Market Review: August 24, 2026

Closing Recap

Monday, August 24, 2026

U.S. stocks stayed in a tight trading range throughout the afternoon as the summer winds down and Wall Street awaits a few potential market moving catalysts mid-to-later this week. Lots of market chop on the day as earnings results Wednesday from AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) highlight the trading week along with other earnings reports from chip maker Marvell (MRVL) and several software names (CRWD, CRM). Investors are looking for evidence that massive AI infrastructure demand can reignite mega-cap tech momentum. For the last two weeks, the “AI” trade has seen a notable pullback following a massive run as political pushback of data center buildouts in Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and New York weigh. Outside of a few off quarter key earnings results, The Fed’s Jackson Hole event becomes the focus Friday as Fed Chair Warsh is scheduled to speak on the long-term monetary-policy framework and bond-market trajectory. Yields fell along with oil and gold, and Bitcoin rose again. The S&P 500 (SPX) Materials (XLB) sector hit all-time highs before sliding, while Communications (XLC), Financials (XLF), Consumer Staples (XLP), and Utilities (XLU) all posted strong upside gains while tech (XLK) ended lower.

U.S. and Canada trade talks broke down over the weekend, and the U.S. imposed new tariffs on Canadian goods, which is boosting shares of U.S. metal producers like Nucor (NUE), Steel Dynamics (STLD) and Cleveland Cliffs (CLF). Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended negotiations and vowed to retaliate with like-for-like tariff as the U.S. hit Canada with fresh 50% tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods taking effect. President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will raise tariffs on imports of cars, trucks and auto parts from Canada to 50% on Jan. 1, 2027, following a breakdown in trade negotiations last week.

The U.S. on Monday unveiled its “economic D-Day” sanctions to further strain Iran, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling it “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.” “We are now entering the endgame,” Bessent posted on X. “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.” Bessent held a press conference at 1 pm ET on Monday detailing the sanctions against nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, people, and vessels across nuclear, missile, cyber, and oil networks. Bessent went on to say, Trump is making phone calls to world leaders to cut economic ties with Iran and countries will have a finite timeline to shut down activities identified by Treasury, including closing Iran’s bank branches abroad. Bessent said no one, including China, is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.

Ahead of Jackson Hole this Friday: Stifel noted that nominal 10Y Treasury yields have jumped almost 50bps since Chairman Warsh was appointed (1/30/26), lifted by a sharply rising 10Y “real” (TIPS) yield as investors priced a more hawkish Fed approach to policy. Investors will be weighing Chairman Warsh’s speech at Jackson Hole as a litmus test for the new Fed. Stifel’s base case is that Warsh signals inflation progress and a continued pause, despite core inflation remaining above target. Stifel views 3% core inflation as the new 2%, supported by sticky ‘Supercore’ (core services ex-housing), and Ai-capex and war disruptions sustaining goods inflation.

• U.S. WTI crude oil futures settle dropped -$2.05, or 2.35% to settle at $85.01 per barrel and Brent Crude futures settle at $92.17/bbl, down $2.22, or 2.35% as investors took profits after recent gains and awaited details of expected new U.S. sanctions on Iran, which could further disrupt supplies from the Middle East. Note last week oil prices jumped over 6% and came into the day riding a 6 day winning streak that was snapped.

• Last week, after 30-year yields hit almost two-decade highs, the U.S. Treasury announced it would double buybacks at the long end to $4 billion per operation. The news pushed yields lower initially before working their way higher late last week, but ended lower on Monday as oil prices were down -2% easing inflation concerns.

• Retail sector: GOOS was downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Wells Fargo saying while they appreciate the work done over the past 18-24 months to reinvest and improve product – it simply feels the macro is against them (El Nino, EMEA and tariffs) and the NT risk is material. TGT shares outperformed, while WMT bounces back a little after falling last week on earnings, along with gains in BJ and COST which pushed back above its 200dma of roughly $959.50 in retail space.
• Homebuilders sector: PHM was upgraded to Outperform at Wolfe Research with a $158 price target as believes PulteGroup is well positioned to outperform peers in a challenging demand environment as the company’s balanced consumer segmentation continues supporting fundamental resilience

• Metals & Mining: shares of steel producers STLD, NUE, CLF and aluminum producers AA, CENX were higher initially after the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on selected Canadian goods after trade talks between the U.S./Canada broke down. The tariffs add to strains, potentially complicating broader efforts to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact.
• Transport sector: ALGT was upgraded from Outperform to Strong Buy at Raymond James following the greater QTD pullback in shares despite a constructive backdrop, including Allegiant’s idiosyncratic margin recovery levers, flexible capacity model, and now-enhanced scale following Sun Country deal.
• Industrial sector: NVT entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Maverick Power for a purchase price of $1.75 billion, subject to customary adjustments. The transaction also includes the potential additional consideration of up to $550 million in cash based on achieving certain performance metrics.
• Chemicals sector: FUL said it had rejected activist investor Ancora Holdings’ unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire its Building Adhesives Solutions business. Ancora earlier this month had proposed to buy Fuller’s unit for as much as $1.2 billion in cash.

