Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

Salesforce shares have lost more than a fifth of their value since the start of the year.
Credit: Joan Cros / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce is due to report earnings Wednesday afternoon, with the software maker’s stock seen potentially jumping to its highest point since January in the following days.
• Analysts expect Salesforce to report growing sales and profits, as the company looks to prove to investors that its business isn’t being disrupted by AI.

Salesforce is scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday, with the software maker’s stock seen potentially reaching its highest point since January following the results.

Based on current options pricing, Salesforce (CRM) shares are seen swinging up to 7% in either direction by the end of the week. From Thursday’s close, a move of that size could see shares rise as high as $220, their highest point since January, or drag them below $191.

Shares of Salesforce have lost more than a fifth of their value since the year began. Salesforce, along with many other software stocks, have been pressured by fears that growing AI adoption could lead companies to build their own tools and cut back spending on external software.

Why This Matters to Investors

Investors and analysts will likely be watching Wednesday’s report for signs Salesforce’s business isn’t being disrupted by AI.

Earlier this month, JPMorgan analysts relaunched their coverage of Salesforce with an “overweight” rating and $250 price target, anticipating an acceleration in Salesforce’s core business in the second half of the year, and that AI disruption could be “limited to a small portion of the business.”

Salesforce is projected to report second-quarter revenue of $11.33 billion, up about 11% year-over-year, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Adjusted earnings per share are seen coming in at $3.28, up from $2.91 the same time a year ago.

Wall Street analysts are more bullish than bearish on Salesforce. Of the 18 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha, 12 consider it a “buy,” while five have neutral ratings, and only one has issued a “sell” rating. Their average price target of $252 would suggest more than 20% upside from Thursday’s close.

News of the day for August 21, 2026

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are all on track to post losses for the week
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stock futures are pointing higher Friday after the major indexes lost ground Thursday; Treasury yields are holding steady; bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related stocks are extending their recent winning streak; SpaceX is on pace to close out the week in the red; and Ross Stores stock is surging after a strong earnings report. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Futures Climb After Thursday’s Sell-Off

Stock futures are moving higher this morning after a steep downturn yesterday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.6% recently, while S&P 500 futures added 0.4%. Cryptocurrency-related stocks were leading the charge as bitcoin rallied to its highest level in three months (more on that below). All three of the major indexes lost ground in yesterday’s session as bond yields marched higher. The S&P 500 has declined nearly 2% so far this week, putting the benchmark index on track to snap a three-week winning streak. WTI oil futures were holding steady just under $87 per barrel, while gold futures rose nearly 2% to $4,650 an ounce, their highest level since May.

Bond Yields Steady as Government Mulls More Repurchases

Bond yields are holding steady after climbing yesterday, with the government considering boosting its planned Treasury repurchases. The latest moves have erased a brief decline earlier in the week following the Treasury Department’s announcement of a plan to buy back a larger amount of longer-dated bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects interest rates on consumer loans, was just under 4.70% this morning. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Thursday he may look to raise ​the government’s Treasury repurchases. UBS analysts said in a note yesterday that the Treasury’s move “buys time, not a solution.”

Bitcoin and Crypto-Related Stocks Extend Gains

Bitcoin is rallying for a third straight day, trading just under $77,000 recently after surging above $79,000 overnight to its highest level in three months. Bitcoin has gained about 20% this week following positive comments from President Donald Trump and a series of small regulatory wins for the cryptocurrency industry. Shares of cryptocurrency-related stocks also continued their climb, with shares of major bitcoin holder Strategy (MSTR) surging 7% premarket and Coinbase (COIN) up roughly 5%.

SpaceX Is on Pace to Finish the Week in the Red

Some of the shine has come off SpaceX (SPCX). Shares of Elon Musk’s rocket, connectivity and AI company fell 4% yesterday to close at $134, a dollar under their mid-June IPO price. Thursday’s retreat marked their first close below that level since Aug. 7; the stock had this month clawed its way back from record lows to come within cents of the $150 at which they started trading on the day the offering hit the market. SpaceX is still up about 24% this month, but it’s on pace to finish this week in the red. The stock was up 1% in recent premarket trading.

Ross Stores Stock Pops on Strong Earnings

Shares of Ross Stores (ROST) are surging 8% in premarket trading after the off-price retailer posted quarterly results that topped Wall Street estimates and raised its outlook. Ross Stores said it now expects earnings per share of $8.61 to $8.77 for the full year, up from $7.50 to $7.74 previously, thanks in part to a boost from tariff refunds. Ross also raised the number of new stores it plans to open this year to 115 from 110, with CEO Jim Conroy telling investors Ross Stores believes it is “well positioned to capture additional market share.” The company reported second-quarter EPS of $2.66 on a 13% year-over-year rise in sales to $6.26 billion, ahead of analysts’ projections.

