Weekly Market Recap | Aug 10 – Aug 16

Analyst Highlights

• Fed expectations remain a key market catalyst: Cooling inflation strengthened expectations for steady September rates, helping support equities despite signs of softer economic growth.
• Consumer weakness deserves attention: Falling retail sales and weaker sentiment suggest household demand may be slowing even as major US equity indices remain near records.
• Energy remains an important inflation risk: Rising oil prices show Hormuz tensions could quickly feed into inflation expectations and complicate the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook.
• AI investment is supporting valuations but raising financing questions: Stronger monetization is encouraging investors, while expanding infrastructure debt is attracting greater scrutiny.
• Long-term rates remain a pressure point: Elevated Treasury yields reflect persistent borrowing and inflation concerns despite softer short-term rate expectations.

IPO’s in the week

• Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII, NYSE) — began trading August 13 after pricing 8 million shares at $25.00 each.
• Thunder Bridge Capital Partners V (TBCVU, Nasdaq) — began trading August 13 after pricing its SPAC units at $10.00 each.
• Londian Wason New Energy Tech (FOIL, NYSE) — began trading August 12 after pricing shares at $22.00 each.
• SunScout Holding Limited (SNSC, NYSE American) — began trading August 12 after pricing its initial public offering at $5.00 per share.
• Vogenx, Inc. (VOGX, Nasdaq) — began trading August 12 after pricing its initial public offering at $13.00 per share.

Markets Weekly

1. S&P 500 closed at 7,785.76, rising 28.12 points, or 0.36%, for the week.
2. Russell 1000 closed at 4,245.65, rising 19.87 points, or 0.47%, for the week.
3. Russell 2000 closed at 3,068.42, rising 33.93 points, or 1.12%, for the week.
4. Russell 3000 closed at 4,433.85, rising 22.98 points, or 0.52%, for the week.
5. CBOE (VIX) closed at 14.25, falling 1.21 points, or 7.83%, for the week.
6. Dow Jones closed at 53,732.41, falling 304.52 points, or 0.56%, for the week.
7. NASDAQ Composite closed at 26,729.16, rising 38.54 points, or 0.14%, for the week.
8. Bitcoin closed at $62,818.65, falling $2,026.24, or 3.12%, for the week.
9. Ethereum closed at $1,873.94, falling $34.74, or 1.82%, for the week.
10. Solana closed at $74.54, falling $1.41, or 1.86%, for the week.
11. XRP closed at $0.9920, falling $0.0195, or 1.93%, for the week.
12. Gold closed at $4,380.40, rising $39.70, or 0.91%, for the week.
13. Silver closed at $64.99, rising $1.658, or 2.62%, for the week.
14. WTI Crude closed at $82.40, rising $4.22, or 5.40%, for the week.
15. Brent Crude closed at $88.52, rising $4.97, or 5.95%, for the week.

• S&P 500 posted a third straight weekly gain, hitting fresh records as cooling inflation reduced expectations for a September Fed rate hike.
• US retail sales fell 0.6% in July and consumer sentiment weakened, raising concerns that economic growth is losing momentum.
• JPMorgan raised its S&P 500 target to 8,000, citing resilient earnings and improving monetization of heavy AI investment.
• Brent surged nearly 6% for the week as Hormuz tensions intensified and hopes for a quick US-Iran agreement faded.
• Gold remained near two-month highs as softer inflation, lower rate expectations and geopolitical uncertainty supported demand for defensive assets.
• 30-year Treasury yields stayed near multi-decade highs as federal borrowing and inflation concerns kept pressure on longer-term rates.
• AI infrastructure financing drew scrutiny as massive borrowing plans increased investor concerns over debt supporting the sector’s rapid expansion.

Politics Weekly

• US intensified economic pressure on Iran as Trump hardened demands, dimming hopes for a quick Hormuz agreement despite ongoing Oman-mediated negotiations.
• Canada and the US raced toward an August 19 trade deadline as threatened 50% tariffs increased pressure for a preliminary agreement.
• Putin signaled readiness to meet US envoys Witkoff and Kushner, reviving diplomatic efforts after months of stalled Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
• NATO jets shot down a foreign drone over Latvia, raising concerns that Russia’s war could increasingly spill into alliance airspace.
• Trump asked the Pentagon to reduce military exercises with South Korea, raising fresh questions over Washington’s regional defense posture.
• US-China tensions increased as Beijing tightened control around Scarborough Shoal, intensifying concerns over its territorial dispute with the Philippines.

Technology Advancements in the week

• Anthropic’s second-quarter revenue surged more than 14-fold to $11.5 billion, strengthening its position ahead of a planned IPO.
• Nvidia released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Nemo Switchyard, targeting lower-cost enterprise AI with compact open models and intelligent task routing.
• Meta released Muse Glimmer, an open-weight model optimized for always-on local AI agents and continuous enterprise workflows.
• Anthropic formed Theseus Infrastructure with Macquarie and GIC to build US AI data centers, expanding long-term computing capacity.
• Nvidia partnered with major Wall Street firms to mobilize over $500 billion for AI compute infrastructure and chip financing.

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