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Wall Street’s Wild Week: Tech Buyouts and Gold’s Record Highs · The SPY Trader

• 0:00
  Good morning , everyone !
• 0:02
  It is 6 am on Saturday , August 22nd , 2026 , Pacific time .
• 0:07
  You are listening to Spy Trader , the podcast that keeps your portfolio on the right track .
• 0:13
  I am your host , Penny Profits , and I am so glad you are joining me this morning to unpack what has been quite a wild week on Wall Street .
• 0:21
  If you felt a little bit like you were on a roller coaster this week , you are not alone .
• 0:27
  The U.S.
• 0:27
  stock market just wrapped up a very volatile five days , defined by a real tugofwar between strong earnings and some pretty heavy macroeconomic pressure .
• 0:37
  Even though we saw a nice rally on Friday to trim the losses , the week as a whole was a bit shaky , officially ending the multiweek winning streak for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq .
• 0:50
  Let us look at the numbers .
• 0:53
  The S&P 500 , which we follow through the SPY ETF , closed at 7,674.37 .
• 1:01
  It was up 0.4 percent on Friday but down 1.4 percent for the week .
• 1:07
  The Nasdaq , or QQQ , gained a bit on Friday to finish at 26,180.45 , but it lost 2.1 percent across the week as the tech giants took a wellearned breather .
• 1:21
  The Dow Jones , ticker DIA , was actually the star of Friday’s rebound , jumping 517 points to close at 53,277.01 , though it still ended the week down 0.8 percent .
• 1:36
  It was a big week for energy , though .
• 1:38
  The XLE ETF hit its highest levels since March , mostly because Brent crude oil is hovering near 89 dollars a barrel due to escalating tensions between the U.S.
• 1:49
  and Iran .
• 1:50
  On the flip side , real estate took a hit .
• 1:54
  The VNQ ETF was pressured by the 10year Treasury yield climbing back up to 4.73 percent , making it more expensive for those REITs to borrow money .
• 2:04
  In the world of tech , we are seeing a fascinating shift .
• 2:08
  While the XLK technology fund is up over 40 percent yearoveryear , investors are starting to move away from hardware and chipmakers toward software companies , looking for what we call AI value .
• 2:21
  Speaking of value , there were some massive deal rumors this week !
• 2:24
  PayPal , ticker PYPL , saw shares surge on reports that Stripe and Advent International want to buy them for somewhere between 67 and 73 dollars per share .
• 2:35
  That would value the company at over 53 billion dollars !
• 2:39
  We also saw Workday , ticker WDAY , jump nearly 20 percent because Silver Lake is reportedly in talks to take them private in a 51 billion dollar deal .
• 2:51
  It seems private equity thinks software is on sale .
• 2:54
  In retail , Ross Stores , ticker ROST , beat profit estimates and gained 4.4 percent on Friday , while Walmart , ticker WMT , had its worst session in four years earlier in the week despite their new tap to pay rollout .
• 3:09
  And we cannot forget Nvidia , ticker NVDA .
• 3:13
  They just announced a staggering 105 billion dollar credit guarantee for an OpenAI data center project in Ohio .
• 3:21
  All eyes are on their earnings report coming this Wednesday , August 26th .
• 3:26
  Looking at the big picture , the Goldilocks narrative is really being tested .
• 3:31
  Our services economy is booming with a 20month high of 56.8 , but manufacturing is still a bit sluggish .
• 3:39
  Our new Fed Chair , Kevin Warsh , is facing a split committee , and the market is pricing in a 30 to 60 percent chance of a rate hike in September .
• 3:49
  This has made the bond market , specifically the TLT ETF , very jumpy , with yields at their highest levels since 2007 .
• 3:58
  Because of all this debt and geopolitical risk , gold has absolutely exploded .
• 4:03
  The GLD ETF saw gold pass 4,600 dollars an ounce this week .
• 4:08
  So , what is the game plan ?
• 4:10
  For your portfolio , I recommend focusing on what we call idiosyncratic winners .
• 4:16
  These are companies with specific reasons to go up regardless of the broad market First , take a look at PayPal , ticker PYPL .
• 4:24
  With a buyout offer on the table near 70 dollars , there is a nice floor under the stock and a high GF Score of 92 .
• 4:32
  Second , consider Apple , ticker AAPL , as a defensive play .
• 4:36
  It has the lowest correlation to the other big tech stocks and acts as a safety net when the AI hardware hype gets too loud .
• 4:43
  For inflation protection , you cannot ignore gold , ticker GLD , or energy , ticker XLE .
• 4:51
  With oil high and debt rising , these hard assets are outperforming paper assets right now .
• 4:57
  Finally , for your core holdings , focus on fees .
• 5:00
  While everyone talks about SPY , you might want to look at the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF , ticker IVV , or the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF , ticker SPYM .
• 5:13
  These have much lower fees , and in a highinterestrate world , saving those small percentages makes a huge difference over time .
• 5:22
  That is all for this morning's update .
• 5:24
  I am Penny Profits , and this has been Spy Trader .
• 5:27
  Stay smart , stay diversified , and I will check back in with you in a few hours .
• 5:33
  Happy trading !