Stock Market Live August 29: S&P 500 (VOO) Falls as Inflation Heats Up
Key Points
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Core inflation continues to rise, reaching 2.9% in July.
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Consumer spending continues to outpace consumer income gains.
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Friday Wrap-up
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed at 593.08 Friday, down 0.6% for the day but only 0.02% for the week.
No Deathknell for Dell
Barclays analyst Tim Long explained today’s curious reaction to Dell Technologies’ earnings beat today, noting that the mix of artificial intelligence server shipments knocked down gross margin, and it’s probably this weakness in the AI business that seems to have investors most upset. Nevertheless, Long raised his price target on Dell stock to $131 today. Margins “will still be the bottleneck” to Dell’s stock price moving higher, says the analyst.
Alibaba Misses, Alibaba Stock Pops
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) missed on its own Q2 earnings this morning, reporting a profit of RMB14.75 where Wall Street wanted to see RMB15.47. Revenue also fell short of expectations at RMB247.7 billion.
Investors are focusing on Alibaba’s 26% growth in cloud services (i.e. AI) revenue, however, and Alibaba stock is up more than 8% in early trading.
The Voo is now down 0.3%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
After rising modestly Thursday, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) turned lower in Friday’s premarket, trading down about 0.2%. New inflation data seems to be to blame.
As expected, the Commerce Department’s report on July personal consumption expenditures showed core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, rising 10 basis points in comparison to June to 2.9%. Falling food and energy prices moderated the overall inflation rate, which now stands at 2.6%.
Consumer spending grew by 0.5% in the month, while consumer income grew only 0.4% — not a huge difference, but still indicative of consumers being forced to spend beyond their means.
Earnings
A handful of S&P 500 component companies are still reporting earnings. Among them:
Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK) beat on its report by 17 cents last night, earning $2.62 per share in its fiscal Q2 2026. Revenue of $1.76 billion also exceeded expectations versus the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. Autodesk’s guidance was strong, forecasting $2.48 to $2.51 per share in Q3 2026 earnings, and $9.80 to $9.98 for the year — all numbers well ahead of analyst forecasts.
Autodesk stock is up nearly 13% premarket.
Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL) reported a $0.67 per share Q2 profit, right in line with analyst estimates. Revenue likewise nailed Wall Street’s forecast for $2 billion. For Q3, Marvell predicts it will earn between $0.69 and $0.79 per share, ahead at the midpoint of Wall Street’s $0.72 forecast — but apparently not far enough ahead to satisfy investors.
Marvell stock is down 14% premarket.
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) beat earnings by three cents last night, earning $2.32 per share in Q2. Revenue beat expectations as well — $29.8 billion. Rounding out the good news, Dell says it will earn $9.55 per share in this, its fiscal 2026, versus analysts’ consensus of $9.37. Revenue of $105 to $109 billion will similarly beat expectations.
Nevertheless, Dell stock is down 7% premarket.
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