Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq slip as Treasury yields rise, US-Iran tensions remain in focus

LIVE Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq slip as Treasury yields rise, US-Iran tensions remain in focus Grace O'Donnell · Editor, Special Projects Updated Mon, August 17, 2026 at 7:02 PM GMT+2 1 min read US stocks moved lower on Monday afternoon as investors weighed the Federal Reserve's next policy move and awaited a slate of retail earnings this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) declined 0. 4%, while the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) fell 0.

1% after the benchmark index posted its third straight weekly gain. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) slipped below the flat line following a relatively calm week on Wall Street . Investor attention turns toward retail earnings and oil prices this week, with fewer market-moving economic data releases on the calendar.

Big-box stores, including Walmart ( WMT ), Target ( TGT ), Lowe's ( LOW ), and Home Depot ( HD ), report quarterly results this week, providing insights into consumer health during the important back-to-school shopping season. Traders, meanwhile, pulled back the odds of a September rate hike at the  Fed's Jackson Hole meeting  to less than one-third, as inflation and jobs data have created a mixed economic picture. Oil prices remain a key factor for markets and the Fed as the US takes an economic approach to the war in the Middle East.

Brent crude ( BZ=F ) futures, the international benchmark, edged up to $89 per barrel on Monday. At the same time, financial markets have tightened, with the 10-year ( ^TNX ) and 30-year ( ^TYX ) Treasury yields extending their gains amid concerns about growing national debt. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes, released on Wednesday, could offer more clues into the Fed officials' thinking.

LIVE 11 updates 44 mins ago Jared Blikre SpaceX's biggest investors are finally visible — just as millions more shares unlock The curtain is finally lifting on who owns SpaceX ( SPCX ), and the stock is surging over 5% Monday. More than 1,500 investors disclosed stakes, but only 23 account for over 80% of the reported shares. Just 23 managers with positions of 10 million shares or more account for 83% of reported shares.

· Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance The concentration is even more striking at the other end. Nearly 1,340 investors reported positions of fewer than 100,000 shares, yet together they own less than 1% of the shares in the filings. Those disclosures offer the first broad look at SpaceX ownership since the company went public on June 12.

Large investment managers are required to report their US stock holdings every quarter, and the latest batch includes some familiar names with enormous positions. Alphabet ( GOOGL , GOOG ) leads the pack with more than 551 million shares, while Fidelity reported more than 302 million. Gigafund, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Nvidia ( NVDA ) each disclosed more than 100 million.

Read more. Today at 4:26 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Oil rises as US-Iran MOU expires, Trump threatens Oman Oil prices rose on Monday as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran expired and a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was prepared to shift policy to “fully offensive. ” Progress on a deal to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz waterway, which previously facilitated shipping for a fifth of the world’s oil, has stalled in recent weeks.

And with the expiration of the MOU, Iran could pursue tolls in the strait . Meanwhile, President Trump, who has pivoted US policy in the region to focus on economic pressure on Iran, threatened Oman on Monday as the country is reportedly working with Iran on a deal to assert control over the waterway. "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s*** out of them," President Trump told Fox News , as Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reported.

Brent crude ( BZ=F ), the international benchmark, traded up by 0. 4% to nearly $89 per barrel, while WTI crude ( CL=F ), the US benchmark, was little changed at $82 per barrel. Read more.

Today at 3:03 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Chip stocks rise after Anthropic Q2 revenue reportedly surges 14-fold Semiconductor stocks are gaining amid a subdued summer trading day in markets. The iShares Semiconductor ETF ( SOXX ) rose by over 2. 4% as shares of Nvidia ( NVDA ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), and Micron ( MU ), among other chipmakers, climbed.

Micron was the standout of that group, jumping over 5% above the $1,000 mark again for the first time since July. The strength in chip names came after Bloomberg reported that AI startup Anthropic’s ( ANTH. PVT ) preliminary quarterly revenue jumped to $11.

5 billion, 14 times last year’s revenue figure. That bullish signal on AI demand boosted the artificial intelligence trade, particularly for those companies that could benefit from increasing AI capital expenditures. Today at 1:54 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Goldman Sachs warns of consumer spending slowdown as tax refund boost fades Goldman Sachs economists warned that the recent US consumer spending resilience may be put to the test in the coming months.

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports: Sales among consumer-facing companies rose at a healthy pace in the second quarter, Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a new note. Powered by higher-than-planned tax refunds, second quarter sales at consumer companies rose 5. 9% year over year among the median S&P 500 consumer discretionary company and 3.

9% for the median consumer staples company. The strength in consumer spending was broad-based, with same-store sales — a key metric for retailers — accelerating for companies serving both lower- and higher-income consumers. Clouds are on the horizon, though.

"We expect sluggish consumer spending growth ahead," Hatzius wrote. "Although Friday's drop in July retail sales partly reflected the negative impact of an earlier-than-usual Amazon Prime day, the revised sequential path now looks much more consistent with our view that the strength of real consumer spending in the spring was the temporary byproduct of the tax refund surge. We expect real consumer spending growth to slow to 1-1.

5% in the second half as real cash flow stagnates. " Read more. The consumer cash drain.

