Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Canada Hits Back With Tariffs, Confidence Tanks • 8/25/26
Speakers
Diana Olick
— CNBC Real Estate Correspondent
Jessica Edinger
— Anchor
Megan Cassella
— Reporter
Rick Santelli
— On-Air Editor, CNBC Business News
Summary
This CNBC midday update covers modest stock gains, Canada's retaliatory tariffs on US goods, weak consumer confidence, and soft new home sales data. Canada says it will match US tariffs dollar-for-dollar while sparing energy, and President Trump threatens Ontario. Consumer confidence missed at 89.4, and July new home sales fell sharply with rising inventory and lower prices.
- Stocks were modestly higher midday, with the Dow led by Merck and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also up.
- AMD rose 4% and Nvidia rose 1.5% ahead of Nvidia's quarterly results.
- Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on US goods but excluded energy.
- Consumer confidence missed expectations at 89.4, the weakest since January.
- July new home sales fell 10.5% month-over-month with rising inventory and falling prices.
- Surveys showed rising retirement insecurity among Americans.
Ideas
Weak new home sales pressure homebuilders.
New home sales missed expectations in July, falling 10.5% month-over-month and 6.3% year-over-year, while inventory is rising and the median sale price fell 2.3% from June and 0.9% year-over-year. Many builders are sitting on unsold completed homes, mortgage rates were stubbornly high, and incentives are not getting buyers in the door, indicating continued homebuilder pressure.
Up Next
This CNBC video, published August 25, 2026, features Diana Olick discussing XHB. 1 trade idea extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Diana Olick · Tickers: XHB