Closing Bell: 8/31/26

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**Scott Wapner** (0:43)
All right, guys, thanks so much. