Mid-Morning Look: August 31, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Monday, August 31, 2026

U.S. stock markets are pulling back to start the final trading week of the summer, as another surge in oil prices along with another bounce in Treasury yields is raising concerns on Wall Street after Iran and the United States traded attacks for the first time in over a month overnight. Iran fired missiles toward US military targets in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for a strike on Iranian rocket launchers that the US said were trying to launch sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices rose more than 2% on Monday while Treasury yields are higher again on the long end as the 10-yr rises 3.8bps to 4.764% and the 30-yr yield +5.97% to 5.267% which is weighing on dividend paying sectors and Smallcap stocks (IWM). After tumbling -2.88% on Friday, gold prices are down another -1.3% to $4,470 an ounce after FOMC Chair Warsh hawkish comments on rates last week weighs on metals/stocks.

Coming into the final trading week of the summer ahead of the Labor Day weekend, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.1% month-to-date, putting the index on track for its fifth consecutive monthly advance. The S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite are headed for their first one-month increases since May, up about 3% and 4%, respectively. Technology (XLK) has led the charge this month, with artificial intelligence-linked stocks outperforming, up nearly 6% for the month. Materials (XLB), Healthcare (XLV) and Energy (XLE) are both up over 5% this month, while Utilities (XLU) -3.6% and Industrials (XLI) -1.5%.

The market is getting more confident that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates on Sept. 16, even if Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh didn’t quite say as much in his Jackson Hole speech Friday. His policy of no forward guidance made the hints he does offer even more enticing for market watchers.  The odds crept as high as 62% to start the week, up from 57% on Friday, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. Now attention turns to jobs data this week with nonfarm payrolls, ADP private payrolls and JOLTs.

• Oil stocks rise on higher oil prices (XOM, CVX, COP) following renewed U.S.-Iran military tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel after U.S. forces struck Iranian missile launchers on Larak Island, while Iran retaliated with attacks on U.S. positions in the region, raising concerns over potential disruptions to oil flows through the key transit route.

• EPAM +3%; after activist hedge fund Engine Capital, which owns about 1.5% of EPAM, sends a letter to co’s board highlighting the co’s undervaluation and urges the initiation of a $750 mln accelerated stock buyback program.
• GME +3%; says it amended its previously announced debt exchange of $1.4B as revised deal would pay about 27% in cash, or roughly $358.4M, with remainder paid in stock; also reports preliminary Q2 revenue $780M-$800M vs $972.2M last year; cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities are expected to be in the range of $5.050B-$5.070B.
• SAIC +4%; raises FY27 adjusted EPS view to $10.65-$10.75 from $9.90-$10.10 (vs. consensus $10.18), while raises FY27 revenue view to $7.2B-$7.3B from $7B-$7.2B (est. $7.19B) and boosts FY27 adjusted EBITDA view to $750M-$755M from $720M-$730M
• SKHY +2%; as memory and semiconductor stocks are higher today; SKHY is looking for a site in Japan to build a memory fab to be operated as a joint venture Bloomberg reported. Also a report that SKHY is considering a partnership with INTC’s foundry division for the production of substrate chips for its upcoming generation of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4E) products.

• HWM -5%; along with weakness in DPC after Elon Musk said Saturday that SPCX could start in-house casting of gas Turbine blades and vanes. Musk said that SpaceX and TSLA are building 100 gigawatts/year of solar production capacity, but Natural gas will be required to supplement it.
• PCG -19%; along with weakness in other California utilities (EIX, SRE) after California lawmakers reportedly blocked Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to shift some catastrophic wildfire liability away from publicly traded utilities and onto insurers.
• PINS -5%; Pinterest Julia Brau Donnelly submits resignation as Pinterest CFO on August 26, 2026.