a long turnaround story. In Thursday's regular session it fell 2.33% to close at $100.23, along with the rest of the market. Then, after the close, it reported earnings that beat expectations, and it raised its outlook.

How it has been acting: The stock jumped more than 10% in the minutes after the report, which sounds like a clean win. But it did not hold that jump, drifting back to a small gain by late evening. Its 52-week range runs from $18.97 to $142.35, which tells you this has been a volatile, up-and-down stock, not a steady trend.

Why it is worth watching: This is the perfect illustration of something we have circled all week. An after-hours pop and the next day's opening price are two different things. A stock can leap 10% the second earnings hit, then hand most of it back before you could ever have acted on it. That is exactly why we say to watch the reaction, not the headline, and never to chase a first move. Watch where Intel actually opens and how it trades today, on what volume. The real verdict comes during regular hours, not in the first excited minutes after a report.

Educational content only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Read the full financial disclosure.

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