Morning Preview: August 20, 2026

Early Look

Thursday, August 20, 2026

U.S. futures are mixed as Treasury yields rebound after sliding on Wesnesday as the 30-year yield rises 4bps to 5.23% after a 9bps drop yesterday after the U.S. Treasury announced they would double the size of buybacks for long dated maturities. U.S. stock markets ended higher on Wednesday, snapping their modest three day losing streaks, paced by massive gains in Healthcare (XLV) and Biotech (XBI) on breakthrough news from Moderna (MRNA) and Merck (MRK) on cancer treatments, while the tech space (SOX, QQQ) lagged. Long-dated bond yields pulled back from multi-year highs after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a doubling of buyback sizes for 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasuries, which helped reel yields back in from multi-year highs and calm market jitters for the time being. Gold and silver prices/mining stocks were outperformers as yields and the dollar fell. Interest rate sensitive stocks such as homebuilders and mortgage companies rebounded amid the move. Bitcoin prices extend rally this morning, rising 4.4% topping $72,000, above its 200dma resistance of $69K and trades to its highest levels since early June and Ethereum +3.3% nearing $2,300, lifting shares of COIN, MSTR, IBIT, HOOD and other levered crypto names. @ Bluekurtic tweets: “Bitcoin is finally above its 200-DMA after more than a year. Only 3rd time $BTC has spent 6+ months below it. In prior 2 cases, it never again fell below the signal price over the next year. Time to resign from McDonald’s.” In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 890 points to 66,216, the Shanghai Index rose 9 points to 3,903, and the Hang Seng Index rises 203 points to 25,698. The South Korean Kospi surges 6.75% to 1,080. In Europe, the German DAX is down -107 points to 25,983, while the FTSE 100 slip -20 points to 10,723. Stocks snapped their 3 day losing streak yesterday, attention today back to retail with Wal-Mart, BABA earnings and economic data.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119.65 points, or 0.22%, to 53,463.05
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 41.38 points, or 0.16%, to 26,331.09
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 15.05 points, or 0.50% to 3,032.94

• 8:30 AM ET                  Continuing Claims…est. 1.79M
• 8:30 AM ET                  Philly Fed Business Index for August…est. 25.0 (prior 41.4)
• 10:00 AM ET                Leading Indicators M/M for July…est. +0.1% (prior -0.2%)
• 10:30 AM ET                Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventory Data

• Earnings After the Close: FLO FLUX ICG OSIS ROST

• Needham 7th Annual Virtual Semiconductor & Semicap 1×1 Conference, 8/19-8/20
• Piper California Medtech & Diagnostics Bus Tour, 8/18-8/20

• Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s July meeting, released on Wednesday, had shown concern about inflation deepening at the central bank, with “several” policymakers ready to raise interest rates and “many” saying a hike in borrowing costs will be needed if inflation does not decline to the central bank’s 2% target.
• Bull-bear spread in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) weekly survey was -4.4% vs -3.2%last week. Bulls rise to 35.5% from 34.7%. Neutrals fall to 24.8% from 27.4%, Bears rise to 39.9% from 37.9%.
• President Trump said on Truth Social last night, “ No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY Country! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless, and their Country is hanging by a thread. Today, I am also announcing that ANY Country that allows its financial Institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”

