Live Markets: Dog Day: Wall Street slips while volume tumbles

The TJX Companies

14/08/2026 21:48

Main U.S. indexes end modestly red, Nasdaq off most
Energy leads S&P 500 sector gainers; Health is weakest group
Dollar falls; bitcoin dips; gold up; U.S. crude rises >1%
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rises to ~4.69%
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DOG DAY: WALL STREET SLIPS WHILE VOLUME TUMBLES
 Florence + The Machine sings that the Dog Days Are Over. The Farmers' Almanac agrees. Its recent report explained that what we call the Dog Days of Summer start every year on July 3 and run until August 11. These are the 20 days before and the 20 days after Sirius — otherwise known as the dog star — rises with the Sun.
But did anybody tell Wall Street traders to finish napping in the shade? Friday's trading volume tumbled to 9.61 billion, compared with the 20-day moving average of 17.01 billion, according to LSEG's data.
Dog days or not, the three main U.S. equity indexes fell on the day after weak retail sales and consumer sentiment reports ahead of a big week for retailer earnings reports. But moves were modest, with Nasdaq .IXIC leading losses on a drop of just 0.3%.
It likely didn't help that oil prices settled up more than 1% on the day on tanker attacks and a lack of progress on a peace agreement between the Trump administration and Iran's leadership. However, oil rallies tend to support the energy sector .SPNY whose 1.4% rally was the biggest advance among the S&P 500's .SPX 11 major industry sectors. 
The biggest sector loser was healthcare .SPXHC, which finished down 0.6% followed by technology's .SPLRCT 0.4% dip. Technology managed a small weekly gain of 0.2%. However, the S&P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI quietly managed a record closing high with its middle-of-the-pack gain of 0.4%. 
For the week, the S&P 500 added 0.4%, while Nasdaq rose 0.1%, for their third weekly advance in a row. The Dow .DJI fell 0.6% for the week.
Even the most volatile subsectors made little progress this week. The PHLX semiconductor index .SOX, which ended the day down 0.3%, managed a weekly gain of 0.4%. The S&P 500 software index .SPLRCIS ended down 1% on the day but registered a 0.2% gain for the week.
Still the S&P 500 value index .IVX celebrated its sixth record close in a row with a tiny 0.07% gain that outperformed growth's .IGX 0.4% loss on the day after a record finish on Thursday.
The S&P 400 mid-cap index .MID, up 0.3%, and the Russell 2000 small-cap index .RUT, up 0.5%, both marked record closes for the second day in a row.
Here is your closing snapshot: 
(Sinéad Carew, Terence Gabriel)
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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:
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THAT’S WHY AI IS GOING TO BE INFLATIONARY IN THE SHORT-TERM CLICK HERE
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YEN STUCK IN TWILIGHT ZONE CLICK HERE
     

Wall Street indexes fall https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/znvnoggdypl/Pasted%20image%201786739751436.png