Records, a Blockade, and a Beat the Market Wouldn't Reward — Week in Review, Aug 10-14, 2026

Five Sessions, Three Distinct Storylines

A geopolitical scare, a disinflation rally, and a consumer-data wobble, in that order. No archived edition exists for Wed Aug 13 (an automation gap); that day's sequence is reconstructed from verified market data plus surrounding reporting.

Mon 8/10

Iran hardens Hormuz terms; Intel's $15B share sale hits chips; SMH −2.3%

Tue 8/11

AppLovin, Oracle, Datadog drag Nasdaq's first distribution day in weeks

Wed 8/13

No archived edition — CPI +0.1% MoM confirmed after the fact; records follow

Thu 8/13

Flat PPI, fresh records; AMAT record Q3; Hormuz tankers attacked

Fri 8/14

Retail sales miss snaps streak; AMAT −5.1%; Reddit +12.6% on S&P entry

The week's through-line

Every calm assumption got re-tested at least once

A contained Hormuz threat became an actual attack. A disinflation rally got undercut by Friday's retail-sales miss. AMAT's record quarter still couldn't hold the stock up, even as Nebius and SanDisk surged 34-48% and 13-22% on their own beats — four AI names, four verdicts. Three "this is fine" stories all cracked, not badly enough to break the week's modest gains.

What actually held up

The index-level tape, barely

SPY closed +0.40%, QQQ +1.11%, despite Monday's chip selloff, Tuesday's software rout, and Friday's consumer wobble — none large enough alone to break the broader uptrend, though each rattled its own corner hard.

Verified closes: SPY $773.26 → $776.34; QQQ $723.03 → $731.07; SMH $582.70 → $587.82. All three gained on the week despite Monday's Hormuz-driven selloff and Friday's retail-sales pullback.

The Week's Biggest Single-Stock Moves Had Almost Nothing in Common

AMAT lost nearly 6% over five sessions despite a record quarter. Broadcom lost about the same in one Friday session on AI-debt and security concerns. Reddit gained almost 13% on mechanical index buying. Nebius and SanDisk outran all three on fundamentals. All verified against real market data.

AMAT, week

−5.93%

AVGO, Fri alone

−5.94%

RDDT, week

+10.06%

RDDT, Fri alone

+12.55%

NBIS, Wed alone

+34.14%

NBIS, week

+47.72%

SNDK, Thu alone

+13.67%

SNDK, Fri alone

+7.39%

Applied Materials headquarters, Santa Clara — Applied Materials — down 5.93% on the week, including a 5.92% drop Monday tied to broader chip-sector selling, then another 5.1% Friday despite Thursday's record quarter. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Reddit — up 10.1% on the week, with essentially the entire gain landing in Friday's single session after S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed its index entry. Logo: Wikimedia Commons.

Week of 8/10

AMAT

AMAT Applied Materials −5.93% on the week

Fell four of five sessions despite record Q3 revenue of $9.12B and above-consensus Q4 guidance. Reuters: institutions trimmed semiconductor exposure in Q2, the likelier driver. $539.14 (Fri 8/7) → $507.18 (Fri 8/14).

Fri 8/14

AVGO

AVGO Broadcom −5.94% Friday, a distinct semis story from AMAT's

A BofA note estimating ~$370B in AI-chip financing debt by 2029, plus an actively-exploited VMware flaw on 361 IPs across 47 countries, drove it — credit/security risk, not rotation. $417.82 (Thu) → $392.99 (Fri).

Fri 8/14

RDDT

RDDT Reddit +12.55% Friday, +10.06% on the week

S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed Reddit joins the S&P 500 Aug 18, replacing AvalonBay — JPMorgan estimates ~16.7M shares of index buying. $158.12 (Thu) → $177.97 (Fri).

Week of 8/10

NBIS

NBIS Nebius Group +47.72% on the week, +34.14% Wednesday alone

The week's biggest percentage move: Q2 revenue $582.3M vs $105.1M a year earlier (+454% YoY), AI Cloud segment +514% YoY, guidance reaffirmed. $187.97 (Fri 8/7) → $259.20 (Wed) → $277.68 (Fri 8/14).