Nvidia shares are up 12% from the start of the year
Credit: Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Nvidia is due to report earnings Wednesday afternoon, with options pricing suggesting traders see the stock swinging up to 6% by the end of the week following the results.
• Analysts expect sales and profits roughly doubled from a year ago as big tech companies pour billions of dollars into AI data centers.

Nvidia is scheduled to post earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday, with traders anticipating a big move from the AI chip leader’s stock.

Based on current options pricing, traders expect Nvidia (NVDA) shares could swing up to about 6% in either direction by the end of the week following the results. A move of that size from the stock’s recent level around $209 could push the shares as high as $221, approaching their May record just above $236, or drag them back below $198.

Nvidia shares have climbed 12% since the start of the year, but are still more than 10% off their May highs after a broader pullback in the AI trade amid concerns around the sustainability of spending on America’s AI buildout.

Why This Matters to Investors

Nvidia could face a particularly challenging setup heading into Wednesday’s earnings, as worries about an AI bubble have weighed on sentiment.

Though analysts widely expect Nvidia to post strong results, quarterly reports have tended to be a sell-the-news event for the chipmaker. Nvidia shares fell the day after each of the company’s last four quarterly reports, and Morgan Stanley analysts told clients recently that they “aren’t necessarily optimistic that trend reverses.” Investor attention could focus on Nvidia’s defense of its market share in the face of growing competition, along with worries about circular financing, Morgan Stanley wrote.

Nvidia is projected to report a record $92.38 billion in second-quarter revenue, along with adjusted earnings of $2.10 per share, both roughly doubling year-over-year. $85.92 billion of that revenue is expected to come from Nvidia’s data center segment, up 109% from a year ago, per Visible Alpha estimates.

Analysts remain overwhelmingly bullish on Nvidia stock despite the recent volatility, with all but one of the 13 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha recommending buying the stock. Their mean target of $299 would suggest more than 40% upside from the stock’s recent level.

This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect more recent prices and analyst estimates.

Financial markets have taken mixed signals on interest rates from Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, shown speaking to members of the media outside the White House in Washington Thursday; and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, shown speaking during a news conference at Federal Reserve Headquarters in Washington July 29.
Credit: Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Financial markets are getting mixed signals from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department about interest rates.
• The Treasury Department moved this week to push down yields on long-term government bonds even as Fed officials floated raising interest rates to fight inflation.
• The moves have left markets unsure whether the Fed or the Treasury is guiding interest rates.

The government’s top financial policymakers seem to be stepping on one another’s toes over borrowing costs across the economy.

The Treasury Department moved this week to push down interest rates by buying back long-term Treasury bonds. The move raised questions about whether the department is complicating the job of the Federal Reserve, whose officials have increasingly weighed raising rates to fight stubbornly high inflation.

Why This Matters to the Economy

Confusion over the government’s interest rate policies could push up bond yields, which would raise borrowing costs on many kinds of loans.

Over the past month, markets have pushed interest rates higher as Fed officials have talked tough on inflation, while the Treasury has intervened to push them lower. The mixed signals left investors unsure whether the government wants higher rates, which would drag on borrowing and spending to combat inflation, or lower to stimulate the economy and keep the job market humming.

At the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting last month, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh noted that bond yields were rising and suggested the moves were partly a response to the Fed’s new policy of not offering forward guidance about its key federal funds rate.

“Nominal and real yields are materially higher across the Treasury curve,” Warsh said. “In fact, some of the increases in market interest rates between FOMC meetings are among the most significant in the last two decades … Market participants are learning to play the ball, not the referee.”

Warsh has also proposed shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet, which could put further upward pressure on bond yields.

Higher yields, however, would raise the interest the government pays on the national debt, which passed $40 trillion this week.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for lower interest rates from the Fed and heavily pressured Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, to cut them.

This week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acted to cool Treasury yields by announcing an expanded buyback program. Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds initially retreated from a 19-year high of 5.34% after the department said it would double its long-term bond repurchases, but the relief was brief: by Thursday, yields had climbed back to roughly the pre-announcement level.

The move sowed confusion in financial markets about where interest rates are headed.

