Market News

Overnight Developments U.S. strikes Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz — NBC News U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, the first American strikes on Iran since late July and a break in a month-long lull. CENTCOM spokesperson Tim Hawkins said Revolutionary Guard forces had been observed preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the strait — the same shipping lanes the U.S. military finished clearing of mines only last week. The IRGC confirmed the strikes hit Larak, acknowledged “the martyrdom and injury of several of our fighters and compatriots,” and warned of a “retaliatory response.” ...

Market Snapshot Index Close Change % Change S&P 500 7,711.76 -19.23 -0.25% NASDAQ 26,402.42 -138.93 -0.52% DOW 53,559.99 -9.45 -0.02% Russell 2000 2,972.37 -41.97 -1.39% VIX 14.43 -0.08 -0.55% The headline indices barely moved. Underneath them, the market repriced hard: small caps fell more than five times the S&P’s decline, and the speculative complex — nuclear, crypto treasury, telehealth, fintech — dropped 5–9%. Mega-cap tech absorbed the rotation and closed green. ...

Overnight Developments Nvidia’s blowout Q2 reignites the AI trade — CNBC Nvidia reported after Wednesday’s close and beat on every line that mattered: $2.22 EPS on $96.2B revenue, up 106% year over year. The guidance did the real damage to the bear case — CFO Colette Kress pointed to fiscal 2028 revenue growth well above consensus, and management disclosed that AWS will buy 2 million Nvidia GPUs along with the new Vera CPU. That single datapoint undercuts the “hyperscalers are tapping out” thesis that has hung over the AI complex since spring. Nvidia also returned $26B via buybacks and dividends in the quarter. ...

Market Snapshot Index Close Change % Change S&P 500 7,730.99 +55.29 +0.72% NASDAQ 26,541.35 +411.15 +1.57% DOW 53,569.44 +105.56 +0.20% Russell 2000 3,014.34 +8.44 +0.28% VIX 14.51 -0.70 -4.60% Breaking News & Macro Events NVIDIA’s Q2 blowout resets the AI growth debate — Fortune NVIDIA posted fiscal Q2 revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106% year over year and 18% sequentially, against analyst estimates near $92.2 billion. The more consequential item was guidance: the company issued a rare full-year fiscal 2028 growth forecast of 70%, versus roughly 44% consensus, with CEO Jensen Huang noting that demand exceeds even that figure and supply is the binding constraint. The print pulled the entire semiconductor and AI-infrastructure complex higher on Thursday and accounts for most of the NASDAQ’s 1.57% gain. ...

Market Snapshot Index Close Change % Change S&P 500 7,677.28 +24.42 +0.32% NASDAQ 26,151.30 +171.11 +0.66% DOW 53,577.40 +160.24 +0.30% Russell 2000 3,010.02 +14.94 +0.50% VIX 15.45 -0.40 -2.52% PHLX Semiconductor 11,588.04 +164.87 +1.44% The pre-market setup played out. Monday’s chip-led selloff partially unwound, with the SOX recovering +1.44% — a little over half of Monday’s -2.70% drop. NASDAQ again led the S&P by roughly 2x, confirming this remains a semiconductor positioning trade into tomorrow’s NVIDIA print rather than a broad risk bid. VIX drifted lower to 15.45. ...

Overnight Developments No breaking overnight catalyst. An explicit scan for new tariffs, sanctions, military escalation, and surprise central bank action turned up nothing that occurred after Monday’s 4pm ET close. The items circulating this morning — Iran-related sanctions commentary and the Canadian tariff schedule — are Monday-or-earlier news already reflected in Monday’s close. What is moving futures is a rebound from Monday’s semiconductor selloff, positioned ahead of NVIDIA’s earnings tomorrow. ...

Overnight Developments Two separate Asia stories hit the same nerve overnight, and both landed on the AI trade. Neither is a macro shock — no tariff, no central bank surprise — but together they knocked Korea down 3% and dragged NASDAQ futures to the worst of the three US contracts. Alibaba Prices a Record $10.2B Hong Kong Share Sale to Fund AI — CNBC / Reuters Announced Sunday, August 23: Alibaba is issuing 710 million new shares at HK$112.70, raising HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) — roughly 3.57% dilution. It’s the largest primary follow-on ever by a Hong Kong-listed company, and the third-largest globally this year behind Alphabet and Intel. Proceeds go 100% to “full-stack” AI: chips, infrastructure, and model development. US investors were not eligible — the placement was an offshore transaction, unregistered under US securities law. ...

Market Snapshot Index Close Change % Change S&P 500 7,652.86 -21.51 -0.28% NASDAQ 25,980.19 -200.27 -0.76% DOW 53,417.16 +140.15 +0.26% Russell 2000 2,995.08 -22.79 -0.76% VIX 15.85 +0.72 +4.76% This morning’s pre-market alert asked one question: would US semis absorb the overnight Asia selloff or extend it? They extended it. NASDAQ futures pointed to -0.70% at 6:50am and the index closed -0.76% — the tape never mounted a recovery attempt. The cleanest read isn’t in the headline indices, it’s in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which closed -2.70% at 11,423. That is where the day actually happened. The Dow’s +0.26% and the NASDAQ’s -0.76% describe a one-point-oh-two-percent spread that is entirely a growth-versus-value story, and the Russell matching the NASDAQ tick-for-tick at -0.76% tells you this wasn’t a small-cap rotation either. Money left high-multiple and high-beta, full stop. ...

Overnight Developments Bitcoin tops $79,000 as another $1B of shorts gets wiped out — CoinDesk Bitcoin ran to $79,241 overnight — its highest since June — before easing back to roughly $77,650, up 6.3% from Thursday’s close and about 20% on the week. The move is mechanical as much as fundamental: short liquidations hit roughly $3 billion over 24 hours against just $264 million on the long side, the largest short-liquidation event since at least 2021 per CoinGlass. Spot ETF inflows accelerated for a second day. ...

Market Snapshot Index Close Change % Change S&P 500 7,674.37 +33.21 +0.43% NASDAQ 26,180.46 +113.29 +0.43% DOW 53,277.01 +517.80 +0.98% Russell 2000 3,017.87 +25.44 +0.85% VIX 15.13 -0.88 -5.50% A clean risk-on close to a losing week. The Dow’s +0.98% led, the Russell outperformed the S&P, and the VIX gave back 5.5% to 15.13 — the mirror image of Thursday’s de-risking session. Breadth did the work here, not the megacaps: Apple, Amazon, and NVIDIA all finished lower while the equal-weight-style names carried the tape. ...