Thu-Fri 8/13-14

SNDK

SNDK SanDisk +13.67% Thursday, +7.39% more Friday

Investor-day guidance of mid-to-high-teens revenue growth through 2030, ~80% gross margins, and new 9th-gen flash tech with Kioxia drew broad analyst approval. $1,344.29 (Wed) → $1,528.11 (Thu) → $1,641.11 (Fri).

Tue 8/11

APP / ORCL

AppLovin −6.0% on a BofA downgrade; Oracle −3.7% on AI-capex doubts

IBD called it the Nasdaq's first real distribution day in weeks. Datadog also fell 5.4% with no clear catalyst found — flagged as unexplained.

Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management

13F filing, disclosed Aug 13, 2026 — an institutional-flows story, not a same-day price mover

Q2 13F showed a rebuilt Netflix stake (3.15M shares, ~4.9% of portfolio), four years after exiting at a $400M+ loss. Stated rationale: "Netflix has since effectively won the streaming wars." Filing also added Visa, Mastercard, Alcon, ICE, and S&P Global.

How this list is built

Every figure is recomputed from verified market data — the daily's Friday-only AMAT figure (−5.1%) and this week's full-week figure (−5.93%) are both accurate, just different windows.
Datadog's Tuesday decline is flagged unexplained per the Aug 12 daily; no new catalyst found on further review.
Nebius and SanDisk moves are independently confirmed against verified closes. Ackman's Netflix position is a 13F disclosure, not a same-day mover.

The Turning Points: Hormuz, Disinflation, and a Consumer Crack

Three storylines drove the week, each resolving differently. Oil's threat became reality. Inflation data confirmed disinflation twice. A single soft retail-sales print undid part of the week's record run on its last day.

Mon Aug 10

HORMUZ

Iran hardens Strait of Hormuz transit conditions; oil jumps ~3%

Iran's foreign minister ruled out direct US talks and toughened reopening terms, per Al Jazeera/CNBC — the standoff that escalated into an actual tanker attack by Thursday.

Wed Aug 12

CPI

US CPI (Jul): +0.1% MoM, +3.4% YoY, matching estimates

WSJ: "Cool Inflation Data Propels Stocks to Fresh Records." Core CPI held at 2.5%; the week's disinflation narrative began here.

Thu Aug 13

PPI / HORMUZ

Flat PPI sends SPY, QQQ to fresh records; two ADNOC tankers attacked transiting Hormuz High vol

A second cool print confirmed disinflation; separately, the UAE reported two tankers attacked — oil's standing threat became active. AMAT also reported record Q3 results after the close.

Fri Aug 14

RETL

Retail Sales (Jul): −0.6% MoM vs +0.1% est., sharpest drop since May 2025 High vol

WSJ: vehicle sales fell 1.8%, online purchases fell 2.2%; some reflects Prime Day's shifted timing. Enough to knock SPY and QQQ off Thursday's records, though both still closed the week higher.

Wed-Fri Aug 12-14

NBIS / SNDK

AI-infrastructure names split into two camps this week — beats got punished, guidance got rewarded

Nebius surged 34.14% Wednesday on a 454%-YoY revenue beat; SanDisk gained 13.67% Thursday and 7.39% Friday on bullish investor-day targets. Both moved opposite AMAT (down despite a beat) and Broadcom (down on debt/security concerns) — one theme, four outcomes.

Next week

FOMC

July FOMC meeting minutes; US Manufacturing PMI

The minutes must reconcile two cool inflation prints against Friday's weak consumer data — the next test of the soft-landing case.

Flagged — unverified or single-sourced

The Hormuz tanker attack is reported via the UAE government's account and US/Reuters coverage; Iran has not corroborated or denied it.
Some of Friday's retail-sales drop reflects Prime Day's shifted timing rather than a clean demand read, per WSJ's caveat.
No archived edition exists for Wed Aug 13 due to an automation failure; Wednesday's CPI and reaction are drawn from Thursday's retrospective confirmation plus verified market data.

Technical Picture Heading Into Next Week

SMH holds just below its 50-day average after Friday's AMAT pullback. Oil's breakout is technically confirmed, not headline-only. Gold's rally cooled from a stretched reading without reversing.

SMH · VanEck Semiconductor ETF

Daily, 6 months · MA50/200, RSI(14), MACD(12,26,9)

Close $587.82

Up 0.88% on the week despite Monday's 2.83% drop. 0.62% below its 50-day average of $591.49; RSI 54.1, MACD histogram near flat at +5.46 — a pause, not a reversal.

USO · United States Oil Fund

Daily, 6 months · MA50/200, RSI(14), MACD(12,26,9)

Close $126.60

Up 7.31% on the week, strongest since April. 5.2% above its 50-day average of $120.35; RSI 53.8, MACD histogram turned positive (+0.18 from +0.08) — showing up technically, not just headlines.

GLD · SPDR Gold Shares

Daily, 6 months · MA50/200, RSI(14), MACD(12,26,9)

Close $401.48

Up 0.76% on the week, quieter than early August's breakout. 5.3% above its 50-day average of $381.30; RSI 63.2 remains the week's most stretched reading.

What's constructive

SPY, QQQ, SMH all closed the week higher despite three separate shocks — resilience, not just calm

Oil's rally is now technically confirmed by RSI and MACD, not just a headline spike

Two consecutive cool prints (CPI, PPI) keep the disinflation case intact into the FOMC minutes

What to watch

SMH sits just below its 50-day average — a close below tests the post-July recovery

Friday's miss is a single data point; a second weak print next week turns a wobble into a trend

Gold's RSI at 63.2 is stretched enough that a hawkish minutes surprise could trigger a sharper pullback

Where This Leaves the Week Ahead

Friday's retail-sales miss proves durable

The consumer crack widens instead of closing

If next week's data confirms Friday's miss wasn't just a Prime Day quirk, the soft-landing case needs a genuine growth scare added — a harder problem for the Fed, and one that would likely pressure SMH and the broader tape.

Read-through: SPY tests $770, SMH breaks below its 50-day average, GLD extends its stretched rally.

FOMC minutes confirm the "hold" consensus

The week's wobbles get read as noise, not a new trend

If next week's minutes show a Fed comfortable with the data mix, Monday's chip selloff, Tuesday's software rout, and Friday's retail-sales dip likely prove one-off events — the week absorbed all three and still closed higher.

Read-through: SPY and QQQ reclaim Thursday's records, SMH holds its 50-day average, oil's gains hold if Hormuz stays contained.

Base case

A week that survived a Hormuz escalation, two software selloffs, and a weak retail-sales print still closed with every major index higher — resilience the FOMC minutes will now be asked to justify.

Equities: SPY (+0.40%), QQQ (+1.11%), SMH (+0.88%) all gained despite Monday's chip selloff, Tuesday's software rout, and Friday's pullback. AMAT fell 5.93% despite a record quarter; Reddit gained 10.06% on mechanical index buying. Nebius (+47.72%) and SanDisk (+22.1% Thu-Fri) show AI-infrastructure still working on clean guidance — the market punished AMAT's valuation, not the theme. Separately, Pershing Square's 13F disclosed a rebuilt Netflix stake, part of a rotation into Visa, Mastercard, and other quality names.

Commodities: oil rose 7.31% as a standing Hormuz threat became an active tanker attack by Thursday — the week's clearest macro move. Gold and silver posted steadier gains of 0.76% and 1.70%, quieter than early August's breakout.

FX & rates: the yen weakened modestly, USD/JPY up roughly 1%, still approaching but not clearing ¥160 with Japan on intervention watch per Bloomberg. Two cool inflation prints kept the rate-path debate alive into next week's FOMC minutes.

The wildcard: whether Friday's miss was a Prime Day quirk or the first crack in the soft-landing case. AMAT's selloff despite a beat suggests AI-adjacent valuations are the more fragile story — FOMC minutes are the next test.

Records, a Blockade, and a Beat the Market Wouldn't Reward — the Week Wall Street Kept Re-Testing Its Own Calm.