Market Taps Dance While Home Depot Stumbles and S&P Shrugs

by

In a scene reminiscent of a well-rehearsed ballet, the stock market pirouetted to a near standstill on Tuesday, as investors pondered the latest corporate earnings and the geopolitical tango. 🎵 S&P Global Ratings, ever the critic, reaffirmed its AA+ credit rating for the U.S. economy, much to the relief of those who prefer their economic forecasts with a dash of predictability.

  • Stocks, like a group of schoolchildren on a field trip, opened mixed but largely unchanged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average managing a slight uptick, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lingered near the flatline, looking decidedly unimpressed.
  • The Dow, ever the optimist, gained 76 points, or 0.17%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq seemed content to hover, perhaps contemplating the meaning of life, the universe, and everything else.
  • S&P Global Ratings, in a move that could only be described as “business as usual,” affirmed its AA+ credit rating for the United States, much to the chagrin of those who were hoping for a bit more drama.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, always eager to show off, was slightly up by 76 points, or 0.17%, while the S&P 500, the benchmark index, traded just below the flatline, as if it were waiting for a better offer. The Nasdaq Composite, which, like the S&P 500, had recently hit record highs, opened little changed, with major tech stocks taking a brief respite from their relentless price rallies. 📈

Home Depot, the home improvement giant, managed to stir things up a bit with its earnings report. Despite missing profit estimates, the company’s shares jumped on the back of a promising full-year outlook, leaving analysts and investors alike scratching their heads and wondering what comes next. Wall Street, never one to miss a beat, is now eagerly awaiting reports from Target and Walmart. 🛒

This week also promises the thrilling spectacle of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaking at the Jackson Hole symposium. According to the CME FedWatch tool, investors are betting on a 83% chance of a Fed rate cut in September, a prospect that has everyone on edge, like waiting for the punchline of a particularly dry joke. 🕵️‍♂️

On the geopolitical front, President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal for Ukraine have been met with a collective shrug from the investment community. Despite a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, and European leaders, the outcome was disappointingly anticlimactic, leaving many to wonder if it was all just a bit of political theater. 🎭

S&P Affirms U.S. Credit Rating

With the major U.S. gauges holding near their record highs, the market was mostly upbeat, though action remained muted as S&P Global Ratings updated its credit rating for the United States. 📊

While S&P acknowledged that tariffs might help the U.S. fiscal health, thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, the firm maintained its AA+ credit rating for the U.S., a rating it has held since 2011 when it was downgraded from AAA. It seems the U.S. has become rather accustomed to its slightly tarnished credit score, much like a well-worn pair of jeans that still fit just right. 👖

The U.S. has seen its perfect credit rating slip over the years, with top ratings firms like Moody’s and Fitch Ratings downgrading it in 2025 and 2023, respectively. These downgrades, much like a bad review on Yelp, have left the country with a slightly tarnished reputation in the eyes of the financial world. 🤷‍♂️

The 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields, ever the sensitive souls, dropped after S&P Global’s report, hovering around 4.32% and 4.91%, respectively. Elsewhere, the crypto market saw Bitcoin (BTC) bounce off lows of $114k, a move that left some investors feeling a bit queasy but others quietly optimistic. 💼

Read More

2025-08-19 17:46