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August 21, 2026 · market close

Goldman Sachs Drives a Big Dow Day While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Lag

The Dow's 517-point gain outran the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, with Goldman Sachs alone worth nearly half the index's advance.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,674.37, up 33.21 points, or 0.43%, on the day. Breadth was positive, with 331 of the index's 502 members finishing higher, and concentration sat at a moderate 34%, putting the session in mixed mode rather than a narrow, single-stock affair.

The S&P 500 through the session

Tesla did the most for the index, adding 5.88 points on a 5.14% gain. Alphabet's two share classes followed, with the A shares up 1.22% for 2.98 points and the C shares up 1.05% for 2.06 points; together the two classes contributed just over 5 points. Broadcom added 2.56 points and Microsoft another 1.92. On the other side, Nvidia was the heaviest drag at negative 6.45 points on a 0.98% decline, with Apple, Amazon, Marvell, and Intel all subtracting as well.

S&P 500 attribution map, cell size = points contributed

The Dow

The Dow closed at 53,277.00, up 517.79 points, or 0.98%, with 21 of its 30 members higher. Concentration ran to 64%, a narrow session, and the day's move sits at the 88th percentile of the past year, which qualifies as a large move for this index. Goldman Sachs was responsible for the bulk of it, adding 222.65 points on a 3.74% gain, more than a third of the index's total advance by itself. Caterpillar contributed 73.88 points, with Amgen, Visa, and UnitedHealth each adding in the 30-point range. Honeywell was the top drag at negative 14.38 points, and Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, and Travelers all pulled the other way. The divergence from the S&P story is plain: where the broader index leaned on Tesla and megacap tech, the Dow's day belonged to Goldman Sachs and Caterpillar, with financials and industrials doing work that barely registers in the S&P's own top contributors.

The Dow through the session Dow attribution map, cell size = points contributed

The Nasdaq 100

The Nasdaq 100 closed at 29,308.86, up 95.7 points, or 0.33%, with 63 of 102 members higher. Concentration was high at 86%, and the move ranks at the 55th percentile of the past year, an ordinary session by this index's own history. Tesla again led, worth 34.97 points here, with Alphabet's two classes adding 25.35 and 21.68 points; combined, the two Alphabet share classes contributed 47.03 points to this index, a larger sum than in the S&P given the Nasdaq 100's tighter membership. Space Exploration Technologies added 20.13 points and Broadcom another 10.5. Nvidia's drag was steeper here too, at negative 25.74 points, with Apple, Amazon, Marvell, and Intel rounding out the losers. The gap with the S&P is one of scale: the same names drove and dragged both indexes, but the Nasdaq 100's narrower membership meant Tesla, Alphabet, and Nvidia each moved the needle several times harder than they did in the broader index.

The Nasdaq 100 through the session Nasdaq 100 attribution map, cell size = points contributed

The sectors

It was a split session across the eleven sectors. Materials, Health Care, and Consumer Discretionary all gained more than a percent, Financials and Consumer Staples posted smaller advances, and Technology and Industrials barely moved. Real Estate and Energy slipped fractionally while Utilities fell hard.

The 11 sectors by move, top contributor named

Materials was the day's strongest sector, up 2.1% for 1.1 points, led by Freeport-McMoRan, which gained 7.65% and added 0.23 points to the sector.

Materials: what moved it

Utilities was the weakest sector by a wide margin, down 2.31% for negative 1.01 points, with Sempra the main drag at negative 5.12% and negative 0.10 points.

Utilities: what moved it

Set against the past year, the S&P 500's 0.43% gain sits at the 68th percentile, an unremarkable session for that index even as the Dow's 0.98% advance, at the 88th percentile, stands out as one of its larger moves of the stretch. The Nasdaq 100, at the 55th percentile, was closer to the middle of its own range.

The numbers

From Babylon Burns

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Compiled by the WMTMT attribution engine from the session's official data · built by the founders of Babylon Burns