Blue Chair Weekly Round Up of Articles

August 28, 2026

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

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Nvidia Delivers, the Fed Stays Quiet: Markets Head Into Labor Day on Edge

Strategic Wealth Solutions, LLC | Weekly Market Recap | August 24–28, 2026

This was one of those weeks where the calendar did all the work for you. A round of fresh Iran sanctions and simmering U.S.-Canada trade friction opened things on an uneasy note Monday, inflation and GDP data landed mid-week within hours of the single most anticipated earnings report on Wall Street, and the whole thing built toward Friday’s Jackson Hole address from a Fed chair who has made a habit of saying less than markets would like to hear. Here’s how it all played out, and what it might mean for your portfolio heading into September.

The Week at a Glance

Index	Fri 8/21 Close	Thu 8/27 Close	Week-to-Date*
S&P 500	7,674.37	7,730.99	+0.7%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	53,277.01	53,569.44	+0.5%
Nasdaq Composite	26,180.45	26,541.35	+1.4%
10-Year Treasury Yield	~4.70%	~4.68%	roughly flat

*Figures reflect the change from Friday, August 21 close through Thursday, August 27 close. Friday, August 28 was still underway as this post went to publication, with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole keynote serving as the session’s key catalyst — more on that below.

Nvidia’s Beat Reignited the AI Trade

Wednesday afternoon’s earnings report from Nvidia was, by any measure, the week’s headline event, and it landed the way bulls had hoped rather than the way skeptics had feared. The company posted earnings of $2.22 per share on revenue of $96.2 billion — up 106% from a year earlier — and followed that with a strong forward outlook that CEO Jensen Huang punctuated by saying his only regret was not investing more, and sooner, in the AI buildout.

The market’s response was immediate and broad. Thursday’s session saw the S&P 500 climb 0.72%, the Nasdaq Composite jump 1.57%, and technology stand alone as the only S&P sector posting meaningful gains, with the sector-tracking XLK fund up roughly 3% on the day. It’s a good reminder that even in a market nervous about yields and fiscal policy, a genuine fundamental catalyst can still cut through the noise — at least for a session or two.

The AI story had a second act as well: reports surfaced that Nvidia had agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the widely used open-source AI model repository, for roughly $12.9 billion, extending the company’s push to control more of the AI stack beyond chips alone. Not every AI-adjacent name shared in the enthusiasm, though — Marvell Technology fell more than 8% despite raising its own revenue outlook, as investors focused instead on questions around its AI chip partnership with Google. That divergence is worth sitting with: this remains a market willing to reward execution and punish ambiguity within the very same theme, sector labels aside.

Inflation Stayed Sticky, Growth Held Up

Wednesday’s data dump gave the market plenty to chew on before Nvidia even reported. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, core PCE, came in at 3.3% year-over-year for July — unchanged from June but still comfortably above the Fed’s 2% target — while headline PCE ticked up to 3.7% annually, a touch hotter than expected. On the growth side, second-quarter GDP data continued to point to an economy that’s slowing but not stalling, running around a 1.5% annualized pace by the most recent estimate. Jobless claims released Thursday actually improved, falling to 203,000, a modestly encouraging sign for the labor market even as inflation refuses to fully cooperate.

Put together, it’s a picture that gives the Fed room to hold rates steady in September without much political cover to cut — inflation is too persistent for that — but also without an obvious case for hiking, given the softer growth and labor backdrop. As of Thursday, CME’s FedWatch tool put the odds of a September hold at roughly two-in-three, which is exactly the kind of ambiguous setup that makes Friday’s Jackson Hole remarks matter more than usual.

All Eyes on Jackson Hole and Chair Warsh’s Debut

The Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming became the week’s culminating event, and for good reason: Friday marked Kevin Warsh’s first keynote address since becoming Fed Chair in May, and he’s built a reputation over his short tenure for saying notably less than his predecessors were inclined to. Where past chairs used this exact podium to telegraph the year’s policy direction, Warsh has preferred to let markets and incoming data do the talking — a stance that’s earned mixed reviews and left long-term yields unsettled. The 30-year Treasury bond touched a 19-year high above 5.3% just the week before, prompting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to announce an expanded buyback program aimed at bringing long-term borrowing costs down, an intervention that eased yields only briefly before they crept back up.

Heading into Friday’s 10 a.m. ET address, a majority of surveyed fund managers expected Warsh to strike a neutral tone, which paradoxically raised the stakes: when neutral is already priced in, it’s the surprises — a more hawkish read on inflation, a more dovish nod to growth risks, or any hint of coordination with Treasury’s bond-buying efforts — that tend to move markets. We’ll have a clearer read on how it landed once Friday’s full session is in the books, but this was the one event of the week genuinely capable of resetting the conversation heading into the September FOMC meeting.

Trade Frictions and Corporate Crosscurrents

A few other threads worth flagging from the week:

Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion of U.S. goods, effective September 8, in response to new U.S. tariffs targeting Canadian autos, alcohol, and dairy — a reminder that trade policy remains a live source of volatility even as markets have grown somewhat numb to tariff headlines this year.
The U.S. rolled out an expanded round of Iran sanctions early in the week, adding a geopolitical undercurrent to Monday’s session alongside the trade news.
Meta agreed to settle a social media addiction lawsuit brought by 29 states for approximately $16.7 billion, closing out a significant legal overhang for the company.
PayPal shares slumped sharply in Friday premarket trading after Advent and Stripe abandoned their pursuit of the company, a reminder of how quickly M&A speculation can unwind.

What We’re Watching Heading Into September

Markets headed into the long weekend on track for a positive week overall, but the underlying story is less about a clean rally and more about a market still working through real tension: sticky inflation data set against a resilient, AI-driven earnings backdrop, and a bond market that’s grown noticeably more sensitive to signals — or the absence of them — from a Fed chair still establishing his communication style.

None of this changes the fundamentals of a well-constructed financial plan, but it’s a useful backdrop for two conversations worth having with your advisor soon: whether your fixed income duration still fits your goals given the moves we’ve seen in long-term yields, and whether any concentration in mega-cap technology and AI-adjacent names still matches your risk tolerance and time horizon. As always, we’re happy to talk through what any of this means for your specific plan.

This commentary is provided by Strategic Wealth Solutions, LLC for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice, nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Market data reflects publicly reported figures as of the dates indicated and is subject to revision; figures for Friday, August 28, 2026 were incomplete at the time of writing. Index performance is provided for illustrative purposes only; indexes are unmanaged, are not available for direct investment, and do not reflect fees, expenses, or taxes. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and all investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Please consult your Strategic Wealth Solutions advisor before making any changes to your financial plan or investment portfolio. specific financial plan.

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