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Banking on Resilience: Rebounds, Risks, and Record Gold · The SPY Trader

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Spy Trader !
• 0:04
  I am your host , Sunny Sideup , and it is a pleasure to have you with us .
• 0:09
  It is currently 2:30 pm on Friday , August 21st , 2026 , out here in the Pacific time zone .
• 0:17
  We are wrapping up a wild week , and if you have been watching the screens , you know it has been a bit of a rollercoaster .
• 0:24
  Today , we are seeing a nice little rebound in the US stock market after some serious volatility sparked by a surge in bond yields .
• 0:33
  Even with today's gains , most major indexes are still looking at weekly losses because those Treasury yields hit nineteenyear highs and things are getting tense in the Middle East .
• 0:45
  Let's look at the numbers .
• 0:47
  The Dow Jones Industrial Average , which you can track via the DIA ticker , is leading the pack today , up about one percent to around 53,277 .
• 0:58
  This tells us investors are moving toward value and industrial stocks .
• 1:03
  The S&P 500 , which we follow through the SPY or VOO , is up roughly pointfour to pointfive percent , sitting near 7,680 .
• 1:14
  Meanwhile , the techheavy Nasdaq , represented by the QQQ , is lagging just a bit with a pointtwo to pointfour percent gain .
• 1:22
  High interest rates are really putting pressure on those tech valuations .
• 1:26
  Looking at the sectors , Financials are having a great day .
• 1:30
  JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are both up , with Goldman climbing over two percent .
• 1:36
  Higher rates actually help bank margins , so that is a silver lining .
• 1:42
  In Health Care , Moderna is the talk of the town , surging seventeen percent thanks to successful Phase 3 results for their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine .
• 1:52
  On the flip side , Energy remains the big winner for 2026 overall .
• 1:57
  With the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz , oil prices are hovering between eightysix and eightyseven dollars a barrel , which makes companies in the XLE fund the primary earnings drivers this year .
• 2:09
  We are also seeing a shift in Tech .
• 2:12
  People are moving away from names not involved in AI .
• 2:16
  Meta is feeling the heat today , down sharply because of a massive legal battle in California regarding child safety laws .
• 2:23
  On the macro side , we are watching a huge gap between stock prices and bond yields .
• 2:29
  The thirtyyear Treasury yield is at fivepointtwofive percent .
• 2:33
  Our Fed Chair , Kevin Warsh , kept rates steady recently , but the market is already nervous about a hike in December to fight inflation .
• 2:43
  In other news , Ross Stores and BJ’s Wholesale Club both beat earnings today , showing that shoppers are still out there looking for deals .
• 2:51
  Bitcoin is also having a moment , which is lifting Robinhood and Coinbase by eleven and eight percent respectively .
• 2:59
  Gold is also near record highs at over fortysix hundred dollars an ounce as people look for safety .
• 3:05
  For my trading thoughts today , I suggest a strategy of Defensive Growth and Income .
• 3:12
  You might want to consider moving some weight from the QQQ tech fund into the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund , ticker XLF .
• 3:20
  Since tech is struggling against those high yields , banks like Goldman Sachs are showing much better relative strength .
• 3:27
  I also like the Health Care sector , specifically the XLV fund or Moderna itself , because that cancer vaccine news provides growth that does not depend on what the Fed does .
• 3:39
  To protect yourself , consider hedging with Gold via GLD or Energy via XLE .
• 3:45
  With the Middle East conflict unresolved , oil and gold are great shields against geopolitical risk .
• 3:51
  Finally , be careful with longterm bonds like the TLT ETF for now .
• 3:56
  Until we hear more from the Jackson Hole Symposium , those bond prices are still at risk while yields trend upward .
• 4:03
  Stay safe out there and keep your eyes on the charts .
• 4:06
  This is Sunny Sideup , signing off for Spy Trader !