Earnings, Cancer Vaccine, Long-Term Liquidity: A Busy Pre-Market

Wednesday, August 19th, 2026

Pre-market futures are up after two straight days of closing market indexes in the red. Q2 earnings season is in its final stages, the AI trade feels long in the tooth, and a pause on Canadian tariffs and relative quiet on the Middle Eastern front are helping the tide come in somewhat for stock buying.

Biggest among the gainers this morning is Moderna MRNA, up +95% at this hour following a report regarding the efficacy of its intismeran vaccine, which met its primary goals in Phase 3 testing: preventing cancer in melanoma patients whose tumors had been surgically removed. Moderna’s partner/bank for this vaccine’s development is Merck MRK, which is up +7% on the news.

Also, as this article gets typed, news from the U.S. Treasury has sent bonds yields notably lower and market indexes notably higher: it plans to double liquidity support buyback operations on longer-end securities (10-30 years). The current buyback position is $2 billion per operation; this will now become $4 billion. The 30-year bond has now dropped below +5.3%, the 10-year beneath +4.7% and the 2-year  under +4.2%. Market indexes are now up triple digits a half hour ahead of the opening bell.
 

Morning Earnings Reports at a Glance: TGT, LOW & More

Target TGT reported beats on both top and bottom lines this morning, with earnings of $2.46 per share on revenues of $26.54 billion up +7% and +1.6% from expectations, respectively. Guidance was raised going forward, with emphasis on the success of the retailer’s turnaround. Yet shares are selling off -1%, following +56% growth year to date. For more on TGT’s earnings, click here.

Lowe’s LOW posted mixed Q2 results this morning, outpacing estimates on earnings by +4.27% to $4.40 per share while revenues of $25.96 billion missed the Zacks consensus by -0.68% (though still up $2 billion from a year ago). The company continued the narrative from Home Depot’s earnings yesterday, which depicted a frozen housing market. For more on LOW’s earnings, click here.

TJ Maxx, Marshall’s and HomeGoods parent The TJX Companies TJX outperformed estimates this morning, with earnings of $1.22 per share surpassing the Zacks consensus by 4 cents on revenues of $15.18 billion, up +0.29% from expectations. A weaker outlook in the current quarter, however, saw investors sell shares -3.3% on the news. For more on TJX’s earnings, click here.

Estee Lauder EL shares are booming this morning — +12% — following its strong performance in fiscal Q4 this morning: earnings of $0.39 per share bettered the $0.32 anticipated, while revenues of $3.63 billion improved by +2.15% over expectations. Shares had been down -12.7% year to date, so the stock is back to breakeven. For more on EL’s earnings, click here.
 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Today

Of course, we’ll keep an eye on developments in the Strait of Hormuz and at the White House. This afternoon, we’ll see the Fed minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting from last month. While the Fed kept interest rates steady at their 3.50-3.75% range, there were three dissenters who voted for a 25 basis-point increase.

In the first FOMC meeting with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at the helm, we saw many changes afoot: no guidance in the Fed monetary policy statement nor in the press conference which followed. The minutes from that meeting, when they were announced, were detailed and expansive. We expect the minutiae to be tilled in today’s release, as well. Hopefully it will give us some of the answers the DC press pool had been looking for.

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