S&P 500 — daily market movers
Macro backdrop
A risk-off close that capped a solid August. The S&P 500 fell 0.33% to 7,686.14, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.12% to 26,370.89 and the Dow dropped 0.70% (374 points) to 53,185.90, yet all three finished August higher (S&P +2.6%, Nasdaq +3.9%, Dow ~+1%). The session was driven by a fresh round of U.S.-Iran military exchanges: U.S. Central Command confirmed a strike on rocket launchers on Iran's Larak Island and Iranian state media reported retaliatory attacks on U.S. bases in Jordan, sending crude up more than 3% with Brent topping $91. Higher energy costs fed inflation fears and pushed the 10-year Treasury yield to roughly 4.76%, the highest since January 2025, with markets now pricing better than even odds of a 25bp Fed hike in September after Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole remarks. Ten of eleven sectors fell; energy and consumer defensives were the exceptions, while utilities were hit by a California wildfire-liability shock and industrials and basic materials lagged.
Top 10 gainers
| # | Ticker | Company / business | Change | Likely Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CRWD | CrowdStrike Holdings Cloud-native endpoint and cloud security platform built around the Falcon agent | +5.77% | Hit an all-time high on day one of its Fal.Con 2026 conference, launching Falcon IQ (agentic AI security built on NVIDIA Nemotron) plus Google Cloud, Snowflake, Cognizant and CLEAR partnerships. |
| 2 | TSLA | Tesla Electric vehicles, energy storage, plus self-driving software and humanoid robotics | +5.51% | Closed at $367.95 on 60.9m shares (about 46% above its three-month average) as investors positioned for the Sept. 3 Cybercab event and digested confirmation that Optimus has entered production at Fremont. |
| 3 | SNDK | SanDisk NAND flash memory chips, SSDs and consumer storage products | +5.50% | No standalone catalyst identified on the day; the move looks like a rebound across the AI-memory complex after roughly a 20% pullback earlier in August, with Micron also higher. |
| 4 | COIN | Coinbase Global Crypto exchange earning trading fees, custody and stablecoin revenue | +5.31% | Crypto-linked equities firmed after Strategy said it had resumed bitcoin purchases, with Goldman Sachs reiterating a Buy rating; Coinbase typically amplifies bitcoin moves in both directions. |
| 5 | SLB | SLB (Schlumberger) World's largest oilfield services provider: drilling, reservoir and production technology | +4.83% | Best performer in a strong energy tape as Brent topped $91 on the U.S.-Iran strikes, and separately agreed to acquire Kelvion from Apollo for about $3.4bn cash ($4.1bn enterprise value), pushing into data-centre cooling. |
| 6 | DE | Deere & Company Agricultural, construction and forestry machinery, plus precision-farming technology and equipment financing | +3.90% | Baird's Mircea Dobre upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral and raised his target to $800 from $640, arguing rising corn and soy prices point to a North American farm-equipment recovery. |
| 7 | QCOM | Qualcomm Smartphone processors and wireless patent licensing, expanding into PC and data-center chips | +3.83% | AI announcements — the Horizon Ultra AI PC with HUMAIN, and Adobe shifting regional AI workloads onto Qualcomm-accelerated HUMAIN infrastructure — reinforced the non-handset story; BofA kept a Buy. |
| 8 | ULTA | Ulta Beauty US specialty beauty retailer selling cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and salon services | +3.79% | Buyers reversed Friday's roughly 4% post-earnings fade after Q2 EPS of $6.55 beat the $6.20 consensus on 8.9% revenue growth and management raised full-year guidance; e.l.f. Beauty rallied alongside it. |
| 9 | CF | CF Industries Holdings Nitrogen fertilizer producer: ammonia, granular urea and UAN from natural gas | +3.37% | No confirmed single-stock catalyst; the move likely reflects the same crop-price-driven agriculture read-through that lifted Deere, plus Middle East escalation tightening an already constrained global nitrogen market. |
| 10 | FFIV | F5 Application delivery controllers and multi-cloud app and API security software | +3.27% | No standalone news found; F5 appears to have traded in sympathy with the cybersecurity group on CrowdStrike's Fal.Con day, with Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks also up around 3%. |
- 1. CRWD+5.77%CrowdStrike HoldingsCloud-native endpoint and cloud security platform built around the Falcon agentHit an all-time high on day one of its Fal.Con 2026 conference, launching Falcon IQ (agentic AI security built on NVIDIA Nemotron) plus Google Cloud, Snowflake, Cognizant and CLEAR partnerships.
