Stock market today july 4: markets are closed for the holiday, but Alphabet's 7% drop on AI capex guidance still has investors talking.
Stock market today, July 4, is a quiet one for actual trading, but a reminder that a very different session, July 23, still shapes how investors read Alphabet. Shares of the search, ads, cloud and AI infrastructure giant closed that day at $317.69, down 7.13%, as Wall Street digested a spending forecast that overshadowed otherwise strong results.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) trades under the parent of Google, YouTube and Google Cloud, and it has been treated by many investors as a bellwether for how much the AI buildout will cost the biggest tech companies. Volume on that July 23 session hit 68.6 million shares, about 111% above the three month average of 32.5 million, a sign that the selloff was not a quiet drift but a genuine repricing.
What Sent the Stock Lower on Its Own Trading Day
The broader market also struggled that session. The S&P 500 slipped 1.20% to 7,409 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.15% to 25,138. Peers in digital advertising and cloud computing felt it too: Microsoft closed at $381.58, down 2.24%, and Meta Platforms ended at $606.10, down 3.36%.
Alphabet's quarter itself was not the problem. Revenue rose 24%, search revenue climbed 17%, and Google Cloud sales jumped 82%. Gemini reached 950 million monthly active users, with tokens processed per minute rising from 16 billion to 22 billion. YouTube ad sales grew 13%, and operating income increased 30%. Those are the kind of numbers that would normally lift a stock, not sink it.
What spooked investors was guidance: capital expenditures are expected to land between $195 billion and $205 billion in 2026, with management signaling a further significant increase in 2027. Capex had already doubled in the second quarter to $45 billion, pushing free cash flow negative for the first time in Alphabet's history as a public company.
Valuation, Momentum and Alphabet's Capex Bet
Since going public in 2004, Alphabet stock has gained roughly 12,557%, a run few companies can match. The question now is whether the next leg of spending, aimed at securing AI capacity, extends that record or simply compresses margins for years.
The bull case rests on scale: Alphabet already generates cash from search, YouTube and a fast growing cloud arm, giving it more room than smaller rivals to fund AI infrastructure while still posting 30% operating income growth. Gemini's usage growth suggests demand exists for the products this spending is meant to support.
The bear case is more immediate. Negative free cash flow, even briefly, unsettles investors used to Alphabet throwing off cash. A near doubling of capex in one quarter, with more increases flagged for 2027, raises the bar for how much return the cloud and AI segments need to generate before the spending looks justified rather than risky.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is stock market open july 4?
No. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are closed on July 4th in observance of Independence Day.
Is stock market closed july 4th?
Yes, US stock exchanges are closed on July 4th every year as a scheduled market holiday.
Does stock market open july 4th?
The market does not open on July 4th; trading resumes on the next business day.
Is stock market open july 4 2024?
No, the market was closed on July 4, 2024, following the standard Independence Day holiday schedule.
Is stock market open today july 4th?
US exchanges remain closed on July 4th each year, with normal trading hours resuming the following session.