• Mortgage sector: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it will file a stipulated order that resolves its litigation against Zillow (ZG) and Redfin, according to a statement.

• CAPR said the FDA had extended the review of its experimental cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy by three months.
• GILD said the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for Trodelvy in combination with Keytruda for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have not received prior systemic therapy.
• GSK said the U.S. medicines regulator has accepted Jemperli, or dostarlimab, for priority review to treat a subtype of rectal cancer; GSK said the FDA has set a deadline of February to assess the drug. The treatment is also eligible for review through the national priority voucher program
• LLY launched its pill, Foundayo, in the UK for weight management and type 2 diabetes, it said on Monday, making Britain the first country in Europe where the oral treatment is available.
• LXRX earns third $10M milestone payment from NVO following achievement of key phase 1 development milestone for lx9851; eligible for up to $1B in upfront and milestone payments plus royalties; has earned $75M of $1B potential milestone payments from Novo.
• RGNX said the FDA has placed its experimental gene therapy for Hunter syndrome on clinical hold after spinal scans found abnormalities in five study participants. Spinal scans identified a small lump or fluid-filled mass in five patients who received the treatment, RGX-121, about three to six years ago.
• RHHBY and LLY blood test to help identify signs of Alzheimer’s disease in people aged 55 and older with cognitive decline received FDA clearance. The test, Elecsys pTau217, is a biomarker blood test that can help doctors identify patients who are likely or unlikely to have Alzheimer’s-related brain changes.
• Healthcare services: HIMS shares tumbled Bloomberg noted the company was put on notice by Visa Inc. for excessive customer complaints in its weight-loss subscription business, according to internal documents. The company was enrolled in Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program after a surge of customer credit card disputes in July, and must get its credit card dispute rate under 1.5% of transactions to be released from the program.
• Medical Equipment: A U.S. court has ordered GH to pay more than $245.2M to TwinStrand Biosciences and the University of Washington after finding that the company infringed patents covering DNA sequencing technology, TwinStrand said on Monday.

• Online Internet sector: BABA announced $10.2B share placement as it steps up capital expenditure to compete with the world’s leading AI firms. PDD reported an 8% rise in Q2 revs to 112.36B yuan ($16.71B), missing market estimates of 116.35 billion yuan; Q2 Adj Oper Profit 29.1B Yuan vs. est 28.41B Yuan.
• Media sector: NFLX has discussed bringing services like Peacock and Fox One directly into its app, per NY Times. The move could turn Netflix into more of a streaming hub, similar to Prime Video or Roku. No deal is imminent as per the report. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled a meeting with PSKY representatives scheduled for Monday to begin settlement talks over the state’s lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD, his office said.

• EMS Sector: CLS was upgraded from Neutral to Buy at UBS and raised tgt to $430 PT saying strong AI driven demand for Ethernet switching and Ai/ML compute, together with a 1.6T Rackscale solution for OpenAI, should accelerate revenue growth and, more importantly, EPS growth in CY27.
• Robotics sector: XPEV robotics business raised over $900M, at a post-money valuation of over $6.3B, marking the largest single-round private financing ever recorded in China’s embodied AI industry. The funding will accelerate XPENG humanoid robotics mass production and physical AI model.

• Memory sector (MU, SNDK, SKHY, WDC): Susquehanna noted checks last week across the supply chain suggest blended DRAM/NAND ASPs for bits shipping in Q326 are trending better than expectations, which were lowered following the Q2 earnings season. While an increasing portion of memory bits is now sold under contract, those agreements typically include a mix of fixed and variable pricing, with the variable component often renegotiated on a monthly basis. Also acknowledge recent concerns raised by some of its peers regarding channel inventory and module-house Dynamics. However, hyperscaler demand remains robust, while elevated DOI at channel and module houses largely reflect the higher-cost inventory embedded in their balance sheets rather than weakening end demand.