- 2. TSLA+5.51%TeslaElectric vehicles, energy storage, plus self-driving software and humanoid roboticsClosed at $367.95 on 60.9m shares (about 46% above its three-month average) as investors positioned for the Sept. 3 Cybercab event and digested confirmation that Optimus has entered production at Fremont.
- 3. SNDK+5.50%SanDiskNAND flash memory chips, SSDs and consumer storage productsNo standalone catalyst identified on the day; the move looks like a rebound across the AI-memory complex after roughly a 20% pullback earlier in August, with Micron also higher.
- 4. COIN+5.31%Coinbase GlobalCrypto exchange earning trading fees, custody and stablecoin revenueCrypto-linked equities firmed after Strategy said it had resumed bitcoin purchases, with Goldman Sachs reiterating a Buy rating; Coinbase typically amplifies bitcoin moves in both directions.
- 5. SLB+4.83%SLB (Schlumberger)World's largest oilfield services provider: drilling, reservoir and production technologyBest performer in a strong energy tape as Brent topped $91 on the U.S.-Iran strikes, and separately agreed to acquire Kelvion from Apollo for about $3.4bn cash ($4.1bn enterprise value), pushing into data-centre cooling.
- 6. DE+3.90%Deere & CompanyAgricultural, construction and forestry machinery, plus precision-farming technology and equipment financingBaird's Mircea Dobre upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral and raised his target to $800 from $640, arguing rising corn and soy prices point to a North American farm-equipment recovery.
- 7. QCOM+3.83%QualcommSmartphone processors and wireless patent licensing, expanding into PC and data-center chipsAI announcements — the Horizon Ultra AI PC with HUMAIN, and Adobe shifting regional AI workloads onto Qualcomm-accelerated HUMAIN infrastructure — reinforced the non-handset story; BofA kept a Buy.
- 8. ULTA+3.79%Ulta BeautyUS specialty beauty retailer selling cosmetics, skincare, fragrance and salon servicesBuyers reversed Friday's roughly 4% post-earnings fade after Q2 EPS of $6.55 beat the $6.20 consensus on 8.9% revenue growth and management raised full-year guidance; e.l.f. Beauty rallied alongside it.
- 9. CF+3.37%CF Industries HoldingsNitrogen fertilizer producer: ammonia, granular urea and UAN from natural gasNo confirmed single-stock catalyst; the move likely reflects the same crop-price-driven agriculture read-through that lifted Deere, plus Middle East escalation tightening an already constrained global nitrogen market.
- 10. FFIV+3.27%F5Application delivery controllers and multi-cloud app and API security softwareNo standalone news found; F5 appears to have traded in sympathy with the cybersecurity group on CrowdStrike's Fal.Con day, with Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks also up around 3%.
Common Themes
Three threads run through the gainers, and none of them is the index itself. The first is company-controlled news flow: CrowdStrike's Fal.Con product launches, Deere's Baird upgrade, Qualcomm's AI-PC and data-centre announcements, Ulta's post-earnings reversal and SLB's Kelvion acquisition were all specific, dated events rather than beta. The second is the oil shock working in reverse — SLB led an energy complex in which Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental and Kinder Morgan all rose 1.5-3%, and CF plausibly benefits from the same supply anxiety. The third is a risk-seeking pocket that ignored the macro entirely: Tesla, Coinbase and SanDisk are all high-beta names that rallied on narrative and rebound rather than on anything defensive. Two names — SanDisk and F5 — had no identifiable standalone catalyst and are better read as group moves.
