Market Close: Stocks Mixed, Dow Gains 500, Ford's Quarter Mixed • 7/28/26

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Wednesday morning after a mixed day for the major averages. The Dow, though, had its best day since the start of July. The Dow was up 537 points, a full 1%. It was led higher by shares of Sherwin Williams which soared up 8%. IBM shares up 5%. CocaCola up 5% as well on strong quarterly results. The S&P 500 index added 15 points. It was the NASDAQ that was in the red down 55 points but off its earlier lows. chipmaker stocks. Only Nvidia had a winning day in that group with a half percent gain, but most names, although in the red, were off their earlier lows. >> A little bit of a selling crescendo in the semis this morning, and they're up off their lows from that. I don't know if that's a major turn. >> That's CNBC's Mike Santoi. And here's Wells Fargo's Mark Smith, who says chipmaker companies really are on sale. uh very comfortable with the chip trade because when you look at how these companies are performing uh they can't keep chips on the shelves and their earnings are proving it quarter after quarter. So if you see any correction in chips I think you have to go ahead and dollar cost average in because uh this is a long story. Um AI is proven in companies across the board that are going to be using this and and chips are how you're going to get there. So, I'd stay in this trade and continue to dollar cost average in >> companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday include General Motors, Coca-Cola, All State, Johnson and Johnson, Ross, Dress for Less, General Dynamics, Travelers, and RTX, Rathon, plus Apple. And you can soon lease an Apple iPhone. It's teaming up with Clara for this new lease an iPhone program. iPhone lease is starting at $17.99 a month. Now, at the end of the 12 or 24month term, customers can then return the device, start a new lease, or pay extra to keep it, while Clark finances the program and takes the credit risk. Leasing, of course, lets Apple reach more customers without cutting hardware prices while pulling upgrades forward. The smartphone market is on track for its worst year on record. Apple is very much treating this downturn as a chance to gain share. CNBC's McKenzie Sagalos Ford with mixed quarterly results after the closing bell. The loss was in the electric vehicle division as the company pivots to a nextgen set of EV products, but shares were popping on lots of free cash flow and after hours trading. Earnings per share were strong. Visa reported better than expected quarterly results after the closing bell. Shares ticked lower though on early reaction in after hours trading. Visa announced it's cutting 7% of its employees as AI reshapes work. Most of the 2,600 people losing their jobs are in technology and product operations. Consumer confidence slipped again. Here's CNBC's Rick Santelli. >> From the conference board, headline number expected to be slightly above 92. Comes in on the light side, 90.8. 90.8. So, not good news. >> On Wednesday's watch list, we get earnings from a couple of big names. Microsoft and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, plus Qualcomm ARM holding Starbucks, Robin Hood, and Chipotle. Also, Wednesday afternoon, the Fed will announce its decision on interest rates. Jessica Edinger, CNBC.