Market Brief — August 5, 2026

US equities were mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 0.49% while the S&P 500 (SPX) slipped 0.17% and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.83%, with losses in technology (VGT -0.36%) and communication services (XLC -1.04%) offsetting gains in healthcare (XLV +1.27%) and basic materials (XLB +1.23%).

In Europe, the CAC 40 (FRA40) rose 0.03% and the FTSE 100 (UKX) added 0.08%, while the DAX (DAX) eased 0.29%.

In Asia, index 000001.SS was unchanged with a 0.00% move on reported volume of about 3.38 billion.

US data showed Q2 2026 real GDP grew 1.5% annualised, ADP reported July private payrolls of 44,000 and twelve-month CPI was 3.5%, keeping attention on multiple July services PMI releases, including ISM non-manufacturing where consensus centered around 54.2–54.5 versus a previous 54.0.

Central-bank communication stayed biased toward tightening as Kashkari said gradual rate increases could start as soon as September and FedWatch assigned more than a 63% probability to a September hike, while the Reserve Bank of India kept its repo rate at 5.25%, the ECB held the deposit facility at 2.25% with only limited additional 25 bp moves projected, the Bank of Japan released meeting minutes and markets expected Brazil's central bank to cut the Selic rate to 14.00% from 14.25%.

In cross-asset moves, the US Dollar Index (DXY) traded near 99.84, 10-year Treasury yields eased toward 4.619%, gold spot prices moved above $4,000/oz and Brent and WTI crude hovered around $79 and $75–$76 respectively, with oil softness linked to reported progress on a Strait of Hormuz transit deal despite ongoing Red Sea and Black Sea disruptions.

Shopify (SHOP) climbed 16.98% after reporting Q2 2026 revenue of $3.58 billion, up 34% year over year, with gross merchandise volume up 32% to $115.57 billion and guiding Q3 revenue growth in the low-thirties percent range, implying about $3.73–$3.78 billion versus consensus near $3.59 billion.

AMD (AMD) traded lower by about 9% after hours as cautious near-term guidance for its Helios AI platform outweighed Q2 results that showed data-center sales had doubled and highlighted ROCm software delivering up to 3x higher inference performance and 2.4x faster training.

In financials, Prudential Plc shares fell as much as 13% and HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered lost mid-single digits after reports that mainland Chinese tax authorities began applying a 20% personal income tax to returns from Hong Kong-issued offshore insurance policies, while Circle's stock swung from gains of roughly 9–10% to losses of about 3–4% after it reported Q2 revenue and reserve income of $701 million, adjusted EPS of $0.18 and USDC in circulation of $73.3 billion with $14.8 trillion in on-chain transaction volume. Ascensus completed its acquisition of AmericanTCS, expanding its platform and capabilities, and Access Holdings closed a majority investment in Reliable Towing. ContextLogic announced it will acquire gChem for $850 million, while a Hawkins Way Capital joint venture agreed to buy an East Village property to grow its student housing portfolio and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. moved to acquire Apollo Insurance Solutions. Additional announced transactions included MONDEVITA acquiring a majority stake in Underscore District, BiomX purchasing a 10% stake in Motomea, Acentra Health acquiring FEI Systems and Smile Source buying profitable PPOs, while Check-Cap set an eight-week target to complete its merger with MBody AI.