Early Look

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

After the narrowest trading range since 2024 for the S&P 500 on Monday (as per Bespoke Invest), U.S. futures are looking flattish again overnight as Wall Street waits for the highlight of the week on Friday, the Jackson Hole FOMC get together to discuss rates, inflation, the economy and their outlook. This morning, shares of Dow component Home Depot (HD) reported Q2 results that just missed consensus estimates but affirmed its yearly outlook. Still other key retailers to report later this week include WMT, TGT and LOW to get a better gauge on the tariff impact. As for Monday, the Dow ended -0.07%, the S&P closed -0.01%, and the Nasdaq ended +0.03% as five of the S&P 500’s 11 segments closed in the green, led by Industrials and Consumer Discretionary while REITs fell the most. Thin trading volumes were also observed to kick off the week as well. The longer-end U.S. 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) edged up 1 bps to 4.33%, and the shorter-end U.S. 2-year Treasury yield also rose 1bps to 3.77%. Looking to the week ahead, attention will center on the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak on Friday. Markets will be closely tuned to Powell’s remarks for any signal on the timing of potential rate cuts, or whether the central bank intends to maintain its cautious stance. In Asia, The Nikkei Index fell -168 points to 43,546, the Shanghai Inde was little changed at 3,727, and the Hang Seng Index slipped -53 points to 25,122. In Europe, the German DAX is up 68 points to 24,383, while the FTSE 100 rises 17 points to 9,175.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -34.30 points, or 0.08%, to 44,911.82
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 6.80 points, or 0.03%, to 21,629.77
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 7.95 points, or 0.35% to 2,294.47

• 8:30 AM ET                  Housing Starts M/M for July…est. 1.29M
• 8:30 AM ET                  Building Permits M/m for July…est. 1.386M
• 8:55 AM ET                  Johnson/Redbook Weekly Sales
• 4:30 PM ET API Weekly Inventory Data

• Earnings After the Close: AUNA EARN FLNT JHX JKHY KEYS LZB SQM TOL ZTO

• Amer Sports (AS) Q2 revenue rises 23% to $1.24b vs. est. $1.18B and EPS $0.06 vs. est. $0,03; raises full-year revenue, margin, and EPS guidance; raises full-year revenue growth guidance to 20-21%, now expects full-year gross margin of approximately 57.5%; sees year EPS $0.77-$0.82 from prior $0.67-$0.72.
• Blink Charging (BLNK) Q2 adj EPS ($0.26) vs est. ($0.18) on revs $28.7Mm vs est. $22.1Mm; says expects to achieve continued sequential revs growth in 2H25.
• China EV insurance registrations for week ending Aug 17: Nio Inc 7,190, Tesla 14,000, Xiaomi 7,170.

• XP Inc. (XP) reported Q2 net profit 1.32B reais vs. est. 1.26B reais; Q2 net revs $4.46B reais vs. $4.5B y/y; Q2 Client Assets rose 14% y/y and 3% q/q to R$1.4 trillion; Q2 net inflow was R$10 billion, and Retail Net Inflow was R$16 billion, 21% lower q/q and 34% lowery/y; Active clients grew 2% y/y and 1% q/q.

• Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA) announced Health Canada has issued a Notice of Compliance with Conditions for Amtagvi (lifileucel), a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy; said expects to authorize first Canadian treatment center within next few months.
• Medtronic (MDT) to add directors after Elliott becomes big shareholder, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company plans to add two new directors and form two new committees after friendly talks with Elliott.
• Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) shares are higher pre mkt after BioMed X and Novo Nordisk (NVO) launch new collaboration in oral peptide drug delivery. @Mufaso7 notes on “X”, $VKTX is up in the premarket today and the reason likely has to do with the NVO/BioMed X collab on oral peptide research. $NVO is clearly worried about oral #VK2735.

• Arm Holdings (ARM) hires Amazon (AMZN) AI chip director Rami Sinno to aid its effort to build in-house chip (exclusive) – Reuters reported.
• Digi International (DGII) announced its acquisition of Jolt Software, Inc., a solutions provider to the convenience store and food and beverage industries, for approximately $145.5M in cash, net of Jolt’s cash and otherwise subject to customary adjustments.
• Fabrinet (FN) Q4 adj EPS $2.65 vs. est. $2.64 on revs $910M vs. est. $884.9M; Q4 adj net income $95.6M in-line with consensus; guides Q1 revs $910M-$950M vs. est. $915.3M and EPS $2.75-$2.90 vs. est. $2.74.
• Japanese investment firm SoftBank Group has held talks with Intel (INTC) on buying the American semiconductor firm’s struggling contract chipmaking business, the Financial Times reported.
• Nvidia (NVDA) is developing a new AI chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture that will be more powerful than the H20 model it is currently allowed to sell there, two people briefed on the matter said, Reuters reported. https://tinyurl.com/4k2zhzv4
• Quantum Corp (QMCO) terminates amended revolving credit agreement; pays $1.2 million early termination fee; said CFO resigned.
• Sinclair Broadcasting (SBGI) offers to merge broadcast TV business with rival Tegna (TGNA), which is in advanced talks on a potential sale to Nexstar Media Group (NXST), a person familiar with the talks told Reuters on Monday. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said that the deal would value Tegna’s shares at around $25 to $30 apiece https://tinyurl.com/d6dyubkt