· Yahoo Finance Today at 1:36 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Stocks open mixed as tech leads Stocks were mixed at the open as Treasury yields and oil rose and few major catalysts were on the calendar this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) declined 0. 3% at the open, while the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) was little changed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) edged up 0. 1%. Tech was the lone S&P 500 sector in the green at the start of trading.

AlphaSpace heat map The 10-year yield ( ^TNX ) rose 1 basis point to 4. 71%, while the 30-year yield ( ^TYX ) added 2 basis points to 5. 28%.

Oil prices moved slightly higher in morning trading. International benchmark Brent crude futures ( BZ=F ) traded at $88 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures ( CL=F ), the US benchmark, stood at $82 per barrel. Today at 1:18 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Gold extends gain as BofA calls the precious metal the 'best hedge against dollar debasement' Gold ( GC=F ) continued to advance on Monday as long-dated Treasury yields surged amid concerns over the growing national debt, while traders pared back bets of a Fed rate hike in September.

Futures on the precious metal edged higher to $4,442 per troy ounce and are up nearly 11% over the past month. Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett said gold remains the “best hedge against dollar debasement, bond collapse, asset inflation, capitalist populism vs socialist populism politics of 2020s," per Investing. com.

Hartnett stated that the trade is “long gold” after BofA's weekly flows data showed that gold funds attracted $6. 3 billion last week, the largest weekly inflow since January. Read more.

Today at 11:56 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Micron stock heats up again, crossing $1,000 The momentum has returned to one of 2026's hottest AI trades, Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi highlights. He writes: Shares of Micron ( MU ) crossed the psychologically important $1,000 level in premarket trading on Monday. The stock hasn't traded at or above this price since July 6, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.

From that date, shares lost 25% through July 29 amid a broader pullback in momentum AI names on overvaluation fears. The stock has since rallied from these lows by 36%. Shares are up 240% year to date.

Read more about what’s driving Micron’s momentum. Today at 11:00 AM UTC Jared Blikre Markets just flipped the script on Kevin Warsh's Fed Only two weeks ago, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said markets had done " quite a bit " of the Fed's tightening. Wall Street has since taken it all back — and then some.

A gauge of US market conditions published by Bloomberg rose Thursday to its easiest level since 1996, capping a remarkable reversal from late July. Markets have pushed financial conditions to a 30-year extreme even as the Fed holds rates steady and longterm borrowing costs remain high. · Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance "Financial conditions" is Wall Street shorthand for how easy or hard markets are making it to take risk and raise money.

Rising stocks, calmer markets, and cheaper corporate borrowing make them easier. Falling stocks and rising borrowing costs tighten the screws. The index in the chart is especially geared toward those market signals, so this isn't saying mortgages or credit cards are suddenly cheap.

It's saying Wall Street itself is unusually loose. Read more. Today at 10:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell US 20-year bond sale to test demand as yield curve steepens Bloomberg reports: The sale of 20-year government bonds this week will test investor appetite for long-term debt following a few record-breaking auctions.

The Treasury Department is slated to sell $16 billion of 20-year debt on Wednesday. In the when-issued market, where securities are traded before an auction, the new bonds were indicating at a yield of around 5. 27% as of Friday.

If realized, that would mark the highest yield for the tenor since it was reintroduced in 2020, revealing investors are demanding a higher payout to buy the debt amid concerns over inflation and government spending. Last week, reports on consumer and producer prices fell within market expectations, prompting traders to pare wagers on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in September. Yields for short-term debt — which are most sensitive to monetary policy — declined as long-term bond yields rose, mirroring investors' increased compensation demands to finance the nation's growing deficit.

Yields on the 20-year bond traded around 5. 25% on Friday as the yield curve steepened. Read more.

Today at 9:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Good morning. Here's what's happening today. Economic data: Empire manufacturing, August (10 expected, 15.

6 previously); NAHB housing market index, August (33 expected, 34 previously) Earnings calendar: BHP Group ( BHP ) Catch up on some top stories from over the weekend: Markets just flipped the script on Kevin Warsh's Fed As jobs disappear, could economic mobility be for sale? Why Medicare Advantage providers are cutting plans Anthropic CEO says AI backlash is ‘fundamentally a crisis of trust’ 20 reasons why Wendy's may be doomed Skyrocketing beef prices have Americans reaching their limit Today at 8:00 AM UTC Ines Ferré 'Spending is leading to earnings': Wall Street strategists see payoff from Big Tech's AI investment With stocks back at all-time highs, Wall Street strategists see signs that all that spending on AI is starting to pay off — at least for the megacap hyperscalers and their booming cloud businesses. "We are seeing signs that the spending is leading to earnings," Keith Lerner, chief investment officer at Truist, told Yahoo Finance.

JPMorgan analysts lifted their price target on the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) to 8,000 from 7,800 last week, citing not only strong earnings and upward guidance revisions but also strong demand for cloud, in which companies rent computing power and storage. … Although free cash flow is expected to remain negative in FY27 for most hyperscalers, the business they have lined up is growing faster than their spending, a sign that demand is starting to catch up with all that capital expenditure, said JPMorgan strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas. "This suggests that monetization may start ramping faster than spending, which should support stronger future revenue growth and further alleviate concerns about return on invested capital," the analyst said.

Read more.