GS Blekos Marketcolour Naturgy Nebius FLSmidth SMG 25 Aug 2026

GS Blekos - Marketcolour Naturgy Nebius FLSmidth SMG 25 Aug 2026 Ioannis Blekos · Goldman Sachs · FICC & Equities Tue 25 Aug 2026, 2:35am ET

US equities were lower in Monday trading, with tech/momentum dragging on risk - SPX -28bps to 7652 (8/11 sectors +ve, SPW vs SPX +40bps, Info Tech -159bps), NDX -97bps to 29,023, RTY -76bps to 2995. The pain in Memory (GSTMTMEM, -474bps) was pressuring High Beta Momo (GSPRHIMO, -346bps). Ahead of their much-anticipated Wednesday night EPS print, NVDA -2.9% logged its seventh consecutive decline, the longest losing streak since 2022.

Chart: Changes in mutual fund and hedge fund ownership of AI infrastructure stocks during Q2. MF & HF Added (STX, BE, SITM, FLEX), MF added & HF Cut (AMD, SNDK, MU, FIX, GLW, MTZ, AGX, EQT), MF cut & HF added (CSCO, AMZN, MSFT, NVDA, VIAV, DLR)...

Interesting: Across over 660 leveraged products, average daily share volume comprises 20.2% of total ETFs traded YTD.

Buybacks: Our desk finished with execution volumes at 1.7x vs 2025 YTD ADTV and 1.6x vs 2024 YTD ADTV, with flow heaviest across Tech, Financials, and Health Care sectors. Discretionary open market participation continued its upward momentum, rising to 40% of total desk orders (compared to 37% last week). We currently estimate 98% of the S&P 500 are in open window. Backed by YTD buyback authorizations exceeding $1.08T, the corporate bid is positioned to remain a strong source of liquidity through the thin summer broader trading environment.

China: China's July activity data showed renewed growth weakness, and we estimate that official real GDP is running at around 4% yoy in early Q3. The combination of lower volumes and lower prices indicates that the weakness is demand-driven.