Quick Hits

• Equities are defying the bond market. Treasury yields sit at multiyear highs, yet the S&P 500 keeps notching fresh records — and LPL Financial says the relationship between bond yields and stocks has turned negative again. The index is up ~14% YTD; per Motley Fool, finishing 2026 higher would make four straight double-digit years, something that's happened only once before in history.
• Reddit (RDDT) is joining the S&P 500 after months of snubs and speculation, sending shares on an after-hours rally Thursday.
• Sandisk (SNDK) has rebounded nearly 35% this week — more than 60% above its recent low — after issuing revenue-growth forecasts stretching to the end of the decade, triggering a wave of Wall Street target hikes.
• "Batten down the hatches": CrossBorder Capital strategist Mike Howell argues global liquidity has peaked, recommending defensive positioning, inflation hedges, gold, and commodities.
• Bad news for retirees: the first of three inflation readings that determine the 2027 Social Security COLA is out, and the projected adjustment has been downgraded.

Markets Overview

The defining tension of the week: yields at multiyear highs and stocks at fresh records at the same time, with LPL Financial noting the stock-yield correlation has flipped negative again and asking how long the defiance can last.

The eerie breadth signal known as the "Hindenburg Omen" keeps flashing, though MarketWatch flags it as one of Wall Street's more controversial indicators rather than a reliable crash call.

Sentiment is oddly fractured. A heavily upvoted r/stocks thread points out the market hit an all-time high this week even as posters talk about a "crash" — the poster's theory: too many retail investors are overbought in AI and tech.

Motley Fool also pushed back on President Trump's claim that the market will double by the end of his term, noting that while Dow returns were outsize in his first term, history doesn't support the projection.

Earnings Reports

• Sandisk (SNDK) was the standout: revenue-growth forecasts to the end of the decade, a pledge to sustain high profitability, and a stock up ~35% for the week and 60%-plus from its recent low as analysts raised targets.
• Dell (DELL) has roughly quadrupled this year — beating both Micron (MU) and AMD (AMD) — and added to gains after Lenovo's earnings report fueled fresh momentum for the PC and server maker.
• Heartflow (HTFL) soared Friday after the coronary-disease diagnostics firm boosted its full-year revenue targets.
• Gemini Space Station (GEMI) plummeted after the crypto trading platform's Q2 results came in well short of expectations.

Fed & Economic Data

The September Fed conversation has shifted toward whether a rate hike is still on the table. Motley Fool notes the odds of a September hike have fallen — but warns one "sinister" inflation metric remains problematic even as corporate earnings dominate headlines.

Sticky yields are the puzzle: despite two weeks of softer data — weak ADP and NFP hiring, CPI in line with expectations — Treasury yields remain elevated, a disconnect troubling traders on r/stocks.

The bigger macro warning comes from CrossBorder Capital's Mike Howell, who argues global liquidity has already peaked and investors should allocate defensively, hedge inflation, and rotate toward gold and commodities.

For households, the July inflation print doubled as the first of three readings (July–September) that set the 2027 Social Security COLA — and it tracked toward a smaller raise, with Motley Fool adding the adjustment may disappoint beneficiaries no matter what the next two prints show.

Hot Sectors

AI, bifurcated. After a recent selloff in AI-linked names, BofA analysts published 16 beaten-down AI stocks they love across hardware, internet, and energy. The dislocation is real: Micron (MU) trades below $920 against a ~$1,250 52-week high even as Wall Street's average one-year target sits at $1,500, and Oracle (ORCL) has fallen from $248.28 to roughly $154 over the past year — a $10,000 investment now worth about $6,300 with dividends. Fool's SK Hynix vs. Monday.com comparison frames the sector choice as AI hardware versus enterprise software.

Nuclear, hot but thin. NuScale (SMR) carries a ~$4.2 billion market value on just $10.7 million in trailing sales — a gap Fool cautions against, noting the last U.S. nuclear boom applied to build 26 reactors and finished two. Oklo (OKLO), meanwhile, has been a winner since its SPAC debut.

Stock News

• Reddit (RDDT): the S&P 500 inclusion is official after past snubs, though analysts flagged concerns alongside the after-hours rally.
• Salesforce (CRM) got a boost as J.P. Morgan called AI-disruption fears overblown, predicting 29% upside on promising AI features.
• Wendy's (WEN) is surging on buyout talk — and Motley Fool read the Form 4 tea leaves so you don't have to: insider sales by president E.J. Wunsch (18,826 shares) and CIO Matthew Spessard (7,487 shares) reflected tax-related vesting, not signal.
• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B): new CEO Greg Abel likely made his first big acquisition as boss — a $6.8 billion deal that Fool suggests could be good news for homebuilder exposure via the XHB ETF.

Market Analysis

The central question into September: how long can equities ignore the bond market? LPL's read is that the yield-stock relationship has broken negative again — historically a fragile condition for record highs.

Watch items: the August and September CPI prints (they set both the 2027 COLA and the Fed's September calculus, with hike odds still live), whether Treasury yields finally respond to softening data, and the crosscurrent of bearish technicals (the flashing Hindenburg Omen) versus macro warnings (Howell's liquidity peak). For the defensive-minded, Howell's playbook — gold, commodities, inflation hedges — is the most explicit positioning call of the day.