Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500 futures hold steady ahead of inflation data, Nvidia earnings

LIVE Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures hold steady ahead of inflation data, Nvidia earnings Grace O'Donnell · Editor, Special Projects Wed, August 26, 2026 at 10:18 AM GMT+2 1 min read NVDA ^GSPC ^IXIC ^DJI US stock futures traded flat in premarket trading on Wednesday ahead of the release of a key inflation reading and Nvidia's ( NVDA ) earnings report. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( YM=F ) and the S&P 500 ( ES=F ) hovered near the flat line, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 ( NQ=F ) fell 0. 2% after posting broad gains on Tuesday.

At 8:30 a. m. ET, investors will find out if the Fed's preferred inflation gauge continued its downward trajectory, stalled, or reaccelerated, which would put more pressure on the central bank to raise rates.

Economists expect a core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) of 3. 3%, unchanged from the month before. The report comes amid angst in the bond market and ahead of the Jackson Hole annual gathering of Fed policymakers this week, where Chairman Kevin Warsh will deliver a speech on the central bank's future plans.

Tech and chip stocks, meanwhile, face their next test after the closing bell,  when Nvidia opens its books in what has become a quarterly yardstick for the health of the artificial intelligence trade. Expectations are high heading into the earnings report, as investors increasingly focus on companies' ability to generate returns on their massive AI investments. CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), Williams-Sonoma ( WSM ), Okta ( OKTA ), and Abercrombie & Fitch ( ANF ) are among the other companies reporting results on Wednesday.

LIVE 6 updates 26 mins ago Jake Conley PCE shows prices edge just slightly edge up above expectations The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge showed prices heated up slightly faster than expected in July, as all eyes turn to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole speech on Friday. The Personal Consumption Expenditures index rose 3. 7% year over year in July, just above expectations of 3.

6%, and in line with June's yearly gain. Month over month, prices rose 0. 2%, just above expectations of 0.

1% growth and a turnaround from June's 0. 1% slowdown. Excluding volatile energy and food prices, the way the Fed prefers to assess the inflation gauge, "core" PCE rose 3.

3% year-on-year, in line with expectations, and the increase seen in June. Month over month, core inflation rose 0. 2%, in line with estimates.

55 mins ago Grace O'Donnell 4 reasons Nvidia stock is lagging Nvidia's ( NVDA ) stock isn't having its typical year, Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi writes. He notes: No epic gains on earning reports. Nvidia stock has fallen in response to earnings in six of the past eight quarters, including the last four, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace analysis.

No major outperformance versus the S&P 500. Nvidia's stock is up 14% year to date, while the S&P 500 is up 12%. Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold lists four reasons the chip king stock's is stuck in neutral in a new note: Read more.

Today at 11:00 AM UTC Jared Blikre Nvidia earnings could reveal its fastest-growing business isn't chips Wall Street is focused on Nvidia's ( NVDA ) graphics processing units (GPUs). The faster-growing story is sitting beside them. Nvidia has quietly built a networking operation that generated nearly $15 billion last quarter, up from roughly $3 billion per quarter two years ago.

Wall Street expects that figure to approach $17 billion when the company reports earnings on Wednesday. Compute still dominates Data Center revenue, but networking has risen from roughly $3 billion a quarter to nearly $17 billion in about two years — and is now growing faster. · Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance Compute still dwarfs networking inside Nvidia's Data Center business.

But networking has been growing faster, up nearly 200% year over year in the last quarter compared with 77% for compute. That pace is slowing. Analysts expect networking growth of roughly 134% in the quarter about to be reported, still ahead of compute at about 100%.

Read more. Today at 10:00 AM UTC Jake Conley AI's next big bottleneck isn't infrastructure. It's regulatory red tape.

As Big Tech has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence development, myriad bottlenecks have given investors reason to worry, from multiyear delays in natural gas turbine deliveries to capital availability and energy access constraints. However, with midterm elections just two months away, the biggest bottleneck is elsewhere, according to Melius Research — in regulation. "The binding constraint on growth has shifted," James West, managing director at Melius Research, wrote to clients on Monday.

"It is no longer turbines, capital, or customer intent: rolling into midterms, it is permission. " West's argument underscores the growing role of politics in the US's AI infrastructure build-out. As resistance to data center development has grown in communities across the country, state governments have increasingly clamped down, pursuing legislation that slows construction.

Read more. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai lead a panel at the Google Midlothian Data Center on Nov.

14, 2025, in Midlothian, Texas. (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) · Ron Jenkins via Getty Images Today at 9:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Good morning. Here's what's happening today.

Economic data: PCE price index, month-on-month, July (-0. 1% previously); PCE price index, year-on-year, July (+3. 7% previously); Core PCE price index, month-on-month, July (+0.

1% previously); Core PCE price index, year-on-year, July (+3. 3% previously); Personal income, July (+0. 2% previously); Personal spending, July (+0.

3% previously); Real personal spending, July (+0. 4% previously); Durable goods orders, July preliminary reading (+0. 5% previously); GDP annualized, quarter-on-quarter, second quarter (+1.

5% previously); Personal consumption, second quarter (+3. 2% previously); GDP price index, second quarter (+6. 2% previously); Core PCE price index, quarter-on-quarter, second quarter (+3.

4% previously) Earnings calendar: Nvidia ( NVDA ), CrowdStrike ( CRWD ), Synopsys ( SNPS ), Agilent Technologies ( A ), Veeva Systems ( VEEV ), Williams-Sonoma ( WSM ), Okta ( OKTA ), Nutanix ( NTNX ), Five Below ( FIVE ), Urban Outfitters ( URBN ), Abercrombie & Fitch ( ANF ), Bath & Body Works ( BBWI ) Catch up on some top stories from overnight: Dolly Parton, singer-songwriter, dies at 80 This is how much one study says tariffs will cost US households Gold holds five-day gain as oil drop eases inflation concerns AI will deflate value of IT work by up to 25%, Hexaware CEO says Meta, states have discussed settling teen social media case US weighs more trade measures against Canada after retaliation Today at 8:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Asian stocks hesitant before Nvidia, oil slips on Hormuz hopes Reuters reports: Asian stocks stuttered on Wednesday as a drop in oil prices dragged bond yields lower on hopes that the critical Strait of Hormuz could reopen, while investors braced for yet another make-or-break earnings report from AI bellwether ‌Nvidia. Iran said it had restarted talks with Oman to manage the Strait, as it faces heightened economic pressure from U. S.

President Donald ‌Trump in the nearly six-month conflict that has roiled oil markets and stoked global inflationary worries. Brent crude futures fell for a third straight day on Wednesday, sliding more than 2% ​to $86. 41 per barrel on the prospect of more supply coming through the strait, which handled a fifth of the world's traded oil before the war.

"While there was no real progress or details of the Iran-Oman deal, as Iran reiterated that Hormuz will remain shut until conditions are met, price action suggested that markets are quickly pricing in optimism ‌around an interim announcement," analysts at J. P. Morgan said ⁠in a note.

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