“Right now, you have two referees in the game with the U.S. Treasury and with the Fed. Markets are uncertain as to what signal has the greatest importance,” Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, told Reuters Thursday. The conflicting signals, he said, are making it hard for investors to know which one to trust.

Bessent pushed back Thursday against suggestions that the Fed and the Treasury are working at cross-purposes.

“I think that the Treasury and the Fed would work together if there was any change in the balance sheet, and we would adjust to any kind of runoff that they’re doing,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

Asked whether it would be an issue if the Fed raised interest rates, Bessent said there was no connection.

“That has nothing to do with the decision that I announced this week on the buybacks,” he said.

Deere stock has gained one-third of its value this year.
Credit: Leon Neal / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Deere & Co. shares surged Thursday after the agricultural and industrial equipment maker’s quarterly results beat analysts’ expectations.
• The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance.

Deere & Co. (DE) was one of the best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 on Thursday, after the agricultural and industrial equipment maker posted better-than-expected quarterly results driven by its construction and forestry business. 

Deere grew earnings 7% year-over-year to $1.38 billion in its fiscal third quarter, or $5.10 per share, topping the $4.72 expected by analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Total net sales and revenue increased 5% to $12.61 billion, also beating estimates. Deere raised the lower end of its full-year earnings guidance range to $4.75 billion from $4.5 billion, and left the upper bound unchanged at $5 billion.

A 6% revenue decline at the production and precision agriculture unit, Deere’s largest business, was more than offset by 18% growth at its construction and forestry business. That unit’s operating profit nearly doubled last quarter due in large part to higher prices. Deere’s small agriculture and turf business also booked double-digit sales growth amid rising volumes and prices. 

“As we look ahead, we continue to believe 2026 will mark the bottom of the current ag equipment cycle,” CEO John C. May said in a press release. “Across our business, early order program trends, improving used-equipment inventories, and increasing customer adoption of our advanced technologies give us confidence that Deere is well positioned for long-term value creation.”

Deere stock was up about 7% recently. The stock has gained one-third of its value this year, though it remains 8% off February’s all-time high.

President Trump met with crypto execs at the White House on Wednesday.
Credit: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

What You Need to Know

• Bitcoin rose above $72,000, its highest level since early June.
• Altcoins like ether, XRP, and HYPE have rallied over 20% in the past 24 hours.

Signs of a crypto thaw are beginning to show.

Bitcoin rallied for a second straight day, climbing above $72,000—a level it hasn’t seen since early June—in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Meanwhile, altcoins are rallying furiously, with ether, XRP, and HYPE all rising at least 20% in the past 24 hours.

Traders appear to be betting on a tailwind from several small regulatory wins this week even as the perceived odds of the Clarity Act, a broad framework for putting rules around digital assets, passing this year have dwindled.

Crypto traders were already cheering yesterday after the Treasury Department said it would step up government debt buybacks, a move seen as stabilizing for markets and good for risk assets. President Donald Trump added good vibes when he hinted that Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig was working on a way to allow DeFi platform Hyperliquid to legally operate in the U.S.

“I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” the president said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Trump nodded to a crypto “Who’s Who” at the conference, which had Coinbase (COIN) chief Brian Armstrong, Gemini’s (GEMI) Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Kraken chief Arjun Sethi. (Robinhood’s (HOOD) Vlad Tenev appeared on camera, and Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse got a shoutout.)

Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission also proposed rules that would allow crypto startups to raise capital through token offerings.

Crypto-linked stocks Coinbase and Strategy (MSTR) were each more than 7% in recent trading.

Thursday’s slump dragged Walmart shares into negative territory for the year.
Credit: Scott Olson / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Walmart shares plunged Thursday after the retailer issued a weaker-than-expected forecast for the third quarter.
• Second-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations, and Walmart raised its full-year guidance.

Walmart shares are sliding after the nation’s largest retailer gave a disappointing forecast for the third quarter.

Walmart (WMT) shares were down nearly 10% in recent trading. The retailer said it expects third-quarter sales to rise by 3% to 3.75% year-over-year, with adjusted EPS between 62 and 64 cents, below the 4.9% revenue growth and EPS of 67 cents analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for.

The weaker-than-anticipated outlook for the current quarter overshadowed solid second-quarter results and higher guidance for the year. Walmart lifted its full-year forecast to sales growth of 4% to 5%, up from 3.5% to 4.5% previously, along with adjusted EPS of $2.80 to $2.87 compared to the prior range of $2.75 to $2.85. 