Top 10 losers
| # | Ticker | Company / business | Change | Likely Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EIX | Edison International Holding company for Southern California Edison, a regulated electric utility | -23.07% | California lawmakers amended Senate Bill 492 over the weekend, stripping out the wildfire liability protections investors expected; Mizuho cut to Neutral with a $70 target, and it was the worst session since 2001. |
| 2 | PCG | PG&E Corporation Regulated electric and natural gas utility serving northern and central California | -20.06% | Caught in the same SB 492 repricing; BMO kept its EPS estimates unchanged but now assumes uncapped wildfire liabilities beyond 2030, raising its estimated liability drag on the valuation to $10 per share from $6. |
| 3 | AON | Aon plc Insurance and reinsurance brokerage, risk consulting and human-capital advisory | -9.53% | Announced a $17bn all-cash acquisition of USI Insurance Services from KKR, debt-funded with buybacks paused; note press reports put the official close nearer -6.4%, so the sheet's quote may be off. |
| 4 | HWM | Howmet Aerospace Cast and forged aerospace components: jet-engine turbine blades, fasteners, aluminum wheels | -7.51% | Elon Musk said SpaceX will cast gas-turbine blades and vanes in-house at a new Bastrop, Texas foundry, targeting the bottleneck Howmet profits from; the stock broke its 200-day EMA, though Bernstein argued the threat is limited. |
| 5 | TTWO | Take-Two Interactive Software Video game publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K | -6.67% | An escalating leak of Grand Theft Auto VI footage rattled confidence in the Nov. 19 launch that underpins the FY bookings guide; volume hit roughly 6.6m shares, about 2.7 times the one-month average. |
| 6 | AXON | Axon Enterprise Tasers, police body cameras and cloud evidence-management software for law enforcement | -5.69% | No company-specific news surfaced; the decline came amid broad aerospace and defense selling and continued de-rating of high-multiple growth names since the early-August margin disappointment. |
| 7 | CLX | Clorox Household and cleaning consumer brands including Clorox, Glad, Brita and Burt's Bees | -4.73% | No confirmed catalyst on the day; the move is far larger than household-products peers, and likely reflects continued unease over margin pressure and organic-growth guidance following the August 3 fiscal Q4 report. |
| 8 | WYNN | Wynn Resorts Luxury casino resorts in Las Vegas, Macau and Boston | -4.18% | No single-name news identified; Wynn fell with the whole travel and leisure complex as higher fuel costs and rate-hike pricing hit discretionary spending, alongside Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, MGM and Las Vegas Sands. |
| 9 | TAP | Molson Coors Beverage Brewer of Coors, Miller and Blue Moon beers across North America and Europe | -4.10% | Beer names stayed under pressure after a cautious Barron's piece on Friday; BNP Paribas data show US beer production fell 5.6% in 2025 and another 5.4% in the second quarter of 2026, with Brown-Forman also lower. |
| 10 | UBER | Uber Technologies Ride-hailing, food delivery and freight marketplaces operated through mobile apps | -4.02% | The formal rollout of its Delivery Hero takeover offer sharpened concerns about integration risk, the acquisition premium and near-term capital deployment, on top of European regulatory penalties over automated driver deactivation. |
- 1. EIX-23.07%Edison InternationalHolding company for Southern California Edison, a regulated electric utilityCalifornia lawmakers amended Senate Bill 492 over the weekend, stripping out the wildfire liability protections investors expected; Mizuho cut to Neutral with a $70 target, and it was the worst session since 2001.
- 2. PCG-20.06%PG&E CorporationRegulated electric and natural gas utility serving northern and central CaliforniaCaught in the same SB 492 repricing; BMO kept its EPS estimates unchanged but now assumes uncapped wildfire liabilities beyond 2030, raising its estimated liability drag on the valuation to $10 per share from $6.
