GS Blekos Marketcolour

GS Ioannis Blekos - Marketcolour + AI Spending / Junior Investment Conf / HF Update / Global Macro / Prosegur / Adyen / Novonesis 17 Aug 2026 Ioannis Blekos · Goldman Sachs · Executive Director, Global Banking & Markets Mon 17 Aug 2026, 2:47am ET

US equities finished mostly lower on Friday, with modest losses in the S&P and Nasdaq and gains in the Russell 2000: SPX −17bps to 7785 (6/11 sectors +ve, SPW vs SPX +19bps, lowest volume day of the year, Energy +136bps, Healthcare −60bp), NDX −13bps to 30,046 (just ~2% below ATHs), RTY +51bps to 3068. High Beta Momo (GSPRHIMO, +393bps) gained, with Memory (GSTMTMEM, +256bps) led higher by SNDK +7.4% (+35% last week). In Europe, Software focus of the day (GSSBSFTW +3.3%) while pharma (GSXEPHAR 1.8%) and semis (GSSBSEMI −1.6%) ended bottom of our leaderboard score.

Interesting / Situational Awareness / 13f Filings (as of 30.6.2026): Top-10 holdings accounting for 91% of the public book → Sandisk 28%, Micron 28%, Bloom Energy 9%, TSMC 6%, Nebius 6%…

Interesting / AI spending: The Ramp AI Index shows that the monthly AI spend per employee for the median company has increased from $5 at the start of the year to $12 in July. The distribution of corporate AI spend is wide, with the top decile company spending $650 per month per employee in July (vs. $240 at the start of the year).

GS Invite: Building an Investment Framework Conference for your new joiner with 0–5 yrs of experience.

Derivs: The most important development remains the collapse in single-stock volatility – and the resulting pain in dispersion. Average S&P 500 single-stock 1-month implied vol fell another 2.7 points this week, bringing the decline from its July peak to 12 points. It has now fallen in six of the last seven sessions and sits at its lowest level since January.

HF Update: Fundamental LS managers up 1.0% (alpha: +0.5%), up 2.0% MTD and up 15.1% YTD. Systematic LS managers up 1.5%, up 1.9% MTD and up 15.2% YTD. Global book was net bought for 3rd straight week, this week with long buying and short covering activity (2.5 to 1). Risk-on flows. North America led the buying activity followed by Europe. EM was the most net sold region. 9/11 sectors were net bought led by Info Tech and Consumer Staples (largest weekly buying since Jul’25).