News desk · Evening edition · Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Equities held near record highs with the S&P 500 essentially flat at 7675.70 and the VIX easing further to 15.22. Meta agreed to pay $16.7 billion settling a child-safety lawsuit while court filings revealed Chinese state hackers breached the Fed, NASA and DOJ. Energy and Technology led sectors higher even as consumer spending growth slowed to a seven-month low.

auto-generated · written Aug 26, 2026, 4:23 PM EDT

Prices in this edition were taken live, not from stored closes. They were read at the Evening edition slot on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Anything named as a cause may come from a headline the desk was given.

Equities

Meta settled a social-media addiction lawsuit for $16.7 billion, shares up 1.07% to $576.14
Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger left in antitrust limbo, WBD down 0.52% to $28.75
Boston Scientific shares fell 3.4% to $48.17 after disclosing a shipping-disrupting cyberattack

Sector and commodities

Energy stocks rose 0.60% today even as oil retreated on the Iran sanctions pivot
Industrials led all sectors, up 1.09% on the day
Analysts flagged the recent chipmaker pullback as a potential bullish setup

Crypto

holds near $78,206, up about 1% since Strategy's $2 billion stock raise
Coinbase's tokenized-stock launch continues to draw crypto trading volume

Fixed income

Economists pressed Fed Chair Warsh for clearer policy views ahead of Jackson Hole
US consumer spending growth slowed to a seven-month low

Nikkei 225 (N225)+0.5%

The Nikkei's 0.5% gain today comes amid a pullback from its August 17 record near 69220, still up sharply on the month.

Dow Jones (DJI)-0.2%

The Dow's slight 0.2% dip today leaves it below its early-August peak near 54349, lagging the S&P's record run.

Shanghai Composite (000001.SS)+0.2%

Shanghai's modest 0.2% rise today comes as it consolidates below its August 18 high of 3990, unmoved by Fed hacking news.