Market Summary
Equities are firmly higher at midday on Thursday, August 27, powered almost entirely by a blowout earnings-driven rally in technology and software names. The S&P 500 trades at 7725.21, up 49.51 points (+0.65%), the Nasdaq Composite has surged 341.66 points (+1.31%) to 26492.90, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is more modestly higher at 53629.26, up 165.38 points (+0.31%). The divergence between the Dow and the growth-heavy Nasdaq underscores today’s dominant theme: a sharp rotation into information technology at the expense of nearly every other corner of the market.
NVIDIA’s (NVDA) latest quarterly beat — featuring triple-digit revenue growth, record data-center revenue, and bullish FY28 growth commentary (~70% revenue growth expected) — has reignited the AI trade and lifted the PHLX Semiconductor Index roughly 1.7% intraday. Software names are outperforming even semis, with Salesforce (CRM) and CrowdStrike (CRWD) posting massive post-earnings gains that have pushed the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF up approximately 6.5%. Information Technology is the lone positive S&P 500 sector (+2.5% intraday), while breadth remains weak beneath the surface — NYSE decliners (1,345) outpace advancers (1,226), a sign that today’s index gains are narrowly concentrated.
Macro attention is beginning to shift toward tomorrow’s Jackson Hole Symposium, where Fed Chair Kevin Warsh will deliver the keynote address. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said this morning that persistent above-target inflation means “now is the time” for the Fed to act, and rate-cut odds for September have slipped to 33.9% from 36.6% yesterday per CME FedWatch. Treasuries are little changed, with the market awaiting today’s $44 billion 7-year note auction at 13:00 ET.
Market Snapshot
| Index | Level | Change | % Change |
|—|—|—|—|
| Dow Jones | 53,629.26 | +165.38 | +0.31% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,492.90 | +341.66 | +1.31% |
| S&P 500 | 7,725.21 | +49.51 | +0.65% |
Breadth (NYSE): Advancers 1,226 | Decliners 1,345 | Volume 220.21 mln
Breadth (Nasdaq): Advancers 2,178 | Decliners 1,867 | Volume 3.89 bln
WaveFinder Breadth Metrics:
- Primary Sentiment: Very Bullish (Bulls 1,091 | Bears 641)
- 4% Sentiment: Bullish (Bulls 156 | Bears 37)
- 40 SMA Sentiment: Bearish
- % of Stocks Above 20-day SMA: 26%
- % of Stocks Above 40-day SMA: 48.75%
- 9-Month Bulls/Bears: 38 / 5 (Follow-Through 37.5%)
The bullish primary sentiment reading contrasts with a bearish 40-SMA sentiment gauge and just 26% of stocks trading above their 20-day moving average — reinforcing that today’s headline strength is being driven by a narrow group of mega-cap tech and software winners rather than broad participation.
Sector Performance
Ranked by relative performance (per Briefing.com Industry Watch and intraday sector commentary):
1. Information Technology — Strong; +2.2% to +2.5% intraday, only S&P 500 sector in positive territory, led by semiconductors and software
2. Communication Services — Not explicitly rated in Industry Watch; WaveFinder flags elevated volatility (ATR +2.66%, rising, 89th percentile)
3. Utilities — Weak
4. Consumer Staples — Weak
5. Health Care — Weak
6. Industrials — Weak
7. Consumer Discretionary — Weak
8. Financials — Weak
9. Energy — Weak
10. Real Estate — Weak
11. Materials — Weak
Note: Briefing.com’s Industry Watch listed nine sectors as “Weak” alongside Information Technology as the sole “Strong” sector; specific point/percentage moves for the individual weak sectors were not disclosed in available data.
Key Earnings & Movers
Gainers:
- NVIDIA (NVDA) — $225.33, +$15.67 (+7.47%); stellar Q2 (Jul) report following a seven-session losing streak; revenue grew more than 100% yr/yr with record daily revenue growth of over $1 billion; beat across the board except gross margin (in line); raised strategic AI infrastructure commitments to $279 bln from $119 bln; expanded AWS partnership; guided FY28 revenue growth of ~70%
- Salesforce (CRM) — $247.49, +$41.87 (+20.36%); Q2 (Jul) non-GAAP EPS well above estimates (aided by $2.53/share benefit from strategic investment gains); revenue +11% yr/yr to $11.35 bln; accelerating cRPO growth, Agentforce/Slack momentum
- CrowdStrike (CRWD) — $222.45, +$33.27 (+17.58%); encouraging quarterly results
Decliners:
- Hormel Foods (HRL) — $21.58, -$2.13 (-8.98%); post-earnings laggard
- HP Inc. (HPQ) — $28.66, -$1.86 (-6.11%); post-earnings laggard
- Best Buy (BBY) — $83.63, -$3.81 (-4.36%); beat-and-raise quarter overshadowed by 2H growth concerns
- Burlington Stores (BURL) — trading lower despite EPS beat; management flagged increased consumer caution
Stock Spotlight
NVIDIA (NVDA): AI Buildout Shows No Signs of Slowing
NVIDIA is the single biggest catalyst behind today’s tape, rallying as much as 7.8% intraday to $226.03 before settling near $225.33 (+7.47%) by midday. The chip giant’s Q2 (Jul) results featured revenue growth of more than 100% year-over-year and record daily revenue growth exceeding $1 billion — a beat across nearly every metric except gross margin, which matched estimates. Notably, the stock initially dipped on the report before staging a sharp reversal after management disclosed it was raising strategic commitments toward AI infrastructure buildout to $279 billion from $119 billion and announced an expanded partnership with Amazon’s AWS.
