Stock Market Today: SPY, QQQ Stumble as Consumer Sentiment Slips and Retail Sales Slide

Both the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) finished Friday in the red following two negative economic data points.

News That Moved the Stock Market Today

• Retail sales declined 0.6% month over month in July, compared with a 0.2% increase in June and well below the 0.1% estimate. The drop marked the weakest monthly performance since May 2025.
• Non-store retailers, such as Amazon (AMZN), saw their sales fall 2.2%. The decline may partly reflect the company shifting its Prime Day event from July to June this year.
• The University of Michigan’s preliminary Index of Consumer Sentiment fell to 51.0 in August from 55.2 in July, ending a two-month streak of gains and falling short of the 55.0 consensus estimate. In addition, year-ahead inflation expectations among consumers rose to 4.3% from 4.2% in July. Long-term inflation expectations tallied at 3.3% for the third consecutive month.
• The weak economic data pushed rate hike expectations lower. The odds of a 25-bp rate hike at the September 16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) dropped to 32.6% from 33.9% a day ago and 44.4% a week ago.
• Broadcom (AVGO) sank following reports of an active exploitation of a security vulnerability in VMware vCenter.
• Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart disclosed an eight-million share stake in SpaceX (SPCX) worth over $1 billion.
• SanDisk (SNDK) rallied after holding an investor day event. In addition, JPMorgan (JPM) analyst Harlan Sur resumed coverage of SNDK with a $2,250 price target.
• Several major retailers are set to report their earnings next week, including Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), and Home Depot (HD).