After a volatile and relatively weak July, August was a strong month for the market 📈
In this recap, we look at how the major indexes performed in August, how our portfolios did compared to the market, which stocks were our biggest winners and losers, and the changes we made during the month.
Dive into our full August Recap below 👇
📢 Our Best Buys for August are coming this week — don't miss it 🎯
What Moved the Markets in August
August was a strong month for investors, with the major U.S. indexes moving higher. At Jackson Hole, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said the U.S. economy is strong, but inflation is still too high at 3.7%. Bringing inflation back toward the Fed’s 2% target is still the priority.
August was a big month for earnings, with Nvidia once again taking center stage. Revenue reached $96.2 billion, while Nvidia expects $108 billion next quarter, ahead of the $104 billion analysts expected. The company expects 70% revenue growth in FY2028, well above the 45% the market had expected.
Palantir reported exceptional results, with U.S. commercial revenue growing 149%, its Rule of 40 reaching 155 and free cash flow margin of 63%. Salesforce delivered strong results and expanded its partnership with Anthropic through Claudeforce. Shares jumped more than 20%, lifting other software stocks. Is the SaaSpocalypse now cancelled?
The Trade Desk went in the opposite direction. The company missed revenue expectations and guided for $650 million in Q3 revenue, well below the $804 million expected. Shares fell sharply following the results.
Meta reached a settlement of up to $18 billion over claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict children. The company agreed to introduce stricter limits for teenagers using its platforms.
AI infrastructure attracted massive investments. SpaceX plans to grow its AI compute capacity from 2 GW to 10 GW by 2027, powered by Nvidia GPUs. The company is planning a $100 billion Starship complex in Louisiana and a new Terafab in Grimes County. Nvidia is working with Blackstone, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, KKR and others on a $500 billion AI infrastructure funding package for chips, power and data centers.
Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 racks entered production, with Microsoft becoming the first customer. OpenAI’s first custom AI chip, Jalapeño, developed with Broadcom, showed strong early results. SK hynix and SanDisk unveiled High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), while Samsung introduced zHBM to help meet the growing memory needs of AI.
Google Gemini surpassed 1 billion monthly users, while CrowdStrike introduced FalconIQ, its new AI-powered security platform. Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree made its stock market debut, with shares surging 487% on the first day.
Robotaxis continued expanding across the U.S. Amazon’s Zoox made its robotaxi debut in Las Vegas, while Nevada approved a much larger rollout of autonomous vehicles from Tesla, Waymo and Uber. Uber and Zipline partnered to bring autonomous drone deliveries to Uber Eats, and Amazon continued expanding its Prime Air drone delivery network.
In healthcare, Moderna and Merck reported strong results for their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine combined with Keytruda. The treatment significantly reduced the risk of melanoma returning or spreading, sending Moderna shares more than 100% higher.
How did the markets perform in August? Here's how the three major indexes ended the month:
S&P 500: +2.6% 📈 (+12.3% YTD)
Nasdaq: +3.9% 📈 (+13.5% YTD)
Dow Jones: +1.3% 📈 (+10.7% YTD)
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Portfolio Performance: How Did We Do?
How did our portfolios perform in August?
We compare our results with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones, highlight our strongest and weakest stocks, and take you through all the changes we made to our portfolios during the month.
Dive into the full recap below 👇
Available exclusively for our paid subscribers ✨