What Microsoft (MSFT 464.72, +13.62, +3.02%) and the semiconductors did for the stock market on Thursday, Amazon (AMZN 271.58, +36.08, +15.32%) and several of its mega-cap brethren did for the stock market on Friday.

It was an impressive follow-up act that had a similar overlay, right down to the opposing force of a mega-cap laggard. On Thursday, that laggard was Meta Platforms (META 556.71, +17.68, +3.28%). Today, it was Apple (AAPL 308.91, -24.52, -7.35%), which was sent packing after providing disappointing fiscal Q4 revenue guidance that it attributed to supply constraints and negative FX effects.

Fortunately, Apple's struggles did not pull down the market, partly because there was a recognition that Apple's problem is a supply problem and not a demand problem. At the same time, other mega-cap leaders, namely Alphabet (GOOG 356.65, +22.97, +6.88%), NVIDIA (NVDA 200.75, +5.71, +2.93%), and Microsoft, flexed their muscles, and along with Amazon, more than made up for Apple's losses.

Today's session started in a roller-coaster fashion. The S&P 500 ran up to 7,490, but no sooner had it done that than it was back at 7,400, undercut by a steady rise in Treasury yields, rising oil prices, and a rollover by the semiconductor stocks, which had a boisterous start on the heels of a 17.9% gain in South Korea's Kospi Index that was led by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.

Treasury yields and oil prices remained elevated throughout today's trade, and semiconductors, as a group, stalled, yet the stock market made a steady advance for most of today's session that saw the S&P 500 scale the wall at 7,500 shortly before today's close, only to lose that ground in the last minute of trading.

The 10-yr note yield, for its part, jumped eight basis points today to 4.75%, leaving it up 33 basis points for the month in a move that coincided with rising oil prices. WTI crude futures settled today up 1.2% at $84.57/bbl but rose 21% in July.

That move fueled the S&P 500 energy sector, which was the market's best-performing sector this month, gaining 12.6%.

Like Thursday, participation in the stock market's advance was fairly narrow. Breadth favored decliners by a slim margin at the NYSE and Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 was down 0.5%; the equal-weighted S&P 500 was down 0.2%; and seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished lower. The two best-performing sectors today were the consumer discretionary (+6.1%) and communication services (+4.6%), which were led by Amazon and Alphabet, respectively.

• Russell 2000: +18.1% YTD
• S&P MidCap 400: +13.8% YTD
• S&P 500: +9.4% YTD
• Nasdaq Composite: +9.2% YTD
• DJIA: +9.1% YTD

Reviewing today's data:

• The Q2 Employment Cost Index increased 0.9% (Briefing.com consensus: 0.8%) on the heels of a 0.9% increase in Q1, with wages and salaries up 0.9% and benefit costs up 1.0%.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that wages and salaries for civilian workers, up 3.2% year-over-year, are not keeping up with inflation. That could eventually lead to reduced discretionary spending activity.
• The final reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for July increased to 55.2 (Briefing.com consensus: 54.4) from the preliminary reading of 54.4 and the final reading of 49.5 for June. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 61.7.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that sentiment held okay in July, even as gas prices started to rise again amid increased military hostilities between the U.S. and Iran.
• July Chicago PMI 57.6 vs. 56.5 Briefing.com consensus; prior 56.7