Morning Preview: August 28, 2026

Early Look

Friday, August 28, 2026

U.S. stock futures are mixed this morning as attention turns from tech and retail earnings to Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s closely watched keynote speech at the Jackson Hole symposium later this morning. Meanwhile, renewed uncertainty over U.S.-Iran negotiations and persistent pressure in energy markets kept broader risk appetite in check ahead of the opening bell. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index gained 273 points to 66,405, the Shanghai Index slipped -4 points to 3,952, and the Hang Seng Index edged higher 19 points to 25,584. In Europe, the German DAX is up 150 points to 26,516, while the FTSE 100 rises 20 points to 10,812. Overnight another small barrage of tech/retail earnings moving names as shares of AFRM in lending, GAP in retail and ESTC in tech, jump on earnings results. On the flip side, shares of ADSK, IREN, MRVL, RBRK, S and WDAY slide after their results just a day after semis and software pushed markets higher. U.S. stock markets finish higher across the board on Thursday, paced by technology as the Nasdaq Comp climbed +1.57%, boosted by semis and software as NVDA, CRM, CRWD, OKTA, VEEV all surged following better earnings and guidance. With Nvidia results out, investor attention turns to Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole address on Friday for hints on the central bank’s stance on the latest inflation data and the U.S. Treasury’s efforts to tame yields.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 104.67 points, or 0.20%, to 53,568.55
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 411.16 points, or 1.57%, to 26,541.35
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 8.46 points, or 0.28% to 3,014.36

• 10:00 AM ET                University of Michigan 1-yr and 5-yr inflation expectations, Aug-final
• 1:00 PM ET                   Baker Hughes Weekly rig count data

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing that Lake Ontario be renamed “Lake America,” adding another point of friction with Canada amid the ongoing trade dispute. The lake is one of North America’s five Great Lakes and borders New York and Canada’s Ontario province.

• Rivian Automotive (RIVN) announced that Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough has decided to step down from her role to pursue a new opportunity and relocate to the East Coast to be closer to her family. McDonough will remain in her role as CFO over the next two months to ensure a seamless and thorough transition.
• Ulta Beauty (ULTA) Q2 EPS $6.55 vs. est. $6.20; Q2 sales $3.03B vs. est. $2.99B; sees FY outlook for EPS of $28.70-$29.00 compared with FactSet consensus estimates of $28.74 and sees FY outlook for comparable sales growth of 3.2%-3.7% and overall sales growth 6.7%-7.2% (vs. prior 6%-7%); increases fy2026 stock repurchase plan to $1.8B

• Elon Musk said his best estimate is that SpaceX (SPCX) could reach roughly $3.5 trillion in annual revenue around 2033. Musk made the comment on X in response to a Morgan Stanley note that said SpaceX was attractively valued following plans for a $100 billion Louisiana spaceport.

• PayPal (PYPL) shares drop after a consortium of buyout firms Advent and Stripe has dropped its pursuit of the co, Bloomberg News reported. The consortium had reportedly offered $60.50 per share, which valued PYPL at more than $53 billion. PayPal’s board viewed the takeover bid as inadequate, per prior reports. https://tinyurl.com/mryue4pu

• Gilead Sciences’ (GILD) once daily oral combination pill for treatment of adults whose HIV has already been reduced to very low levels was approved by the FDA, the company said on Thursday.
• LifeVantage (LFVN) Q4 adj EPS $0.11 misses the $0.13 estimate, and sales fell -23% y/y to $42.37M vs. est. $45.94M; cites lower order volume, smaller average orders, and weaker MindBody GLP-1 sales for declines; said gross margin fell due to product mix shift, inventory obsolescence, and increased shipping expenses; not issuing guidance at this time.
• Moderna (MRNA) said the FDA has approved its updated 2026–2027 COVID formulas with new Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE vaccines expected to become available in the coming days.
• Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) announced that the FDA has approved the supplemental Biologics License Application for the companies’ 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccine formula targeting the XFG variant, COMIRNATY XFG.
• Quoin Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (QNRX) entered into a securities purchase agreement with new and existing healthcare-focused institutional investors to raise up to approximately $50M in gross proceeds, including initial upfront funding of approximately $30.8M and up to an additional approximately $19.2M upon the potential cash exercise of accompanying ordinary warrants

