Opening Comment — Monday, August 10, 2026
DJIA: 54,036.93, up 151.83
S&P 500: 7,757.64, up 47.68
NASDAQ: 26,690.62, up 342.27
Stocks mixed to start off week
Stock futures are mixed Monday morning as investors are looking ahead to this week's key U.S. economic releases, including July Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Wednesday, July Producer Price Index (PPI) data on Thursday, and both July retail sales and the preliminary August University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index on Friday. As of 7:15 AM ET, the Dow is decreasing 0.2%, while the S&P 500 is flat. The Nasdaq 100 is increasing 0.1% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were higher on Friday as July nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly declined by 23,000, following a downward revision to the prior month's data. Average hourly earnings registered smaller-than projected-increases of 0.1% month-over-month and 3.2% year-over-year (YOY). Both the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate eased to 4.1% and 61.4%, respectively. Consumer credit increased by a stronger-than-expected $14.17 billion in June. The Dow was up 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3%. The S&P 500 increased 0.6% and set a new record closing level of 7757.64, with eight of 11 sectors finishing in positive territory. The Materials sector was the top performer, rising 1.5%, while the Energy sector was the bottom performer, falling 1.2%.
Across the pond, European stocks are mostly higher in mid-day trading as Sentix’s measure of eurozone investor confidence improved more than projected to 0.9 in August from -3.1 in July.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mostly higher as China’s headline and core CPI eased to 0.5% YOY and 0.9% YOY, respectively, in July. Meanwhile, the country’s PPI for July decelerated more-than-projected to 3.5% YOY. Japan’s June current account and trade balance both posted deficits on a balance-of-payments basis, compared to the prior month’s surpluses.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is higher ahead of this week’s U.S. inflation data.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 1.5% higher at $79.32/barrel.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.1% lower at $4,338.21/ounce following a strengthening U.S. dollar.