Market Review: August 28, 2026

Closing Recap

Friday, August 28, 2026

U.S. stocks ended the day lower as the highly anticipated speech from Fed Chairman Warsh at first did little to move the needle, but as the day progressed, fed fund rate expectations rose to a 50% chance of a rate hike at the September FOMC meeting. Fed Chair Warsh said the U.S. central bank will “have work to do” if policymakers don’t get the confidence they need that inflation is heading down to 2%, coming closer than he has to acknowledging interest rate hikes may be needed to ease price pressures. Fed Chairman Warsh has now positioned himself more firmly in the group of centrists on the FOMC that include Governors Waller and Cook, who have indicated that they are prepared to hike absent meaningful near-term progress on inflation. Odds of a Fed rate hike in 2026 jumped to 64% after Warsh comments. The biggest moves today were in the Treasury and commodity markets as the 2-year yield, the one most leveraged to short term rates, surged over 12 bps to 4.35% while precious metal prices tumbled as both gold and silver crashed on the rising yields and stronger dollar. U.S stocks ended lower, but held up relatively well due to strength in large cap tech names AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT which kept major averages afloat, though sectors most impacted by rising rates such as utilities, telecom and REITs (dividend paying names) and Smallcaps (IWM) on higher borrowing costs were hit hard.

• University of Michigan surveys of consumers sentiment final Aug 51.7 (consensus 51.0) vs preliminary Aug 51.0 and final July 55.2 while the current conditions index final Aug 51.9 (consensus 51.8) vs prelim Aug 51.8 and final July 54.8 and the expectations index final Aug 51.5 vs prelim Aug 50.6 and final July 55.4.
• University of Michigan surveys of consumers 1-year inflation outlook final Aug 4.0% vs prelim 4.3% and final July 4.2% and University of Michigan surveys of consumers 5-year inflation outlook final Aug 3.3% vs prelim 3.3% and final July 3.3%.
• U.S. labor dept notes preliminary estimate of Nonfarm payrolls Benchmark revision would decrease March 2026 level of employment by 79,000 or 0.1%

• U.S. WTI crude oil futures settle at $83.40/bbl, down -$0.13 or 0.16% while Brent crude slipped -$0.39 or 0.43% to settle at $89.31 per barrel. Oil prices held steady posted a weekly drop as traders weighed stagnant U.S.-Iran diplomatic talks against some crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

• Apparel Retail sector: GAP shares rose after Q2 print came in better than feared, with EPS ex. tariff refunds modestly ahead of Street expectations (52c vs 48c), as stronger GM & less SG&A deleverage offset Old Navy-driven topline downside. Despite Old Navy’s Q2 underperformance, management’s commentary on the Banner was notably constructive QTD and reiterated its expectation for 2H comp improvement as the business moves past a ~3 PT seasonal product headwind.
• Autos: RIVN announced that CFO 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.
• Food sector: shares of beef and protein companies TSN, PPC, JBS were pressured after President Trump noted he will take steps to allow farmers, ranchers to process own food. He accused the 4 big meat processors in the US of being a "nasty monopoly" and says "I can’t let that happen."
• Casino & OSB sector: DKNG, FLUT saw pops this afternoon after a US appeals court rejects Kalshi’s bid for injunction to block Nevada Gaming regulators’ oversight of sports events contracts. The 8 other beneficiaries are Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

• Transport sector: Deutsche Bank out with two catalyst call ideas in trucking/LTL sector as they placed a "Catalyst Call Buy" on WERN as a short-term buy idea noting Werner’s largest customer, DG, reported its strongest same-store sales growth since Q3 of 2023 and expects momentum to continue into Q3. The firm also placed a "Catalyst Call Buy" on SAIA as a short-term investment idea as views Saia’s upcoming August tonnage update and Q3 results as potential catalysts for the shares.
• Shipping sector (SBLK, GOGL, GNK, SHIP, NMM, SB): The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index rose to its highest level in nearly three months on Friday, posting a 12.1% weekly rise. The main Baltic index was up 79 points, or 2.5%, at 3,186, its highest level since June 2. The Capesize index gained 198 points, or 3.9%, to 5,336, also its highest level since June 2 (+17.2% this week). The panamax index was up 23 points, or 1%, at 2,315, marking its highest level since June 2.
• Chemical sector: SOLS shares jump after the company and ESI mutually agree to scrap their $14.5B merger, saying both sets of shareholders preferred the cos retain their independence and existing strategies. RBC Capital discussed the chemical sector saying they see the most compelling n-t risk/reward in SOLS, given the recent termination of its merger agreement with ESI, and in CTVA ahead of its Sept. 15 investor days while warming up to AXTA post-shareholder approval, especially given its strong execution/relatively attractive valuation and OLN remains a show-me story.
• Utility sector: shares of California utilities PCG, EIX saw notable pullbacks this afternoon on reports that California lawmakers block Newsom’s push to prevent Insurance companies from suing Utilities that cause wildfires. Note in recent days, focus have been on the same ongoing issue for both companies: last-minute legislative negotiations in Sacramento over wildfire liability reform before the session ends Aug. 31. Gov. Newsom and lawmakers are debating who pays after utility-sparked fires.

