Opening Comment — Wednesday, August 19, 2026
DJIA: 53,343.40, down 116.38
S&P 500: 7,691.76, down 53.30
NASDAQ: 26,289.71, down 355.20
Stocks flat before FOMC minutes
Stock futures are little changed Wednesday morning following selloff in technology stocks and ahead of today’s release of the Federal Reserve's minutes from the July 29 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. As of 7:14 AM ET, the Dow and the S&P 500 Index are both rising 0.1%. The Nasdaq 100 is falling 0.1% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were lower on Tuesday as July import and export prices unexpectedly fell 0.4% and 1.3% month-over-month (MOM), respectively, while rising a softer-than-expected 5.9% and 8.2% year-over-year (YOY), respectively. July’s industrial production showed a smaller-than-projected increase of 0.2% MOM, while capacity utilization rose to 76.3%. Meanwhile, July housing starts declined significantly more than expected, while preliminary building permits rose more than projected. Pending home sales unexpectedly declined 2.3% MOM and 2.5% YOY in July. The Dow was down 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3%. The S&P 500 decreased 0.7% with seven of 11 sectors finishing in negative territory. The Energy sector was the top performer, rising 1.8%, while the Information Technology sector was the bottom performer, falling 1.9%.
On the data front, the Mortgage Banker Association’s gauge of mortgage applications decreased by 0.4% for the week ending August 14 versus the prior week’s increase of 3.6%. The Department of Energy’s measure of crude oil inventories is expected to have increased by 200,000 barrels for the week ending August 14 versus the prior week’s increase of 17.423 million barrels.
Across the pond, European stocks are mostly lower in mid-day trading as the U.K.’s July inflation data largely matched expectations, with the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerating to 0.3% MOM and 2.9% YOY, while core CPI remained steady at 2.6% YOY. Separately, the country’s July Retail Price Index came in slightly lower than projected, while the British House Price Index for June showed an increase of 2.0% YOY. The eurozone's finalized July inflation reading was unchanged from the preliminary reading as expected, with headline CPI rising 0.2% MOM and 2.9% YOY, while core CPI increased 2.5% YOY.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mostly lower following Japan's core machine orders for June rising 9.7% MOM and 16.9% YOY, exceeding expectations. Australia's second quarter Wage Price Index increased 0.8% quarter-over-quarter and 3.2% YOY, matching forecasts.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is little changed ahead of today’s release of the July 29 FOMC meeting minutes.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 1.2% higher at $85.98/barrel.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.8% higher at $4,367.30/ounce following a weakening U.S. dollar.