Wall Street Indexes Retains Downward Bias as U.S. Treasury Expands Short-Term Debt Issuance

Barry Adams
25 Aug, 2026
New York City

Wall Street indexes traded slightly higher ahead of key earnings and inflation reports later in the week.

The S&P 500 Index increased 0.3%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6% ahead of the release of quarterly reports from Nvidia Corp., Dick's Sporting Goods, Box, and Intuit. 

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes held near 4.67% as investors reassessed the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant's plan to buy long-term bonds to lower rising interest rates and reduce the cost of borrowing. 

The Secretary Bessent's plan landed on jittery investors, and most traders discounted the move as a sleight of hand with little impact on the overall size of the federal government's debt and new issuance.

The plan focuses on increasing the issuance of shorter-term debt, also known as Treasury bills, but raises the sensitivity to interest rate volatility, which could cause larger and frequent spikes in interest rates.

The yield on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds hovered at 5.20%, not too far from the 19-year peak of 5.32% before the announcement of the Treasury's plan.  

The West Texas Intermediate crude oil price edged down 3.02% to $82.44 per barrel, and the Brent crude oil price eased 3.1% to $89.30 a barrel. 

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up after the U.S. and Iran exchanged hostile messages and vowed to control energy product traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. 

Bessent announced plans to isolate Iran through sanctions targeting countries that continue doing business with the Islamic Republic. 

However, markets remained skeptical about whether the U.S. measures will accelerate or delay a potential deal with Iran and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Meanwhile, risks to oil tankers through the Middle East remain elevated, with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels saying they had fired on a Saudi Arabian supertanker sailing through the Red Sea, while the UK Navy reported that an oil tanker was struck and disabled near Oman. 

 

U.S. Movers 

Dick's Sporting Goods declined 14% to $155.90 after the company released its fiscal second quarter results. 

Net revenue soared 53% to $5.6 billion from $3.5 billion, net income decreased 17% to $315 million from $381 million, and diluted earnings per share dropped 26% to $3.50 from $4.71 billion. 

The prior-year results exclude the recently acquired Foot Locker, and current-year results include the dilutive impact of the 9.6 million shares issued in connection with the Foot Locker acquisition. 

The company said comparable sales rose 4.9% from a year ago, driven by broad-based growth across categories, including strong results from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and growth in average tickets and transactions. 

However, comparable sales in Foot Locker declined 3.6%, "impacted by challenging conditions in the athletic footwear marketplace."   

The specialty retailer retained Dick's business comparable sales outlook of 2.5% to 4.0% growth, lowered Foot Locker's comparable sales outlook to between -2.0% and 0%, and lowered the operating income outlook for both businesses.  

Zoom Communications decreased 0.3% to $104.50 ahead of the company's release of its quarterly results after the close of the regular trading session. 

Intuit decreased 0.4% to $368.38 ahead of the software company's release of its fiscal fourth quarter results.