The war between the EU and American technology companies persists. The European Union (EU) hit Google with a $1 billion fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine. President Trump has previously threatened to retaliate against the EU for what he views as the unfair targeting of American technology companies.
Speaking of Google (), the company announced on Wednesday 24% second-quarter sales growth of $119.8 billion, which was 2.5% higher than the analyst consensus estimate of $116.9 billion. The company’s operating margins are expanding, which helped earnings surge 294% to $9.11 per share. The analysts’ consensus earnings estimate was $2.95 per share, so Google posted a whopping 208.8% earnings surprise. Google also said it now expects to spend between $195 billion and $205 billion on AI infrastructure, up from its prior guidance of $180 billion to $190 billion, which bodes well for many AI-related stocks.
GE Vernova () on Wednesday posted a 2.8% revenue surprise and a 20.3% earnings miss. However, the big news for GE Vernova was that its order backlog rose 32.2% to $24.2 billion in the second quarter, up from $18.3 billion in the first quarter. In the past year, the company’s order backlog has risen 88% to a whopping $176 billion. As a result, GE Vernova raised its full-year revenue guidance above analyst estimates to $45.5 billion to $46.5 billion.
Super Micro Computer () got investors even more excited on Tuesday when it announced that its order backlog exceeded $60 billion. The other thing that got investors excited was that SMCI announced that it expects its operating margins to be between 15% and 17%, significantly above its previous forecast of 8.2% to 8.4%. Naturally, expanding operating margins often result in big earnings surprises. Overall, Super Micro Computer and GE Vernova made it clear that Wall Street remains obsessed with order backlogs, so the AI and data center companies with increasing order backlogs are expected to continue to prosper.
Renewed central bank buying pressure is expected to effectively put a floor under the price of . China’s central bank bought $5.7 billion in gold in the first half of 2026. Most of this Chinese buying pressure occurred in the second quarter when gold prices were consolidating. Although foreign central banks own almost $10 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, they still own more gold than U.S. Treasury securities.