- 3. AON-9.53%Aon plcInsurance and reinsurance brokerage, risk consulting and human-capital advisoryAnnounced a $17bn all-cash acquisition of USI Insurance Services from KKR, debt-funded with buybacks paused; note press reports put the official close nearer -6.4%, so the sheet's quote may be off.
- 4. HWM-7.51%Howmet AerospaceCast and forged aerospace components: jet-engine turbine blades, fasteners, aluminum wheelsElon Musk said SpaceX will cast gas-turbine blades and vanes in-house at a new Bastrop, Texas foundry, targeting the bottleneck Howmet profits from; the stock broke its 200-day EMA, though Bernstein argued the threat is limited.
- 5. TTWO-6.67%Take-Two Interactive SoftwareVideo game publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2KAn escalating leak of Grand Theft Auto VI footage rattled confidence in the Nov. 19 launch that underpins the FY bookings guide; volume hit roughly 6.6m shares, about 2.7 times the one-month average.
- 6. AXON-5.69%Axon EnterpriseTasers, police body cameras and cloud evidence-management software for law enforcementNo company-specific news surfaced; the decline came amid broad aerospace and defense selling and continued de-rating of high-multiple growth names since the early-August margin disappointment.
- 7. CLX-4.73%CloroxHousehold and cleaning consumer brands including Clorox, Glad, Brita and Burt's BeesNo confirmed catalyst on the day; the move is far larger than household-products peers, and likely reflects continued unease over margin pressure and organic-growth guidance following the August 3 fiscal Q4 report.
- 8. WYNN-4.18%Wynn ResortsLuxury casino resorts in Las Vegas, Macau and BostonNo single-name news identified; Wynn fell with the whole travel and leisure complex as higher fuel costs and rate-hike pricing hit discretionary spending, alongside Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, MGM and Las Vegas Sands.
- 9. TAP-4.10%Molson Coors BeverageBrewer of Coors, Miller and Blue Moon beers across North America and EuropeBeer names stayed under pressure after a cautious Barron's piece on Friday; BNP Paribas data show US beer production fell 5.6% in 2025 and another 5.4% in the second quarter of 2026, with Brown-Forman also lower.
- 10. UBER-4.02%Uber TechnologiesRide-hailing, food delivery and freight marketplaces operated through mobile appsThe formal rollout of its Delivery Hero takeover offer sharpened concerns about integration risk, the acquisition premium and near-term capital deployment, on top of European regulatory penalties over automated driver deactivation.
Common Themes
The losers split cleanly into a policy shock and a rate-and-oil shock. Edison and PG&E are one trade, not two: California's legislative session ended Monday and the amended SB 492 forced a same-day repricing of every California-exposed utility, with Sempra down about 3.1% as a cushioned third leg. Everything else is the mirror image of the gainers list — Uber, Wynn, Molson Coors and Clorox are consumer-facing names hit by the combination of $91 Brent and September hike pricing, a pattern echoed across Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Expedia, Airbnb and Booking, all down 3-4%. Aon, Howmet and Take-Two are genuinely idiosyncratic, and each involves a specific negative surprise about future cash flows rather than a macro repricing. Three names — Axon, Clorox and Wynn — had no catalyst that could be verified and are most plausibly group or valuation-driven moves.
Overall read
Money rotated along the oil price. Energy, oilfield services and fertilizer absorbed the Middle East escalation as a positive, while anything that consumes fuel or discretionary income — cruise lines, airlines, casinos, travel platforms, rideshare — was sold, and the rate-sensitive long-duration parts of consumer and real estate went with them as the 10-year pushed to a 19-month high. The more interesting signal is that this was not a de-risking day: the biggest gainers were high-multiple AI, crypto and autonomy names, which means investors trimmed cyclical consumer exposure while leaving the AI trade untouched. The utility carnage sits outside both narratives; SB 492 is a state legislative outcome that reopens the wildfire-liability question for California utilities and has nothing to do with the day's macro.