Your Daily Scope and News of What Matters
Samsung stock jumped after the board approved a record 90–110 trillion won 2026 shareholder return — about five times the 2020 high. Roughly 30T won in Q3 dividends and 15T won buyback for employee pay are lined up.
Treasury buyback size jumps to at least $4 billion per long-end operation Sept. 9–Nov. 4. Bessent says it could exceed $4B after yields erased Wednesday’s relief. Debt topped $40 trillion; 30-year near 5.25%.
Bitcoin price jumped above $77,000 on Aug. 21 — up ~8% in a day and ~22% on the week — as more than $4 billion in shorts were liquidated and Treasury long-bond buybacks lifted risk appetite.
Walmart stock tumbled about 9% on Aug. 20 after U.S. comparable sales grew just 2.6% — slowest since 2020 — even as revenue and EPS beat. Fuel costs, pharmacy pricing, and soft Q3 EPS guidance drove the selloff.
Palantir stock drew fresh attention Aug. 19 after a second Sovereignty Bootcamp drew nearly 200 organizations and CEO Alex Karp said high-margin growth can run 18 more months. PLTR near $175; median Wall Street target $205.
Merck stock rose about 13% on Aug. 19 after intismeran autogene plus Keytruda met Phase 3 melanoma endpoints with Moderna. MRK closed near $152, above stale analyst targets. Keytruda was half of Q2 revenue.
Unitree Robotics closed up 460% on its Aug. 19 Shanghai STAR Market debut — from a 150.80 yuan IPO to 845 yuan. Market cap near 342 billion yuan. Record 9.78 million subscription accounts; lottery win rate 0.018%.
EIA put U.S. on-highway diesel at $5.454/gal on Aug. 17 — up 19.7¢ in a week, $1.74 vs a year ago. Market diesel crack spread hit a record ~$102/bbl. Low distillate stocks; freight and groceries lag the margin.
Aug. 19: Moderna and Merck said intismeran autogene plus Keytruda met Phase 3 melanoma endpoints. MRNA ripped on the headline; MRK rose too. Hazard ratios not disclosed — full data at a medical meeting.
NVIDIA reports Q2 FY27 on Aug. 26 at 5 p.m. ET. Company guide is $91 billion ±2% with zero China data-center compute in the model. Q1 was $81.6 billion. The print is one number. Guidance and China are the others.