A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on August 18, 2026 in New York City. Miguel M. Santiago | Getty Images Stock futures were steady early Friday, following a sharp pullback on Wall Street that put major averages on track for weekly declines. S&P 500 futures were flat, while Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.2%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9% and 1%, respectively. That pullback left the S&P 500 down 1.9% for the week and the Nasdaq down 2.5%, putting them on track to snap a three-week winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 1.8% so far this week, on track for back-to-back weekly losses. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.39% while the Topix was flat. The Kospi reversed early losses and rose 0.80%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 4.73%. The Australian benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.31%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.72%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 gained 0.52%. Thursday’s losses came as long-term U.S. Treasury yields resumed their march higher after government efforts to stem the recent bond market slide failed to ease investor fears about inflation. “Unlike QE through [Federal Reserve]The Treasury cannot create money to finance asset purchases,” wrote Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS. “Any buyback must be financed elsewhere, most likely through increased bill issuance or adjustments to other parts of its financing program.” “In effect, the deal reshapes the maturity profile of debt held by investors rather than reducing the amount of debt that markets must absorb. “It does not eliminate the government’s funding needs or resolve Treasury supply concerns,” he wrote. Ross Stores shares rose more than 7% after hours on better-than-expected second-quarter results.