• Alibaba (BABA) Q1 revenue rose 9% y/y to 268.95 billion yuan ($40.02 billion), compared with analysts’ average estimate of 268.88 billion yuan; AI cloud and compute services revenue rose 45% to 48.44 billion yuan in the quarter; capital expenditures rose 75% to 67.68 billion yuan in the quarter ended June 30, as it continued to invest in AI infrastructure to meet strong customer demand.
• Coty Inc. (COTY) Q4 adj EPS loss (-$0.02) vs. est. loss (-$0.01); Q4 revs rose 1% y/y to $1.27B tops est. $1.19B; guides Q1 EPS $0.11-$0.13 below est. $0.14 and guided Q1 revenue to decline by a low- to mid-single-digit percentage on a like-for-like basis; said Soraya Benchikh to succeed Laurent Mercier as CFO effective September 1, 2026; warned results will come under pressure in the next fiscal year as Coty transfers its license to sell Gucci-branded beauty products back to Kering.
• Ethan Allen (ETD) declares special $3 per share cash dividend; reaffirms strong financial position and commitment to sustainable shareholder value.
• John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS) Q4 EPS $0.71 vs. est. $1.20; Q4 sales +4.22% y/y to $280.434M vs. est. $274.868M; Q4 Gross profit fell 9.5% to $44.1M; gross margin narrowed 2.4 percentage points to 15.7%; CEO plans to step down in October to become executive chairman; Jasper Sanfilippo will succeed him.
• Uber Technologies (UBER) reports sale of 72M shares of Aurora Innovation’s (AUR) Class A common stock at $6.55 per share on August 17.

• Ameresco (AMRC) announced that, effective September 25, 2026, Mark Chiplock has resigned as Chief Financial Officer to accept a CFO position at a private equity-owned company in a different industry
• Deere Inc. (DE) Q3 EPS $5.10 tops consensus $4.70; Q3 sales and revenue $12.6B vs. est. $10.73B; narrows FY26 net income view $4.75B-$5B from $4.5B-$5B; Sees FY26 Production & Precision Ag operating margin 11%-12%; sees Small Ag & Turf net sales up about 15%, with operating margin 14.5%-15.5%.
• Nordson Inc. (NDSN) Q3 EPS $3.25 vs. est. $3.09; Q3 revs rose 10% y/y to $818M vs. est. $779.4M; Q3 EBITDA increased 10% to $262M; raises FY26 EPS view to $11.80-$12.00 from prior $11.30-$11.80 (est. $11.59) and boosts FY26 rev view to $3.035B-$3.075B, from $2.93B-$3.01B prior (est. $2.98B).
• Transocean Ltd. (RIG) announces $300M contract for Ultra-deepwater drillship; contract expected to commence Q1 2027 with value of about $300M. Contract includes two years of priced options continuing work in India to early 2031.

• Raymond James Financial (RJF) said client assets under administration reach $1.93 trillion, up 17% year-over-year as of July 31, 2026.
• Webull (BULL) Q2 adj EPS $0.12 vs. est. $0.05; Q2 revs rise 51% y/y to $198.8M vs. est. $183M; Q2 adj operating profit rose to $62.6M with 31.5% margin; said Q2 customer assets grew 79% y/y to $28.5B; registered users increased 13% to 28.2M.

• Merck (MRK) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley and raised tgt to $179 from $116 as the recent success for Merck pipeline cancer drugs leads the firm to raise its estimates, as now projects flat outer-year revenue for the company through the Keytruda patent cliff.
• Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE) said it has secured US FDA approval for its gene therapy Genglycos to treat an ultra-rare metabolic disorder known as glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSDIa), also known as Von Gierke disease, in adults and pediatric patients.

• CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) CTO is leaving to launch an AI-cyber fund – Axios.
• Nebius Group (NBIS) announced the pricing of its offering of $5B aggregate original principal amount of convertible senior notes, in two series: $3B aggregate original principal amount of 0.50% convertible notes due 2030 and $2B aggregate original principal amount of 4.50% convertible notes due 2034.
• Wolfspeed (WOLF) Q4 revs fell -24% y/y to $149.6M v. est. 4150M; as GAAP gross margin was negative -25%, worsening 12% y/y and non-GAAP gross margin was negative -20%; sees Q1 revenue $140M-$160M, vs. est. $150.4M; Q4 adj EBITDA widened to negative -$62.4M.
• The data-center backlash has been intensifying stateside as Pennsylvania became the latest state to impose strict rules on developers Tuesday (followed restrictions from Texas and New York recently), which has weighed heavily on IPPs (NRG, VST), HPC/data centers (CIFR, WULF, IREN, HUT) and others.