Morning Preview: August 17, 2026

Early Look

Monday, August 17, 2026

U.S. futures are mixed to higher, with Nasdaq futures outperforming rising over +0.5% while S&P futures (Spuz) are up only slightly after markets climbed last week, ahead of key big box retailer earnings this week (WMT, TGT, HD, LOW, BABA). The S&P 500 (SPX) traded in a narrow, low volume 15 point trading range all afternoon on Friday in a true “summer Friday” ending slightly lower and just below 7,800 for a second straight day after eclipsing that level intraday, while for the week the S&P 500 climbed 0.4%, the Dow fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq climbed 0.1%. While last week was centered on inflation concerns and questions about the Federal Reserve’s next move, investors step into a relatively quiet five-day stretch, with major retailers’ earnings reports and a slew of manufacturing data taking center stage. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 508 points to 69,220, the Shanghai Index rose 55 points to 3,982, and the Hang Seng Index advanced 336 points to 25,453. In Europe, the German DAX and the FTSE 100 are both up slightly to little changed. Oil prices remain a key factor for markets and the Fed as the US takes an economic approach to the war in the Middle East. Brent crude futures edged up to $88 per barrel on Monday. While fear remains nonexistent in the market with the CBOE Volatility index (VIX) hitting 2026 lows this week, there still are flashing warnings signs of caution.US Treasury borrowing costs just hit a 25-year high: Thursday’s 30-year Treasury auction cleared at a yield as high as 5.22%, the highest since August 2001. Also of note, @Barchart noted on X, “NYSE hasn’t had a single 80% downside volume day this year. Hasn’t happened in AT LEAST 30 years.”

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -107.58 points, or 0.20%, to 53,732.41
• The Nasdaq Composite dropped -73.86 points, or 0.28%, to 26,729.16
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 15.57 points, or 0.51% to 3,068.42

• 10:00 AM ET NAHB Housing Market Index for August
• 4:00 PM ET                   Net Long-term TIC Flows for June

• Earnings After the Close: DCGO FLXS FN XP YALA

• Rosenblatt 6th Annual Age of AI Tech Virtual Summit, 8/17-8/18

• KBR (KBR) said that its Mission Technology Solutions business has won a NATO recompete contract with an initial ceiling of $60M to support the PATRIOT air and missile defense system and its integration with the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS).
• Rocket Lab (RKLB) said this weekend eight satellite platforms it built for MDA Space (MDA) have entered orbit, marking the first deployment under a $143 million contract covering 17 spacecraft. The satellites launched Aug. 15 at 9:12 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
• Trane Technologies (TT) and power management company Eaton (ETN) announced a strategic collaboration integrating advanced thermal management and electrical system architectures to help accelerate AI-factory deployment, enhance efficiency and lower costs.

• The Internal Revenue Service is investigating UnitedHealth Group (UNH), with an initial probe determining the health Care conglomerate underpaid taxes during a four-year period by funneling money through a foreign subsidiary. The IRS is “seeking to significantly increase taxable income” from 2017 through 2020 and may force UnitedHealth to pay more “for subsequent years after 2020” UnitedHealth revealed in a recent regulatory filing – STAT News.

• Meta Inc. (META) and BlackRock’s $14B, 1GW Sopaipilla data center in Texas carries only partial insurance coverage, reflecting how difficult and expensive it has become to fully insure gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure. The project has about $450M of property coverage once operational, $645M of terrorism coverage and additional protection for construction delays and liability.
• Nvidia (NVDA) is said to be in talks to invest as much as $3B in SB Energy, a SoftBank Group (SFTBY) subsidiary developing ‌a massive planned Ohio data center project for OpenAI. The proposed investment is part of Nvidia’s talks with OpenAI ​and SB Energy on providing around $100B in ⁠credit support for the planned Ohio data center campus, the Information reported on Saturday.
• Snap inc. (SNAP) shares fall after the 9th Circuit stripped its Section 230 shield Aug 10, clearing 3,000+ addictive-design suits to proceed — erasing the Aug 3 earnings pop.
• TTM Technologies (TTMI) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire EPIQ Design Solutions, a premier provider of open-architecture, AI-enabled software-defined radios, high-performance RF products and radiation-tolerant space compute solutions supporting mission-critical signals intelligence and electronic warfare applications, for approximately $1.1B in an all-cash transaction.