The bigger story from the earnings call may be management’s commentary that AI compute demand continues to outstrip supply: NVIDIA Compute is fully utilized across every cloud it serves, hyperscaler capex is projected to reach nearly $800 billion in 2026 and $1.3 trillion in 2027, and the company guided to approximately 70% revenue growth in FY28. The results have lifted the PHLX Semiconductor Index roughly 1.7-1.9% and pushed it into positive territory for the week, cementing the narrative that the debate has shifted from “is AI demand sustainable?” to “how fast can NVIDIA supply it?”
Bond Market & Treasuries
Treasuries are trading in a narrow range near midday, with the 10-year yield at 4.656% (10-yr note +2/32) as of 11:34 ET. Earlier yield checks (10:08 ET) showed:
- 2-yr: unchanged at 4.22%
- 3-yr: -1 bp to 4.28%
- 5-yr: unchanged at 4.38%
- 10-yr: unchanged at 4.66%
- 30-yr: unchanged at 5.19%
The market largely shrugged off a benign jobless claims report, with the only notable data soft spot being advance wholesale inventories, which posted their largest build (+1.3%) since May. Focus now turns to results of today’s $44 billion 7-year note auction at 13:00 ET; the prior 7-year auction produced a high yield of 4.473% with a bid-to-cover of 2.49 and indirect bid of 70.1%.
Fed-related headlines remain a key undercurrent: Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said inflation has run above target for years and that now is the time for the Fed to act. The CME FedWatch Tool currently assigns a 33.9% probability to a 25-basis-point rate cut at the September FOMC meeting, down from 36.6% yesterday, as markets await Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s keynote address at Jackson Hole tomorrow.
Commodities
| Commodity | Price | Change |
|—|—|—|
| WTI Crude Oil | $82.47/bbl | +0.3% |
| Gold | $4,650.30/ozt | -0.1% |
| Copper | $6.564/lb | -0.5% |
(Silver pricing was not included in available data.)
Overseas Markets
Specific index-level closes for Asian and European markets were not provided in today’s data; however, key overnight policy and data developments included:
- South Korea: The Bank of Korea raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to 3.00%, as expected, while hinting at a slower pace of future hikes.
- Japan: Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Himino called for “timely” rate hikes but stopped short of committing to a September increase.
- China: July Industrial Profit rose 17.6% year-to-date (vs. 18.7% prior).
- Australia: Q2 Building Capital Expenditure rose 2.1% qtr/qtr (vs. -3.3% prior); Q2 Private New Capital Expenditure fell 3.6% qtr/qtr (vs. expected +0.8%, prior +6.9%); Q2 Plant/Machinery Capex fell 8.9% qtr/qtr (vs. +18.4% prior).
- Eurozone: July Private Sector Loans rose 3.1% yr/yr (vs. expected 2.9%, prior 3.0%); Loans to Nonfinancials rose 4.4% yr/yr (vs. 4.0% prior).
- Germany: September GfK Consumer Climate improved to -26.6 from -29.4 (vs. expected -29.5).
- France: July PPI rose 1.1% m/m (vs. -0.4% prior), up 3.4% yr/yr (vs. 2.8% prior); July jobseeker total rose to 3.143 million from 3.122 million. Fitch is scheduled to release its review of France’s sovereign rating tomorrow.
- Switzerland: Q2 Employment Level rose to 5.698 million from 5.537 million.
The U.S. Dollar Index was up 0.1% to 99.23 overnight, while USD/JPY traded at 159.29-159.43 and EUR/USD held near 1.1642-1.1656.
Economic Data
- Initial Jobless Claims (week ending Aug 21): 203,000, down 4,000 from an upwardly revised 207,000 (from 206,000); below Briefing.com consensus of 210,000. Claims continue to hover just above the 200,000 mark, indicating little change in layoff activity.
- Continuing Claims (week ending Aug 15): 1.778 million, down 18,000 from a revised 1.796 million (from 1.799 million) — near the year’s lowest level.
- Advance Goods Trade Deficit (July): Widened to $118.8 billion from $101.4 billion in June.
- Advance Retail Inventories: +0.7%
- Advance Wholesale Inventories: +1.3% — the largest build since May, the lone soft spot in today’s data slate.
Overall, today’s data had minimal market impact, with earnings remaining the dominant driver of price action.
Looking Ahead
- Fed Chair Kevin Warsh delivers the keynote address at the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole Symposium (“Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy”) tomorrow morning — the market’s next major macro catalyst.
- 7-Year Treasury Note Auction ($44 billion) results due at 13:00 ET today.
- Fitch is scheduled to release its sovereign rating review of France tomorrow.
- Markets will continue digesting the wave of technology and retail earnings (NVDA, CRM, CRWD, BBY, BURL, HRL, HPQ) for read-through into sector positioning heading into the holiday-shortened stretch.