• Anthropic planned, then abandoned $7B purchase of MatX, sources say. Anthropic discussed buying artificial ​intelligence chip startup MatX for roughly $7 ‌billion, seeking to accelerate efforts to develop custom hardware for its fast-growing Ai business, two ​people briefed on the matter told ​Reuters
• Autodesk (ADSK) Q2 adj. EPS $3.30 vs. est. $3.12; revs $2.05B vs. est. $2.01B; adj. operating margin 41%; billings $1.85B; free cash flow $561Mm; Q3 revenue guidance $2.125B-$2.14B vs. est. $2.08B; Q3 adj. EPS guidance $3.04-$3.09 vs. est. $3.14; FY revenue guidance $8.3B-$8.35B vs est $8.206B.
• Elastic N.V. (ESTC) shares jump; Q1 adj. EPS $0.70 vs. est. $0.58; revenue $478.1Mm vs. est. $469.7Mm, +15% YoY; adj. operating Income $77Mm vs. est. $65.7Mm; Q2 revenue guidance $486Mm-$487Mm vs. est. $483.5Mm; Q2 adj. operating margin guidance 19%; Q2 adj. EPS guidance $0.80-$0.82 vs. est. $0.80; FY revenue guidance $1.998B-$2.01B vs. est. $2B; FY adj. operating margin guidance 19.4%; FY adj. EPS guidance $3.29-$3.37 vs. est. $3.24.
• Iren Ltd (IREN) reported FY26 revs rose 41.12% y/y to $707M while the net loss widened to (-$702.6M) from net income of $86.9M, hit by $638.8M non-cash impairments; FY26 adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) slipped to $245.7M from $269.7M; said AI Cloud Services revenue rose about 8x to $128.8M; 2026 capacity largely sold out with $4B contracted ARR; says 3-year contract pricing has increased 125% and 5-year pricing 70% in recent months. Active discussions are now around $25M of revenue per IT MW, while recent customer prepayments cover 45-55% of GPU capex.
• Lam Research (LRCX) board approves qtrly dividend increase from $0.26 to $0.33 per share.
• Nvidia (NVDA) has paused some arrangements under a financing initiative that provided credit support to AI cloud providers in exchange for a share of revenue, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some Nvidia employees reportedly raised concerns that the program could attract antitrust scrutiny, particularly over how much influence the chipmaker could have over customers’ business decisions.
• PagerDuty (PD) Q2 adj. EPS $0.32 vs. est. $0.31; revenue $124Mm vs. est. $123.3Mm; adj. operating margin 23.7%; Q3 revenue guidance $123Mm-$125Mm vs. est. $124.4Mm; Q3 adj. EPS guidance $0.34-$0.36 vs. est. $0.34; FY revenue guidance $491.5Mm-$496.5Mm vs. est. $494.2Mm; FY adj. EPS guidance $1.33-$1.37 vs. est. $1.32; announces headcount reduction of about 15% and estimates non-recurring charges of $5.50M-$7.50M for headcount reductions.
• Rubrik Inc. (RBRK) Q2 adj. EPS $0.20 vs. est. $0.04; revenue $427.3Mm vs est $296.28Mm; adj. gross margin 81%; free cash flow $65.7Mm; Q3 revenue guidance $429Mm-$431Mm vs est $418.28Mm; Q3 adj. EPS guidance $0.07-$0.09 vs. est. $0.06; FY revenue guidance $1.685B-$1.693B vs. est. $1.281B; FY adj. EPS guidance $0.47-$0.53 vs. est. $0.31.
• SentinelOne (S) Q2 adj. EPS $0.08 vs. est. $0.07; revenue $292Mm vs. est. $290.2Mm; annual recurring revenue $1.22B; adj. gross margin 77%; Q3 revenue guidance $309Mm-$311Mm vs. est. $309.4Mm; Q3 adj. operating Income guidance $38Mm-$40Mm vs est $38.54Mm; FY revenue guidance $1.202B-$1.207B vs. est. $1.2B; FY adj. operating Income guidance $124Mm-$128Mm vs est $119.59Mm; FY adj. EPS guidance $0.30-$0.32 vs. est. $0.35.
• SoftBank (SFTBY) seeks another $10 billion loan for OpenAI Stake funding – Bloomberg News. Separately, SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in humanoid robot maker 1X at a $6B valuation, The Information reported. 1X sought $1B at a $10B valuation in 2025, but raised less than 50%, according to the report. https://tinyurl.com/mybypupd
• Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) is said to have released a foundation model it says outperforms rivals Z.AI Co. and Moonshot AI in internal tests, claiming a place among China’s top artificial intelligence players.
• Workday Software (WDAY) Q2 adj. EPS $2.75 vs. est. $2.61; revenue $2.65B vs. est. $2.64B, +12.8% YoY; subscription revenue $2.47B; adj. operating Income $824Mm vs. est. $792.4Mm; FY subscription revenue guidance $9.94B-$9.95B vs est $10.669B; FY adj. EBIT margin guidance 31%; announces $4B stock buyback program.