AI Stocks Midday
📊 AI Stocks Midday Pulse — Friday, August 21, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Indices: SPX 7,679 (+0.5%) · NDX 29,347 (+0.5%) · DJI 53,230 (+0.9%)
Tone: risk-on — but it's a bounce off a bruising week, not a breakout
Movers so far:
• IONQ +8.3% — quantum names ripping on the liquidity bid; biggest AI-adjacent gainer on the board
• TSLA +5.3% — leading megacap tech, riding the broad risk bid alongside a 6% bitcoin surge to $77K
• PLTR +4.2% — software catching a bid as bond pressure eases at the front end
• NET +4.1% — Cloudflare rebounding hard after the week's growth-name flush
• ORCL +3.7% — recovering from the AI-capex/debt-cost selloff that hit it all week
• Unusual: NVDA (-0.6%) and MU (-1.0%) are red while nearly everything else is green — semis aren't participating in this bounce
Watchlist:
• MU $964.28 (-1.03%)
• NVDA $215.57 (-0.59%)
• MSFT $484.10 (+0.61%)
• GOOGL $344.33 (+1.07%)
• META $550.70 (+0.89%)
• AMZN $258.79 (-0.51%)
• AAPL $310.85 (-0.14%)
• AMD $469.51 (+0.01%)
• TSLA $363.35 (+5.28%) ⚠️
• PLTR $181.24 (+4.18%) ⚠️
• ARM $244.85 (-2.34%)
• SMCI $37.06 (+1.53%)
• ORCL $147.39 (+3.74%) ⚠️
• SOUN $7.32 (+4.95%) ⚠️
• IONQ $44.99 (+8.33%) ⚠️
• BBAI $3.21 (+4.40%) ⚠️
• AVGO $367.53 (+0.96%)
• CRM $209.25 (+1.86%)
• ADBE $275.15 (+1.08%)
• IBM $237.48 (+1.62%)
• SNOW $325.46 (+1.30%)
• MDB $428.99 (+2.05%)
• NET $290.41 (+4.12%) ⚠️
• CRWD $191.59 (+0.65%)
• TSM $417.77 (+0.43%)
• ASML $1,751.52 (+0.07%)
News:
• Long end still won't cooperate — 10-year at 4.73%, 30-year at 5.27%, both back up despite Treasury's buyback push. That's the reason semis and AI-capex names are lagging the bounce.
• IPO watch: Anthropic could file as soon as end of August, with people familiar saying the deal may match or top SpaceX's record size; annualized revenue reportedly near $65B as of end-July. OpenAI is eyeing Q4, though CFO Sarah Friar has publicly said they aren't ready. Neither trades yet.
• Bessent unveils Iran sanctions detail Monday; Jackson Hole and Nvidia earnings both land next week.