The U.S. stock market began the final full week of August with a cautious tone on Monday, August 24th, 2026. Following a period of relative stability, major indexes are showing slight downward pressure in early trading as investors pivot their focus from central bank policy toward a heavy week of corporate earnings. While the Federal Reserve\u2019s recent signals at the Jackson Hole symposium continue to suggest a path toward interest rate normalization, the immediate catalyst for market movement has shifted to the technology sector and upcoming high-stakes financial reports.<\/p>\n
As of mid-morning trading, the major market indexes are largely in the red, led by a decline in technology-heavy benchmarks. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ<\/a>), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, is the day's laggard with a decline of 0.54%. This weakness is mirrored in the State Street SPDR S&P 500<\/a> ETF Trust (SPY<\/a>), which has slipped 0.14%.<\/p>\n The blue-chip Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average, represented by the State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA<\/a>), is trading nearly flat with a marginal dip of 0.01%. Meanwhile, small-cap stocks are also seeing slight selling pressure, with the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM<\/a>) down 0.04%. The broader sentiment appears to be one of "wait-and-see," as the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH<\/a>) fell 1.15%, indicating a cooling off in the chips sector ahead of major industry news.<\/p>\n The primary focus for the week is the "earnings event of the summer": Nvidia<\/a> (NVDA<\/a>) is scheduled to report its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results after the bell on Wednesday, August 26th. With a market cap hovering around $5 trillion, Nvidia<\/a>\u2019s performance has become a proxy for the entire artificial intelligence trade. Analysts are looking for an EPS of $2.09 and revenue of $58.8 billion.<\/p>\n Beyond Nvidia<\/a>, the earnings calendar is packed with retail and tech heavyweights. Today, PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD<\/a>) reported before the open, while Semtech Corp (SMTC<\/a>) is slated for after the close. Later this week, we expect results from Intuit Inc (INTU<\/a>), Salesforce (CRM<\/a>), and Best Buy Company, Inc. (BBY<\/a>). On the economic front, investors are keeping a close eye on upcoming jobless claims and revised GDP data due later this week to gauge the health of the U.S. consumer.<\/p>\n In the premarket<\/a> and early session, several companies made significant moves. Picard Medical, Inc. (PMI<\/a>) surged 44.9%, while Sadot Group Inc. (SDOT<\/a>) climbed 44.6% on high volume. Conversely, Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI<\/a>) saw a sharp decline of 12.4%.<\/p>\n In the mega-cap space, Apple (AAPL<\/a>) and Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) are trading with modest volatility as the tech sector rebalances. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA<\/a>) is down 1.8% today, ahead of its own earnings report later this week. In the semiconductor space, Micron<\/a> Technology, Inc. (MU<\/a>) fell 3.2%, and Sandisk<\/a> Corporation (SNDK<\/a>) dropped 4.6%, reflecting the broader caution in memory and storage markets.<\/p>\n In commodities and alternative assets, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA<\/a>) rose 2.22%, showing strength in the crypto space, while the United States Oil Fund (USO<\/a>) dropped 1.84% as energy prices softened. Gold<\/a> remains a haven, with the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD<\/a>) rising 0.66% as investors hedge against potential volatility later in the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. stock market began the final full week of August with a cautious tone on Monday, August 24th, 2026. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6824,94],"tags":[5001,33,225,633,3697,3710,3743,4223,4380,4382],"class_list":["post-66949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-market-update","tag-earnings-season","tag-msft","tag-aapl","tag-nvda","tag-pdd","tag-federal-reserve","tag-baba","tag-inflation","tag-stock-market","tag-semiconductor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Upcoming Market Events and Economic Data<\/h2>\n
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