CNBC

Lead Story

U.S. military forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island that were preparing to fire sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, breaking a month-long lull as regional tensions escalate. The strike immediately pushed crude prices up over 2%—with U.S. crude hitting $85.14 per barrel and Brent reaching $89.90—intensifying energy supply anxieties as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent readies aggressive financial sanctions ahead of this week’s G20 meetings.

Markets & Economics

Wall Street wrapped up a winning August led by tech, with Dow futures easing 66 points (0.1%), S&P 500 futures slipping 0.1%, and the underlying Dow clinching a 2.1% monthly advance alongside monthly gains of 3% for the S&P 500 and 4% for the Nasdaq Composite, as tracked in CNBC’s market wrap. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faces an uphill diplomatic battle at the G20 in Asheville as 30-year Treasury yields touched 19-year highs, forcing the Treasury to double long-dated bond buybacks to $4 billion per operation to calm sovereign debt fears with total U.S. debt crossing $40 trillion, detailed in CNBC’s G20 coverage. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s hawkish Jackson Hole address warning that underlying inflation remains concerning sent the CME FedWatch odds of a September 25-basis-point rate hike surging to 55%, up from 35% previously. Markets are now bracing for Friday’s August nonfarm payrolls report, where forecasters project 62,500 jobs added and the unemployment rate edging up to 4.2% against a labor force participation rate of 61.4%, its lowest non-Covid level in 50 years, via CNBC’s week ahead preview.

Business & Earnings

Insurance brokerage giant Aon is nearing a roughly $17 billion acquisition of USI from private-equity firm KKR to expand midsize business penetration and lift earnings per share by 2028, per CNBC’s M&A report. Retailers revealed diverging playbooks on deploying second-quarter tariff refunds, with Home Depot receiving $730 million and using $685 million to reduce cost of goods sold, while Walmart is steering its eligible $2.9 billion rebate into aggressive consumer price cuts, according to CNBC’s retail analysis. Conversely, Lowe’s deployed its $80 million refund strictly for an 11-cent earnings-per-share boost to protect investor margins rather than slash retail prices, while Target logged a $752 million net earnings boost ($1.65 per share) and $994 million in pretax gross margin and operating income benefits. Meanwhile, Big Tech faces mounting regulatory costs after Meta agreed to a landmark $17 billion settlement with state attorneys general to introduce youth daily usage limits and age assurance, establishing a framework that litigators now aim to apply across social media competitors, reported in CNBC’s legal analysis.

Investing & Commentary

Top Wall Street analysts highlighted defensive energy dividend plays to navigate macro volatility, with Morgan Stanley raising its price target on Exxon Mobil (2.6% yield) to $177 on higher refining margins, and Goldman Sachs boosting targets on Expand Energy (2.3% yield) to $113 and Permian operator Diamondback Energy (2.2% yield) to $220 on capital-efficient production growth, outlined in CNBC’s analyst picks. In robotics, Deutsche Bank, Bernstein, and UBS issued bullish ratings on Shenzhen-listed reducer supplier Shuanghuan, citing its three-year partnership co-developing waist joint reducers for Tesla’s humanoid robots and an upcoming IPO of its Fine Motion subsidiary, via CNBC’s robotics report. On the tech front, Jim Cramer argued that Nvidia’s 4.6% Friday slide from $229.26 to $217.55 was an algorithmic reaction to Fed Chair Warsh’s rate hike threats crimping data center capital financing, rather than a deterioration in core computing demand, in CNBC’s market commentary.

Also Worth Watching

• NASA’s Newest Space Telescope Launches on Falcon Heavy (CNBC): SpaceX launched NASA’s $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket to survey dark energy and exoplanets with a field of view 100 times wider than Hubble.
• Iceland Voters Reject Reopening European Union Accession Talks (CNBC): Over 52.8% of voters in Iceland rejected restarting EU membership negotiations, choosing domestic control over fisheries and sovereignty over European integration despite heightened Arctic defense debates.
• Venezuela Outlines 25-Year Bilateral Energy Deal with the U.S. (CNBC): Interim President Delcy Rodriguez announced a 25-year agreement targeting 1.5 million barrels per day across 17 strategic oilfields, projected to deliver $209 billion in revenue to the Venezuelan state.
• South Korea’s APR Surges Ahead of U.S. Costco Expansion (CNBC): Shares of K-beauty leader APR have climbed nearly 100% this year as its flagship Medicube brand enters Costco stores nationwide following a 134.2% jump in second-quarter revenue.

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