US pre-market: S&P 500 futures flat after July retail sales fall 0.6%

Sentiment: mixed S&P 500 futures: +0.04%

S&P 500 futures held at 7,825.75, up 0.04%, after July retail sales fell 0.6% to $763.6 billion against forecasts of a 0.2% gain. AMAT.US trades 5.59% lower at $504.64 pre-market, the largest decline among large-cap technology names, after its 13 August results. The dollar index eased 0.39% to 99.57 and gold added 0.34% to US$4,435.60 after the consumer print.

Retail sales fall 0.6% in July

The US Census Bureau reported July retail and food services sales of $763.6 billion on 14 August 2026, down 0.6% from June and up 5.0% from July 2025. Consensus was a 0.2% gain. Sales excluding autos fell 0.3% against a 0.2% expected rise. June was unrevised at plus 0.2%.

Equity futures held their pre-release levels through the first minutes after 8:30am ET, with S&P 500 futures at 7,825.75, up 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 futures at 30,233.00, up 0.15%. The dollar index fell 0.39% to 99.57 and gold rose 0.34% to US$4,435.60, a wider response than the futures showed. The US 10-year Treasury yield is at 4.64%.

Overnight drivers

• Memory and storage names: SNDK.US closed 13.67% higher on 13 August after its investor day, where management set a long-term model of mid-to-high-teens revenue growth and non-GAAP gross margins near 80% for fiscal 2028 through fiscal 2030. WDC.US rose 7.31% and MU.US 4.23% in the same session. All three extend those gains pre-market.
• Korea: the KOSPI closed 2.42% higher at 6,977.94, with SK Hynix up 3.26% and Samsung Electronics up 2.43%, the same memory trade that lifted US storage names on Thursday.
• AMAT.US: down 5.59% at $504.64 pre-market. The company reported fiscal third-quarter results on 13 August above consensus and guided to more than 30% growth in semiconductor equipment spending in 2026. The stock fell 2.48% in Thursday's regular session and has extended that decline.
• CSCO.US: fell 8.40% on 13 August to $113.47 on gross margin concerns, despite adjusted earnings of $1.22 a share against $1.17 expected and revenue of $17.25 billion against $16.82 billion expected. That single move is why the Dow closed 0.13% higher on Thursday against the S&P 500's 0.65%.

Wall Street on Thursday

• S&P 500: 7,798.99 (+0.65%), a record close
• Nasdaq Composite: 26,803.03 (+0.81%)
• Dow: 53,839.99 (+0.13%)
• Russell 2000: 3,052.85 (+0.24%)

The S&P 500 traded between 7,776.44 and 7,815.23 through Thursday's session before settling at 7,798.99. The VIX is at 14.52 this morning, down 0.75%.

Overnight Asia and Europe

• KOSPI: 6,977.94 (+2.42%)
• Nikkei 225: 68,713.80 (+0.59%)
• Hang Seng: 25,116.85 (-1.10%)
• Shanghai Composite: 3,927.18 (+0.01%)
• DAX: 26,526.61 (+0.86%)
• STOXX 600: 659.60 (+0.05%)
• FTSE 100: 10,772.74 (unchanged)

Hong Kong was the one decliner among the major overnight sessions, at 25,116.85, down 1.10%.

Pre-market movers

IMXI.US at $14.34 sits 10.4% below the $16.00 a share cash price Western Union agreed. Western Union and Intermex disclosed on 13 August that California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation suspended an approval extension granted on 31 July.

US economic calendar today (ET)

• 08:30 Retail sales, July: fell 0.6% against a 0.2% rise expected
• 08:30 Import price index, July: 0.1% expected, 0.3% prior
• 09:15 Industrial production, July: 0.2% expected, 0.1% prior
• 10:00 Michigan consumer sentiment, preliminary August: 68.5 expected, 66.4 prior

What to watch

• Michigan sentiment at 10:00am ET is the second consumer reading of the session, after retail sales fell 0.6%.
• The dollar index at 99.57 and gold at US$4,435.60 both moved on the retail sales print. Equity futures did not.
• Dow futures at 53,850.00, down 0.16%, sit below Nasdaq 100 futures at 30,233.00, up 0.15%.

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