Walmart CFO John David Rainey told CNBC that the company is eligible to receive about $2.9 billion in tariff refunds, which he expects to help Walmart offset higher costs and support lower prices for consumers.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 81 cents on a 6% jump in revenue to $187.94 billion in the second quarter. Both measures came in above the Visible Alpha consensus. Comparable sales growth came in at 3.1% across Walmart’s U.S. locations, below the 3.7% analysts projected.

Thursday’s slump dragged Walmart’s stock back into negative territory for the year.

News of the day for Aug. 20, 2026

Each of the major indexes closed slightly higher yesterday.
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Stock futures are lower after major indexes snapped a three-day losing streak yesterday; bond yields are back on the rise after pulling back sharply yesterday on the news that the Treasury would increase its purchase of longer-term bonds; Walmart shares are falling as the retailer’s weak guidance outweighs strong quarterly results; bitcoin is extending its recent rally; and Moderna shares are losing ground after nearly tripling in value in yesterday. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Slip After Losing Streak Snapped

Stock futures are pointing to a lower open this morning after major indexes snapped a three-day losing streak yesterday. Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down 0.5% recently, while S&P 500 futures slipped 0.3%. Stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday as investors assessed earnings from several retailers and the minutes from last month’s Federal Reserve meeting. WTI crude oil futures were up 3% to around $89 a barrel as investors remain anxious about the status of the Iran war after President Trump last night said the U.S. will enact “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” against Iran and any countries that support it. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.71% after pulling back sharply yesterday on news of the Treasury’s debt buyback plans (more on that below). Bitcoin surpassed $72,000 this morning for the first time in over two months following a big jump yesterday. Gold futures were down slightly $4,525 an ounce, still near their highest levels since late May.

Bond Yields Climb After Sinking Yesterday on Treasury Plan

Treasury yields are on the rise again this morning after pulling back sharply in yesterday’s session, thanks to the news that the Treasury Department will step in to buy back a larger amount of longer-dated bonds. Bond yields rise when sales increase, and they picked up earlier this week amid uncertainty over the U.S. economy and the country’s debt, which surpassed the $40 trillion mark for the first time yesterday. The 10-year yield hit its highest point since January 2025 earlier this week, while the 30-year yield surged to its highest point since 2007. Both yields, which affect the interest rates charged on all sorts of loans, were up about 6 basis points recently to 4.71% for the 10-year, and 5.26% for the 30-year yield.

Walmart Stock Drops as Weak Forecast Outweighs Solid Results

Walmart (WMT) shares are falling after the retail giant reported solid quarterly results but issued an outlook that disappointed investors. The nation’s largest retailer said this morning that it earned an adjusted 81 cents per share in the second quarter on a 6% jump in revenue to $187.94 billion. Each metric came in above the Visible Alpha consensus. The retailer said it expects third-quarter sales to rise by 3% to 3.75% year-over-year with adjusted EPS between 62 and 64 cents, both below what analysts were looking for. Walmart rivals Target (TGT) and TJX Companies (TJX) posted solid results yesterday despite fears that inflation driven by the Iran war could negatively affect consumer spending. Walmart shares were down 6% ahead of the opening bell.

Bitcoin Hits $72K For First Time Since June

Bitcoin’s best week in months is rolling along today. After rising 7% yesterday, bitcoin crossed the $72,000 mark today for the first time since early June. Some saw yesterday’s rally as a sign of investors feeling comfortable betting on riskier assets again following the Treasury’s efforts to stabilize bond prices. Bitcoin may have also gotten a boost from President Trump’s latest statement of support for the crypto industry during an event at the White House yesterday attended by crypto and fintech leaders. Several crypto-related stocks are rising alongside bitcoin this morning. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, were up 12% recently. Shares of exchanges Robinhood (HOOD) and Coinbase (COIN), and those of bitcoin miner Mara Holdings (MARA) each gained more than 5%.

Moderna Stock Slides After Rocketing Higher Yesterday

Moderna (MRNA) shares are losing ground this morning after almost tripling in value yesterday. Shares were driven higher by the news that a vaccine for skin cancer patients combining drugs from Moderna and Merck (MRK) was successful at preventing the return of melanoma for a certain amount of time. The drug is one of potential breakthrough cancer treatments being developed by pharmaceutical companies. Getting any new drug approved would help Moderna, whose stock has pulled back sharply in the last several years as demand for its COVID vaccine waned. After soaring 177% Wednesday, Moderna shares were down 8% in recent premarket trading.

