Blue Chair Weekly Round Up of Articles

August 21, 2026

Hope everyone had a wonderful week. We wanted to share our current thoughts and articles that can benefit your planning outcomes.

As a reminder, we have added a new regulatory compliant way for you to communicate with us through text messaging. If you would like to send us a text message, please use the following number: (515) 200-2698. For regulatory purposes, this is the only number we can send and receive text messages from. Please add (515) 200-2698 to your list of trusted contacts.

Weekly Market Summary

Week of August 17–21, 2026

It was a choppier week than we’ve seen for a while, and it’s worth walking through why, because the story underneath the headlines matters more for your plan than the day-to-day swings do.

What happened

Stocks pulled back from the record highs they’d been setting just a week earlier. The S&P 500 slipped most days this week, the Nasdaq took a harder hit as chip and tech stocks sold off, and by Thursday the Dow was down over 350 points. Retailer earnings added some noise in both directions — Walmart’s stock fell sharply even though the company itself is fine, while Ross Stores jumped 8% on a strong report, which is a good reminder that a single stock’s move on earnings day often says more about expectations than about the underlying business.

There were two real forces behind the pullback, and they’re connected:

Bond yields moved up, and that matters more than people realize. The 30-year Treasury yield touched its highest level in roughly twenty years. When long-term borrowing costs rise like that, it ripples into mortgage rates, corporate borrowing, and how expensive it is for the government to finance its debt — and when yields move, stock valuations (especially for growth and tech names) tend to feel it first.

Oil prices rose alongside renewed tension between the U.S. and Iran. Higher oil doesn’t just hit the price at the pump; it feeds directly into inflation numbers, which in turn affects what the Federal Reserve is likely to do with interest rates.

On that note — just a couple weeks ago, markets were fairly confident the Fed would cut rates at its September meeting. That confidence has faded considerably; the odds of a September cut have dropped from something close to a sure thing down to roughly one-in-three. That shift alone explains a good chunk of this week’s volatility, since so much of this year’s rally has been built on the expectation that rates would keep coming down.

The one genuinely good piece of news: July inflation data came in a bit cooler than expected, with the annual rate easing to 3.4%. That’s still above the Fed’s target, but it’s moving in the right direction, and it’s part of why the market hasn’t fallen further despite everything else going on.

Why this matters for your plan

If you’re still working and saving: weeks like this are exactly what diversification and dollar-cost averaging are built for. You’re buying at a range of prices over time, and short-term dips don’t change your long-term trajectory unless you let them change your behavior.

If you’re nearing or in retirement: rising bond yields aren’t all bad news — new bonds and CDs are paying more than they were, which is genuinely useful if you’re building or refreshing an income ladder. The bigger thing to watch is inflation, since it directly affects how far your fixed income and Social Security checks stretch.

If you’re carrying debt or thinking about a big purchase: higher long-term rates mean mortgage and loan costs are likely to stay elevated for a while longer, so this isn’t the week to assume rates are about to drop.

For everyone: the underlying economy is still sending mixed signals — retail sales actually fell last month by the most since last spring, even as some retailers reported strong results. That kind of mixed picture is normal, not alarming, and it’s exactly the environment where sticking to a plan matters more than reacting to any single week’s headlines.

A few other headlines from the week

The Treasury Department stepped in to try to calm the bond market. Mid-week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the government would more than double its buybacks of longer-term debt. Stocks got a brief lift on the news, but the relief didn’t last — by Thursday, investors had decided the move might actually add to inflation pressure rather than ease it, and yields climbed right back up.
Bitcoin had a wild week. It surged over 11% in a single session, breaking out of a narrow trading range and climbing above a key long-term average for the first time in months. For clients holding any crypto exposure, this is a good reminder of just how much more volatile that asset class is compared to traditional stocks and bonds.
Small companies quietly kept setting records. While the big tech names wobbled, the Russell 2000 (an index of smaller U.S. companies) touched new all-time highs earlier in the month and has been a stronger performer than the S&P 500 or Nasdaq so far this year. It’s a sign the rally has been broadening out beyond just a handful of mega-cap tech stocks, which is generally viewed as a healthier sign for the market overall.
Chipmakers had a rough stretch. A closely watched index of semiconductor companies dropped as much as 5% in a single day, dragging the Nasdaq down with it. This sector has been the biggest driver of gains over the past couple of years, so when it wobbles, it tends to pull the broader tech-heavy indexes down with it.
The market’s “fear gauge” ticked up. The VIX, which measures how much volatility investors expect in the coming month, rose more than 7% during the week — still low by historical standards, but a signal that some caution is creeping back in after a very calm summer.
Gold edged higher, a typical move when investors get a little more nervous about inflation and want a place to park money that isn’t tied to stocks or bonds.
Eyes are already turning to next week. The Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference is coming up, along with Nvidia’s earnings report — two events that could set the tone for markets heading into September.

The bottom line

Nothing this week changes the fundamentals of a well-built financial plan. Markets are digesting higher borrowing costs and a more uncertain Fed path, and that shows up as volatility — but the underlying data on inflation is still improving, even if slowly. As always, if any of this raises questions specific to your situation, that’s exactly what we’re here for.

This summary is for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please contact our office with any questions about how current market conditions may affect your specific financial plan.

Schedule A Meeting

Follow Us On Social Media