• FinTech sector: 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 ; KLAR CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski buys 692,506 shares for $9.9M at $14.37 per share per filing.
• Insurance sector: ALL was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus as the firm, which notes that premium growth slowed in recent quarters to low single-digits in the highly competitive U.S. Consumer P&C sector as other P&C insurers are lowering pricing to gain market share, believes shares are fully valued with the stock having recently passed its target of $238.

• BNTX shares fell after terminates phase 2 clinical trial of autogene cevumeran in colorectal cancer; said DSMB identified numerical imbalance in overall survival between treatment arms in specific patient population and recommended discontinuing treatment of patients in trial and terminating the clinical trial.
• BTAI said it has entered into an asset sale agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH, a subsidiary of Teva Pharma (TEVA) for substantially all of the Company’s assets; BioXcel Therapeutics and its subsidiaries, OnkosXcel Therapeutics, LLC and OnkosXcel Employee Holdings, LLC, have commenced voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings.
• CYTK said late-stage data showed its drug, aficamten, significantly improved symptoms and exercise capacity in patients with a genetic heart condition that currently has no approved treatments. The drug is already approved as Myqorzo for oHCM — the obstructive form of the condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in which thickened heart muscles block ​blood flow.
• 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.
• LLY said the U.S. FDA has approved its diabetes drug Mounjaro to lower the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for these events.
• 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.
• PFE and BNTX said the FDA has approved the supplemental Biologics License Application for the companies’ 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccine formula targeting the XFG variant, COMIRNATY XFG.
• QNRX said its drug, QRX003, significantly improves disease severity in 4 of 6 Netherton syndrome patients after 12 weeks of treatment, as per interim mid-to-late stage trial data. The treatment shows no serious safety concerns, and the company expects to finish enrolling all 20 patients by end of 2026; also raises up to $50 million from institutional investors
• RGNX appointed Gregory Ciongoli to its Board of Directors as two long-serving directors retired. Ciongoli buys 102,603 RGNX shares over two days at weighted-average prices of $9.14 and $9.36, worth about $952,001.59 in total, filings made public late on Thursday show

• Data/Security software sector: RBRK reported a strong $20M FQ2 ARR beat and $25M raise to the FY ARR guide as ARR accelerated 1pt to 33% and NNARR accelerated to 35% from 16% last quarter. ESTC shares soar as Q1 results were strong, showing a slight acceleration across key top-line metrics and consistent 20% cRPO growth. Management raised its FY2027 outlook, calling for revenue of $1.998B-$2.010B vs. $1.99B consensus and adjusted EPS of $3.29-$3.37, above the $3.24 estimate and Full-year sales-led subscription revenue is expected to grow 17.4%. SentinelOne (S) shares slid as forecasts FY26 adj. EPS $0.30-$0.32, missing the $0.34 estimate and guided Q3 revs/EPS below consensus as well after posting a modest beat for Q2 $0.08/$292M vs. $0.07/$290.2M).

• Memory sector: CXMT, one of China’s biggest memory-chip makers, posted a sharp jump in first-half sales and profit. ChangXin Memory Technologies’ results showed revenue surged to 150.31B yuan, equivalent to $22.36B, in the six months ended June, up more than 870% from a year earlier. That beat the 110B-120B yuan estimate the company provided earlier this year. Net profit reached 77.61B, also ahead of the 50B-57B yuan guided range
• AI sector: Anthropic planned, then abandoned $7B purchase of MatX, Reuters reported. 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. Also, late Thursday, Anthropic S1 is slated to launch shortly after Labor Day, with the company also planning an investor day in mid-September, per The Information report.
• 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.