Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures stall after Trump pauses tariffs on Canada

LIVE Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures stall after Trump pauses tariffs on Canada Grace O'Donnell · Editor, Special Projects Updated Wed, August 19, 2026 at 1:51 PM GMT+2 1 min read ^GSPC US stocks wavered on Wednesday after President Trump paused tariffs on Canadian goods that were scheduled to take effect at midnight. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( YM=F ) rose 0. 1%, while those on the S&P 500 ( ES=F ) hovered near the flat line.

Contracts for the Nasdaq-100 ( NQ=F ) declined by 0. 2%. Stocks are weathering a losing week on Wall Street as rising bond yields and oil prices weigh on the major indexes, compounded by a sell-off in tech stocks on Tuesday.

Declines in Asian markets overnight pointed to little relief, with Japan's Nikkei ( ^N225 ) index falling 3% and South Korea's KOSPI ( ^KS11 ) index dropping over 5%. Futures markets were little changed after Trump posted on Truth Social late Tuesday night that he paused the 50% Canadian tariffs for three days "based on the fact that Canada and the U. S.

A. , subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL! " The announcement came after 11th-hour talks between Trump officials and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's team.

While experts have said the tariffs would have had limited economic ramifications, they represent a strong signal of upcoming negotiations for the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). Investors will get the Fed's meeting minutes from the FOMC's July meeting later on Tuesday, which promise clues into policymakers' debates on inflation, policy, and other key economic data. Earnings from Target ( TGT ), Lowe's ( LOW ), and TJX Companies ( TJX ) will also provide a look at consumer trends over the spring and summer.

LIVE 5 updates 59 mins ago Grace O'Donnell Moderna stock rockets higher on positive melanoma vaccine results Moderna ( MRNA ) stock skyrocketed by as much as 106% in premarket trading after the company’s melanoma cancer vaccine, developed with Merck ( MRK ), showed a positive outcome in a late-stage trial. Merck shares jumped 8% on the results. The trial showed that Moderna and Merck’s Phase 3 trial administering intismeran autogene with Keytruda met its primary goal of recurrence-free survival and secondary goal of distant metastasis-free survival in patients.

Moderna said this was the first positive Phase 3 results for mRNA-based cancer therapy. “These Phase 3 findings represent a pivotal moment for the field of cancer research,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a release. “For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA treatment designed specifically for an individual patient's cancer was aspirational.

We are now helping turn that vision into a reality. ” Today at 11:03 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Target CEO 'encouraged' by turnaround traction as retailer delivers another big earnings beat Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi reports on Target's ( TGT ) latest quarterly win as it aims to reinvigorate growth after several years of disappointing results. After chopping prices and overhauling its merchandise department, retailer Target did its part for the second straight quarter to signal that its worst days in 2024 and 2025 are in the rearview mirror.

The retailer delivered another big earnings beat versus estimates. Sales increased in all merchandise departments, led by beauty and food. Store traffic increased.

The company even jacked up its full-year sales and profit outlooks. "We're encouraged," Target CEO Michael Fiddelke told Yahoo Finance in an interview. "We laid out a plan for the year that had a lot of change in it — more change to what we were selling and how we were going to sell it than in the last decade.

And a couple of quarters in, it's great to see a strong guest response to some of the places we're making changes. " "There's a lot of work still in front of us," Fiddelke added, "and the goal isn't a couple strong quarters. The goal is years of sustained top-line growth.

And so we'll turn the page on this one and get back to work. " Read the full breakdown of Target's latest results. AlphaSpace Target earnings card Today at 10:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Meta social media addiction trial kicks off with major implications for company's future Meta ( META ) stock was poised to recover some losses ahead of the opening bell.

Shares of the social media company fell by over 4% on Tuesday as a trial about Facebook and Instagram’s practices surrounding young users kicked off. Witness testimony is expected to continue on Wednesday. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley recaps what happened on day 1 of the trial: Attorneys representing four states argued that Meta ( META ) developed its products to hook young users on its platforms and harvested the data of children under 13 to its benefit in the latest social media addiction trial on Tuesday.

The case, which is being heard before District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, involves the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey and is a test case for a larger suit involving an additional 24 states. In her opening remarks, deputy attorney general for California Megan O'Neill painted a picture of a company that works to keep young users coming back to its apps, using features such as infinite scrolling, negatively impacting their mental health. She also alleged that the company knowingly harvested the information of children under the age of 13 without their parents' consent.

Read more. Today at 9:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Good morning. Here's what's happening today.

Economic data: MBA mortgage applications, week ended Aug. 14 (+3. 6% previously); FOMC meeting minutes, July meeting Earnings calendar: Target ( TGT ), Lowe’s ( LOW ), The TJX Companies ( TJX ), Analog Devices ( ADI ), Estee Lauder ( EL ), Coty ( COTY ), Wolfspeed ( WOLF ) Catch up on some stories you might have missed overnight: SEC proposes new rules for crypto assets Bessent says the K-shaped economy is 'over.

' He may be onto something. Cerebras says latest offering is 'fastest AI accelerator in the industry' as it takes aim at Nvidia Nvidia H200 chips reach China in small shipments, FT reports World’s top humanoid robot maker surges in blockbuster market debut in China Today at 8:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Trump pauses 50% tariffs on Canada In a last-minute pivot, President Trump paused the rollout of 50% US tariffs on Canadian goods less than 2 hours before were scheduled to take effect. “I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period, based on the fact that Canada and the U.

S. A. , subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!

” Trump posted on Truth Social, hinting that the “great Keystone XL Pipeline” may have been a part of negotiations. The start date of the tariffs, which were drawn up in response to US claims about Canada’s discriminatory trade practices, particularly around  automobiles ,  alcohol , and  dairy  products, has been moved to “12:01 a. m.

eastern time on August 22, 2026,” according to a White House proclamation that followed Trump’s social media post. In the proclamation, Trump stated that he paused the tariffs because “Canada has expressed a commitment to remove the [trade] discriminations or unreasonable and unequal impositions at issue. ” As Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul previously reported , the new tariffs would have limited immediate macroeconomic effects.

Yet the negotiations this week could provide a major signal about the prospects for renewal of the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA).