NEW YORK MARKET CLOSE: Shares lower as retail sales, sentiment slump

14. Aug 2026

(AWP Alliance News) - Weak retail sales and consumer sentiment data brought shares lower on Friday, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the week higher as second-quarter earnings season winds down.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 107.58 points, 0.2%, at 53,732.41. The S&P 500 fell 13.23 points, 0.2%, to 7,785.76. The Nasdaq Composite ended down 73.86 points, 0.3%, at 26,729.16.

For the week, the DJIA lost 0.6%, the S&P gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

"US retail sales posted their weakest performance in over a year as internet sales cooled following Amazon Prime day and consumers became more cautious on purchasing big-ticket items, such as autos. A soft jobs market and financial pressure amongst low and middle-income households aren't helping, either," ING wrote.

"We also have to consider that this is a nominal dollar figure, so when we try to translate what it may mean for [third quarter] consumer spending growth within GDP, we have to adjust for price changes, which means that in volume (real) terms, it is going to be an even bigger drop. Nonetheless, we still think there is scope for a rebound in August and continue to predict a 2-2.5% annualised growth rate for [third quarter] GDP, boosted by an ongoing tech investment boom, after the rather disappointing 1.5% outcome in [the second quarter]," ING added.

The US Census Bureau on Friday said advance monthly US retail and food services sales declined 0.6% on-month in July to USD763.6 billion from USD768.1 billion in June.

The fall followed 0.2% growth in June and was below FXStreet-cited consensus which forecast 0.1% growth in July.

On year, sales were 5.0% higher than in July 2025, but slowed from a 6.8% on-year rise in June.

Excluding sales at auto dealers and gasoline stations, sales dipped 0.2% on a month-on-month basis in July.

Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary August sentiment index totalled 51 in August, down from a final reading of 55.2 in July and 58.2 a year ago.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a reading of 55.

The report showed consumers expect prices to rise 4.3% over the next year, compared to 4.2% in July and 3.4% before the Iran conflict began in February.

"Although the early-month weakening in sentiment was pervasive across various demographic groups, notably large reductions were seen among older consumers, lower-income consumers, and those without a college degree. These groups are all particularly vulnerable to any erosion of purchasing power stemming from inflation," said surveys of consumers director Joanne Hsu.

A barrel of Brent fetched USD88.45 on Friday, up from USD86.91 on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate rose to USD82.29 from USD80.08.

Applied Materials shares fell 5.5% on Friday following strong quarterly results as soft margin guidance disappointed.

The materials engineering solutions company, which supplies the semiconductor industry, said revenue increased 25% to a record USD9.12 billion in the three months ended July 26 from USD7.30 billion the year prior, beating Visible Alpha consensus of USD9.03 billion.

Non-GAAP diluted EPS jumped 41% to USD3.50 from USD2.48, ahead of VA consensus of USD3.41. Non-GAAP gross margin grew to 50.4% from 48.9%.

Applied Materials forecast fourth quarter revenue comfortably ahead of consensus. It expects non-GAAP gross margin to be around 50.4% in the quarter, up 230 basis-points year-over-year, but flat quarter-on-quarter.

On the earnings call, analysts raised questions about the flat sequential margin guidance, noting it was below peers, and the scale of increased investment pledged by the company.

Applied Materials closed down 5.1%.

Micron on Thursday launched a new USD250 million investment vehicle called the Micron Ventures Paradigm Fund, aimed at backing companies developing the next generation of artificial intelligence technologies.

The memory chip maker said the fund is the third and largest of its Micron Ventures arm and will invest across the full AI technology stack, including model architecture, compute infrastructure, enterprise applications and what the company describes as physical AI such as robotics and new device formats.

Micron ended up 2.3%. Fellow memory stocks Western Digital and SanDisk ended up 4.4% and 7.4%, respectively.

Uber on Thursday announced an expanded partnership with autonomous-driving technology company Pony AI to deploy more than 2,000 Pony.ai robotaxis across Europe.

Pony AI develops and commercialises level 4 autonomous driving systems and operates paid, fully driverless robotaxi services in China's tier-one cities. The company provide its L4 technology, rider experience capabilities and operational expertise under the partnership.

Uber said the rollout will build on their commercial service in Zagreb and extend to four additional European cities, with further deployment planned in the Middle East.

The company also announced a new operational partnership with taxi operator Hinomaru Kotsu Co Ltd for its planned autonomous vehicle pilot in Tokyo.

Hinomaru will manage day-to-day fleet operations for the pilot scheduled to begin in late 2026.

Uber ended up 0.1%.

Boeing on Friday said it will increase the production of Standard Missile-3 hardware under new framework agreements with the US Pentagon.

The aerospace manufacturer has signed new seven-year framework agreements with the US Department of Defense and Raytheon, to ramp up production of critical hardware for the Standard Missile-3, including avionics and ejector assemblies.

Boeing ended up 0.6%.

Against the dollar, the euro was at USD1.1568, up from USD1.1529. Sterling rose to USD1.3536 from USD1.3485. Against the yen, the dollar was at JPY159.36, down from JPY159.51.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 4.69% from 4.64%. The 30-year yield was at 5.26%, up from 5.21%.

Gold increased to USD4,373.54 an ounce from USD4,358.20 on Thursday.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.2%, as did the CAC 40 in Paris. The DAX 40 ended up 0.5% in Frankfurt.

In China, the Shanghai Composite closed slightly higher. The Hang Seng fell 1.1% in Hong Kong. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.8% in Sydney.

Monday's global economic calendar has the New York empire state manufacturing index; China industrial production, retail sales and unemployment; and Japan GDP and industrial production.

Financial markets are closed in South Korea for Liberation Day.

By Aidan Lane, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom [at] alliancenews.com