The U.S. Treasury stepped in to prop up long bonds, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) ripped over 20%, Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) got punished on a beat and Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) delivered the biggest one-day rally in its history.
Bessent Steps In — Then The Market Steps Back
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent staged a rare intervention on Wednesday.
The 30-year Treasury yield had just hit 5.27%, a 19-year high, on a mix of concerns over the $40 trillion national debt, a fiscal 2026 deficit tracking above $1.8 trillion, and heavy AI-related corporate issuance.
Two weeks after publishing its buyback schedule, Treasury announced it would “at least double” its buybacks of 10- to 30-year debt.
Long-end yields collapsed on the news — the 30-year dropped nine basis points, the 10-year 5.7 basis points. The relief lasted less than 48 hours. By Friday, the 30-year was back to 5.25%, near pre-announcement levels.
JPMorgan called the move a “band-aid” without underlying fiscal consolidation. Evercore ISI flagged the risk of a “slippery slope” if Bessent starts trying to defend specific yield levels.
Bitcoin Storms Higher
The bond intervention delivered one clear beneficiary: crypto. Bitcoin surged from around $63,000 Monday to above $77,000 Friday morning — a roughly 23% weekly gain, its best week since 2023.
President Donald Trump‘s push for Congress to pass the Clarity Act added a regulatory tailwind, and $2.7 billion in bearish crypto bets got forcibly closed out — a record short squeeze that mechanically accelerated the move.
Walmart Sinks 9% On A Beat-And-Raise
Walmart Inc. delivered Q2 revenue of $187.9 billion (vs. $186.8 billion consensus) and adjusted EPS of $0.81 (vs. $0.74).
Global e-commerce grew 23%, advertising 38%, marketplace 52%.
Full-year FY27 guidance was raised: sales growth to 4-5% (from 3.5-4.5%), operating income to 7-8.5%, EPS to $2.80-$2.87.
The catch: a one-off $2.9 billion tariff refund inflated the print.
Underlying U.S. comps grew just 2.6%, and Q3 EPS guidance of $0.62-$0.64 landed below the $0.68 consensus. Shares fell 9.2% to $103.84, wiping out roughly $90 billion in market cap.
Business Growth Hits 52-Month High
The S&P Global U.S. Flash Composite PMI jumped to 56.0 in August from 54.5 in July, the fastest pace of business activity growth since April 2022. Services surged to a 20-month high of 56.8, offsetting a slowdown in manufacturing output (51.9, a 13-month low).
‘U.S. business is booming,’ S&P Global chief economist Chris Williamson said.
The survey points to Q3 GDP growth “approaching 3.0%,” well above Q2’s 1.5% pace.
Top S&P 500 Weekly Gainers
- Moderna Inc. +134% — up 177% Wednesday alone, the biggest single-day gain in the stock’s history, after intismeran autogene — its Merck-partnered personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine — hit both primary and secondary endpoints in the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial (1,137 patients, stage IIB-IV melanoma). It was the first successful late-stage readout for any mRNA cancer therapy. Bank of America upgraded to Neutral and raised its price target from $40 to $170. Short sellers absorbed roughly $5.5 billion in losses. Shares gave back 20% Thursday on profit-taking, then rebounded 11.5% Friday.
- Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) +26% — the highest-liquidity crypto proxy on U.S. exchanges rode Bitcoin’s 23% weekly surge and mounting optimism around Clarity Act passage.
- The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) +17% — Q4 revenue of $3.63 billion (+6.5% YoY) beat the $3.54 billion consensus. Adjusted EPS of $0.39 topped the $0.32 estimate. Management raised FY27 adjusted operating margin guidance to 12.7-13.5% (from 11.2% in FY26) and guided FY27 EPS to $3.10-$3.35, implying 24-34% growth. Fragrance grew 10% organically for the year; mainland China accelerated 12% in Q4.
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