MARKET AT 7
Good evening. Bond yields are doing the damage again tonight, dragging chip stocks lower across three continents and leaving Wall Street and the ASX nursing fresh losses. Add in an antitrust raid on one of Australia’s biggest tech exporters and a quietly expired Middle East ceasefire and it’s a heavier night than most. Here’s what moved markets today.
In tonight's newsletter:
Wall Street falls as chip stocks slide, yields hit 19-year high
ASX extends losing streak as WiseTech plunges on ACCC raid
Oil tops $91 and the Kiwi swings as the Iran ceasefire expires
Gold and silver retreat as rising yields dim the haven trade
Fed minutes due tonight after three policymakers pushed for a hike
1.
Wall Street falls as chip stocks slide, yields hit 19-year high
The Dow fell 116 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.7% and the Nasdaq lost 1.3% on Tuesday, CNBC and Yahoo Finance reported. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbled 5% as investors backed away from the AI trade that's driven much of this year's rally, and the selloff has since spread into Asian trade, with Samsung and SK Hynix each down more than 7% on Wednesday. Behind it all: the 30-year Treasury yield briefly touched a fresh 19-year high above 5.3%, pressured by persistent inflation worries, questions over new Fed chair Kevin Warsh's approach, and concern that US government debt is closing in on $40 trillion. Source: CNBC, 18 Aug 2026 → · Source: CNBC, 18 Aug 2026 →
OUR TAKE:
Growth stocks are always the first repriced when yields set the pace like this. Chipmakers have the furthest to fall, because they'd priced in the most optimism.
2.
ASX extends losing streak as WiseTech plunges on ACCC raid
The ASX 200 fell as much as 0.56% before closing down 0.38% Wednesday, its sixth straight losing session, ABC News reported. WiseTech Global shares plunged more than 10%, its steepest one-day drop since June, after the competition regulator executed a search warrant seeking documents on the company's global logistics software business, Bloomberg reported. The ACCC's probe follows WiseTech's acquisition of e2open last year. Banks and major miners also weighed on the index; only energy stocks held up as oil climbed. Source: ABC News, 19 Aug 2026 → · Source: Bloomberg, 19 Aug 2026 →
OUR TAKE:
A search warrant is a long way from a finding of wrongdoing. Markets don't wait for due process, though, and ten per cent vanished from WiseTech in a single session on uncertainty alone.
3.
Oil tops $91 and the Kiwi swings as the Iran ceasefire expires
Brent crude climbed to $91.52 a barrel, Trading Economics data shows, extending a fourth straight session of gains after the US-Iran ceasefire lapsed on Monday. President Trump said he was in no hurry to end the conflict, while Tehran reportedly signalled it would shift to a "fully offensive" military posture. The New Zealand dollar felt it directly: the kiwi slid to $0.5879, down 0.4% and retreating from a two-and-a-half-month high, as the renewed conflict dented risk appetite even as traders keep pricing in a 25-basis-point RBNZ hike next month. Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 → · Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 →
OUR TAKE:
Six months into this conflict, currency traders treat every ceasefire as temporary. The kiwi's swing shows how directly a small, trade-exposed economy still feels a war on the other side of the world.
4.
Gold and silver retreat as rising yields dim the haven trade
Gold eased to $4,367.92 an ounce, down about 1.1% on the day, while silver dropped 2.6% to $64.09, Trading Economics figures show. Both moves track the same story as everything else tonight: when 30-year Treasury yields climb this fast, they compete directly with non-yielding metals for investors' money, even with oil pushing inflation risk higher. Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 → · Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 →
OUR TAKE:
Gold usually climbs on genuine fear. Tonight, bond math is simply moving faster than geopolitics.
5.
Fed minutes due tonight after three policymakers pushed for a hike
The Federal Reserve releases minutes from its late-July meeting later today, where the committee held rates at 3.50%-3.75% by a 9-3 vote, the Fed's own release shows. The three dissenters — Dallas Fed president Lorie Logan, Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack and Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari — all preferred a 25-basis-point hike, a rare three-way split. Chair Warsh has avoided giving forward guidance since taking over in May, and traders have swung between pricing a September hold and a hike as fresh inflation and jobs data has landed since that meeting. [due later today — outcome not yet known at deadline; expect confirmation in tomorrow's issue]
OUR TAKE:
Three dissents under a brand-new Fed chair is unusual, whatever the minutes themselves confirm. We'll have a clearer read once they land.
QUICK HITS
Home Depot beats estimates, reaffirms its outlook. Home Depot posted $47.9 billion in quarterly sales, up 5.7%, with comparable sales growth of 1.7%, its best since late 2022, and kept its full-year guidance intact. Our take: this closes the loop on last night's pending item, and it's a genuinely solid read on how US shoppers are holding up under high prices. Source: CNBC, 18 Aug 2026 →
Bitcoin holds near $64,800. Bitcoin traded around $64,813, up roughly 0.5% on the day, Trading Economics data shows, sitting well within its recent range. Our take: nothing dramatic here tonight, which after a volatile few weeks is its own kind of news. Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 →
Japan's Nikkei tumbles as the chip-stock rout spreads across Asia. The Nikkei 225 fell roughly 4.2% Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's semiconductor selloff into a region where chipmakers carry heavy weight in the index. Our take: same US bond-yield story from tonight's lead item, just showing up on a different exchange a few hours later. Source: Trading Economics, 19 Aug 2026 →
Those are your 5 minutes for tonight; see you at the same time tomorrow. - Miko Santos