AMZN up 15.3% on Q2 blowout; AAPL down 7.4% on Cook succession

The rate backdrop entering Friday's session was stable: the 10-year Treasury yield held at 4.68% as of Thursday's close, the 30-year mortgage rate printed at 6.66%, and the VIX settled at 17.1. None of that suggested the repricing that followed. What moved the tape was a dense cluster of mega-cap earnings results, with Apple delivering a paradox quarter and Amazon posting the day's loudest number.

Apple: $AAPL -7.4% on CEO succession and Services miss

Apple's fiscal Q3 produced $109.4 billion in revenue and 27% profit growth — both above consensus. $AAPL closed down 7.4% regardless. On the earnings call, Tim Cook confirmed this would be his last as chief executive; John Ternus formally assumes the role in September. The Services division also decelerated in the quarter, with CFO Kevan Parekh attributing part of the shortfall to the absence of an F1 film this year, which had provided a prior-year tailwind to that segment. A strong top-line print, a succession announcement, and a segment miss produced a net 7.4% decline.

Amazon: $AMZN +15.3% on Q2 results

$AMZN closed at $271.58, up 15.3%, after Q2 2026 results described by multiple analysts as among the company's strongest on record. Morgan Stanley flagged a blind spot in its initial assessment; the market did not share the ambivalence. A 15-percent single-session gain in a stock of Amazon's market capitalization is the earnings tape's defining data point of the week.

Alphabet and Microsoft: $GOOGL +6.7%, $MSFT +3.0%

$GOOGL added 6.7% as Alphabet's Q2 results cleared the bar cleanly. $MSFT gained 3.0% after announcing expanded data center investment through fiscal 2027. UK, Australian, and Italian regulators have opened consumer inquiries into Microsoft 365 and Copilot subscription practices; those headlines arrived alongside the results, but the capital commitment carried more weight in the session.

Coinbase, SpaceX, Meta

$COIN dropped 10.6%. Coinbase disclosed that it captured more than 10% of global crypto trading volume in Q2 — the first time it has crossed that threshold. Senate debate over the CLARITY Act, with stablecoin and ethics provisions still contested, appears to have outweighed the volume record in the session. $SPCX fell 3.4% in a continuing post-IPO slide; speculation over a possible SpaceX-Tesla combination weighed on sentiment alongside a broader pullback in Musk-affiliated assets. $META gained 3.3%; the attached context does not point to a single clean catalyst, and the desk will leave the attribution there.

What we set aside

One filing was withheld because the underlying corporate event was more than 36 hours old at time of disclosure. BRK-B was examined and produced no filings or substantive news within the review window. No filings cleared the Filings Desk today.

The desk is watching Monday's follow-through in $AMZN and any Senate floor movement on the CLARITY Act.