Nvidia is set to report earnings after the closing bell next Wednesday
Credit: CFOTO / Future Publishing / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• A gap between institutional ownership and S&P 500 weights in some of America’s biggest tech stocks could signal potential gains ahead, according to Morgan Stanley.
• Nvidia is the most “under-owned” among the tech stocks in the bank’s coverage.
• The AI chipmaker is set to report earnings after the closing bell next Wednesday.

Some of America’s biggest tech stocks have been flashing a bullish signal lately, according to Morgan Stanley. 

A growing gap between institutional ownership of the stocks and their benchmark weights could point to gains ahead, based on the bank’s historical analysis, Morgan Stanley analysts told clients in a note this week. Stocks “appear to experience a technical pull higher when active ownership is much lower than the market, and vice versa,” the analysts wrote. 

For Nvidia (NVDA), which saw its average weighting in institutional portfolios fall below 5% in the second quarter, lagging its close to 8% weight in the benchmark S&P 500 index, that gap is near all-time highs, suggesting room for the stock to rise. 

Nvidia is the most “under-owned” of the mega-cap stocks in the bank’s tech coverage, Morgan Stanley wrote, followed by Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL).

The most “over-owned” stock in the bank’s coverage is Sandisk (SNDK), the flash memory maker that’s seen its stock soar nearly 600% year-to-date, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 for 2026. 

“Institutional positioning in large-cap tech still favors AI [infrastructure] bottlenecks, with relatively high memory/storage and low software ownership,” wrote Morgan Stanley. 

Nvidia is due to report earnings after the closing bell next Wednesday, with the chipmaker at the heart of the AI boom widely expected to deliver strong results. Its stock, which lost 1% Wednesday, has slipped 8% from its May highs after a broader pullback in the AI trade in recent weeks. 

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh attends a press conference in Washington, D.C., the United States, July 29.
Credit: Li Yuanqing / Xinhua via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Fed officials are divided about interest rate policy, with “many” favoring rate hikes if inflation doesn’t cool down soon, according to minutes from the Fed’s July meeting released Wednesday.
• Inflation has stayed stubbornly above the Fed’s goal of a 2% annual rate since the pandemic.
• The Fed might grab fewer headlines in the future, since Fed Chair Kevin Warsh proposed reducing the number of meetings per year from eight to six.

The next few months at the Federal Reserve might bring higher interest rates, delivered over fewer meetings.

That’s according to minutes released Wednesday from the Federal Open Market Committee’s most recent meeting in July, which confirmed the impression from public remarks that a growing number of Fed officials are losing patience with high inflation, and increasingly inclined to raise interest rates to fight it.

The new records also confirmed a story, first reported by the New York Times this month, that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is considering reducing the frequency of Fed meetings to six a year from eight.

What This Means For the Economy

The FOMC minutes confirmed the impression that the Fed isn’t going to wait much longer for inflation to fade on its own, and could help it along by pushing up borrowing costs.

The minutes shed light on the reasoning of members of the Federal Open Market Committee, who voted last month to keep the Fed’s benchmark interest rate unchanged at the 3.5%-3.75% range. Three officials dissented from the majority, voting instead for a quarter-point rate hike to push down inflation that has run above the Fed’s goal of a 2% annual rate of increase for more than five years.

In recent months, tariffs and the Iran war have pushed up prices, keeping inflation stubbornly high, although well below the 40-year high it reached in the aftermath of the pandemic in 2022.

“Many participants assessed that policy tightening would likely be necessary if inflation did not decline,” the minutes said. “Some participants commented that financial conditions might not currently be sufficiently restrictive to facilitate a return of inflation to 2%.”

The report did little to shift expectations in financial markets that the Fed would hike rates by at least a quarter-point before the end of the year, with about a one-in-three chance of a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

The hawks on the committee, however, are unlikely to gain much support unless the next few months of economic data show inflation accelerating from its unexpectedly slow pace in June and July.

“There is a palpable hawkish sentiment brewing in the Committee,” Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a commentary. “But it will take inflation misbehaving to stir this sentiment further. Until then, the Fed will be holding indefinitely.”

Those Fed policy meetings might be fewer and further between in the future.

“The chairman observed that six scheduled meetings per year, held roughly every two months, would allow more information to accumulate between meetings than under current practice and provide policymakers and the staff more time to consider strategic monetary policy issues,” the minutes said.

In his tenure as Fed chair, which began in May, Warsh has sought to decrease the Fed’s role in financial markets by reducing how much it communicates with the public about its decision-making and by reducing the amount of financial assets it holds. Reducing the number of meetings could further decrease the attention the central bank’s decisions receive.

Any change to the Fed’s schedule would take place after 2026, Warsh said, according to the minutes.