Stock Market Live August 19: S&P 500 (VOO) Rally Still on Hold Pending Fed Talk
Investing
- All’s quiet on Wall Street today, with the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF down less than 0.1% as investors await Fed interest rate clues.
- Home Depot missed on earnings today, but Palo Alto Networks and Medtronic both beat.
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This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
It’s a pretty slow news day on Wall Street so far, with most professional investors waiting to hear what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will have to say later this week at the Fed’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Of especial interest will be any hints Powell decides to drop about his intention to lower interest rates in September — and beyond.
The fed funds futures market forecasts (say that five times quick) an 83% chance of the Fed reducing interest rates by 0.25% in September, but with wholesale inflation ticking up, that percentage chance has been falling of late.
Premarket, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is trading down about 0.1%.
Earnings
Earnings season is all but over, yet a handful of big S&P 500 companies are still straggling in.
Last night, Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq: PANW) reported $0.95 per share in profit for its fiscal Q4 2025, which was six cents better than expected. Revenue nailed the analyst forecast for $2.5 billion, and guidance was good for fiscal Q1 2026, with both earnings ($3.75 to $3.85) and revenue ($2.45 billion-plus) ahead of Wall Street estimates.
Palo Alto stock is up more than 6% in the premarket on this news.
Conversely, this morning we heard from Home Depot (NYSE: HD), and the news there wasn’t so good. Home Depot earned $4.68 per share in Q2 2025, missing Wall Street’s forecast by four cents. Revenue of $45.3 billion likewise fell short of expectations.
On the plus side, Home Depot reaffirmed guidance through the end of this year. Same store sales should still be up 1% year over year, and total sales growth just shy of 3%. Earnings per share, however, might be as low as $14.46, down 3% from 2024.
Finally, med-tech company Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) reported a three-cent earnings beat for its own fiscal Q1 2026 — $1.26 per share. Revenue also beat expectations at $8.6 billion, and guidance for the rest of its fiscal 2026 was strong.
Despite the divergent results, Home Depot stock is up more than 2% this morning, while Medtronic shares are down more than 4%.
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