Mid-Morning Look: August 10, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Monday, August 10, 2026

U.S. stocks are up modestly, building on all-time highs for the S&P 500 after coming off its best week since April posting a 3.6% gain. The Nasdaq is seeing modest gains early while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 Smallcaps are down slightly after both hitting record highs recently. A quiet day with no major economic data, but that changes ahead of key CPI, PPI inflation data mid-week. Stocks surged last Friday on lowered rate hike expectations after a surprise negative July payroll reading raised fears about the jobs market. Treasury yields fell on Friday but are back on the rise this morning along with oil prices after Iran insisted that the U.S. must meet several demands before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen as the saga continues. A busy morning of M&A stories (see below) and several drug study news headlines moving stocks. Earnigns season is more than 85% complete with a few tech stragglers this week before retailers report the next two weeks. Energy (XLE) the early leader up nearly 3% while REITS (XLRE) down -1.5% and Utilities (XLU) -0.9%.

• Chemical sector: LXU was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform with $13 PT at RBC Capital saying they expect LSB to continue to benefit from elevated nitrogen prices, supporting strong cash Generation in 2026/2027 (10%/13% FCF yield) and improving operations. CC was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS (tgt cut to $18 from $29) saying recent results leave more questions around the right level of earnings of its refrigerant business following larger destocking and some share loss in 2026. IPAR was downgraded at both Goldman Sachs and TD Cowen to Hold after the recent rally in shares as both believes much of next year’s expected growth is reflected in the stock.
• Rare Earth/Critical Mineral sector: CMP was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral with $27 PT at JP Morgan as expects Compass to throw off about 3% of its share price in free cash flow in 2026-2028 as its capital outlays for the maintenance and productivity of its salt operations rise. Other critical-mineral stocks were volatile after the White House announced late Friday more than $2B in new mining and mining-related investments, along with more than $180M for mining schools and workforce development (shares of FEAM, CRML, UAMY, USAR, UUUU, METC, ALOY among active names – rallied Friday).

• ACHR +20%; to acquire BA’s electric aircraft unit Wisk Aero, along with two related subsidiaries SkyGrid and Insitu in an aerospace AI deal; Boeing will take an equity stake in Archer and retain access to Wisk’s autonomous flight technology.
• BWMN +55%; shares jumped after Infrastructure and services-focused private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners said it would buy Bowman Consulting in an all-cash deal valued at about $1B, including debt. Shareholders will receive $43 in cash for each share of Bowman common stock they own.
• EMBJ +4%; reported a Q2 net profit of 1.11B reais ($218.3M), up 25% y/y; revenue at the company rose 10% y/y to 11.34B reais, a record for the April-June period, while EBITDA increased 30% to 1.81B reais.
• HZO +45%; enters into definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackstone infrastructure portfolio company, Safe Harbor, in a $1.5B all-cash transaction where MarineMax shareholders will receive $53 per share in cash as deal was unanimously approved by the Board.
• SLN +41%; after the company announced topline results from the Phase 2 SANRECO trial met its primary and secondary endpoints.
• TH +5%; reported Q2 revenue of $86M, beating analysts’ estimates of $79.3M, raised its FY26 revenue forecast to $410M-$420M from prior $370M-$380M and announces over $1.4 billion in multi-year contract awards representing over 9,000 beds in its Workforce Hospitality Solutions segment.
• VREX +48%; after TDY agreed to acquire the X-Ray imaging component company for $18.90 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.1B. The transaction is expected to close in early 2027 and would broaden Teledyne’s healthcare portfolio.
• VRTX +8%; after competitor SION says it will discontinue development of SION-719 experimental cystic fibrosis drug after it failed to meet main goal in a mid-stage trial. Investors have been concerned Sionna can pose threat to VRTX’s core cystic fibrosis business.

• B -6%; after the gold miner shares slipped as Q2 profit misses estimates ($0.82 vs. est. $0.88) on slightly better revs $5.29B and said plans North American IPO by end-2026 after reaching a deal with NEM on their Nevada Joint venture; Q2 gold production rose 11% over Q1 to 796,000 oz, exceeding guidance.
• EBAY -4%; after Bloomberg reported GME CEO Ryan Cohen is considering withdrawing the company’s $56 billion bid for EBAY citing people familiar with the matter.
• INTC -3%; after announced a $15B underwritten public offering of common stock. Intel expects to grant to the underwriters of the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an aggregate total of $2.25B of additional shares of common stock at the public offering price.
• MNDY -10%; on guidance; Q2 EPS $1.48 topped $1.11 consensus on revs $364.6M vs. est. $355.53M; guided Q3 revs $368M-$370M vs. est. $372M; reaffirms FY26 revenue view $1.466B-$1.474B, vs. consensus $1.47B; sees Non-GAAP operating Income of $230M to $234M
• SION -92%; after saying its experimental cystic fibrosis drug SION-719 failed to improve sweat chloride levels, a key measure of CFTR protein function, in a mid-stage study; said they will not advance as an add-on treatment to VRTX’s standard therapy Trikafta after missing the study’s main activity goal.
• TENX -88%; shares tumbled after saying experimental drug TNX-103 did not meet statistical significance on the primary endpoint of improvement in 6-minute walk distance versus placebo