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Investors pull back
Investors pull back from tech, Trump's war on the Fed is escalating, retailers split on holiday prospects, Meta puts the brakes on AI talent spending spree, Palantir mints billions for struggling shorts...
Market Briefing
August 21, 2025
Good morning.
The Fast Five → Investors pull back from tech, Trump's war on the Fed is escalating, retailers split on holiday prospects, Meta puts the brakes on AI talent spending spree, Palantir mints billions for struggling shorts…
📌 Forget generative AI. Jensen Huang — CEO of NVIDIA — believes THIS breakthrough tech is "the next multi-trillion-dollar industry". Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel all have positions… And Elon Musk even said:"If you've got [this technology] there is no meaningful limit to the size of the economy." And there's still a small window of time to get in at the ground floor. See why billionaires are betting on this tech here. (ad)
Calendar: (all times ET) - Full Calendar
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Your 5-minute briefing for Thursday, Aug 21:
BEFORE THE OPEN
As of market close 8/20/2025.
Pre-Market:
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US Investor % Bullish Sentiment:
↓ 29.88% for Week of AUG 14 2025
Previous week: 34.87%
Market Wrap:
Futures flat after S&P’s 4-day slide
Tech led losses: Amazon, Apple, Alphabet -1%+, Intel -7%
Nvidia swung -3%, closed near flat
Fed minutes showed inflation/labor worries; rare dual dissent since ’93
Tomorrow: Powell’s Jackson Hole speech eyed for rate path signals
Today: Walmart earnings, jobless claims, housing data due
EARNINGS
Here’s what we’re watching this week:
Today: Ross Stores $ROST ( ▲ 0.93% ), Workday $WDAY ( ▼ 2.59% )
Walmart $WMT ( ▼ 1.04% ): earnings of 74 cents per share (+10.4% YoY) on revenue of $174.2 billion (+3.8% YoY)
FRI: BJ’s Wholesale $BJ ( ▼ 8.53% )
Trump’s $12 Trillion Trade War Nuke
If you thought the trade war was over…
Think again.
It looks like Trump is about to drop his final economic superweapon.
It's got nothing to do with tariffs…
But it could cause a $12 trillion market megashift…
And those who are positioned in time could pocket once-in-a-lifetime gains.
HEADLINES
Tech stocks fell for a second day on Wed. as investors sold off a slew of tech names amid concerns over the sustainability of the AI boom and a recent market rotation away from some of this year's biggest winners.
Palantir’s six-session losing streak has wiped out $73 billion in market value, handing a rare win to short sellers who are getting pounded after betting against this year’s Wall Street juggernaut.
Nasdaq, S&P end lower as investors sell tech, buy less pricey sectors (more)
Trump's war on the Fed is escalating (more)
Fed minutes show a growing disagreement over rate cuts (more)
US retailers split on holiday prospects amid consumer caution (more)
Dollar drifts as investors ponder Fed independence ahead of Powell speech (more)
Oil prices gain as US inventory withdrawals point to strong demand (more)
Meta puts the brakes on its massive AI talent spending spree (more)
Oracle rides major deals with OpenAI, Nvidia to turn around cloud business (more)
Target stock slumps after retailer names insider Fiddelke to CEO role (more)
OpenAI logged its first $1 billion month but is still ‘constantly under compute’ (more)
Sony hikes PlayStation 5 prices in US as tariff uncertainty weighs (more)
Frustrated hedge fund investors push back on sky-high fees (more)
DEALFLOW
M+A | Investments
Lowe’s to acquire Foundation Building Materials for $8.8B
Dayforce in advanced talks for $11.2B buyout
Fashion brand Guess agreed to a $1.4B take-private deal
VC
Group14 Technologies, an advanced silicon battery materials company, raised $463M in Series D funding
FieldAI, a physical AI and robotic autonomy company, raised over $400M in funding across two consecutive rounds
Overhaul, an in‑transit supply chain risk management company, raised $105M in Series C equity funding
TinyFish, a web agent infrastructure company, raised $47M in funding
Bluefish, an AI marketing platform for the Fortune 500, raised $20M in Series A funding
SynergySuite, an AI-powered back-of-house platform built for restaurant operators, raised $12M in funding
Cascala Health, a healthcare tech company, raised $8.6M in Seed funding—bringing its total funding to $11.23M since mid‑2024
OneCrew, a purpose‑built platform for paving contractors, raised $7.5M in Series A funding
CRYPTO
BULLISH BITES
💸 Why Trump tariff inflation is arriving slowly.
🤖 Survey says: Americans fear AI permanently displacing workers.
🎉 Dubai Hotel turns party culture and virality into big business.
🤓 Vacations for the nerd in you.
DAILY SHARES
Type of shirt the worst investor on your team would wear
— High Yield Harry (@HighyieldHarry)
11:16 PM • Aug 20, 2025
august is the sunday of months
— sophie (@netcapgirl)
6:54 PM • Aug 20, 2025
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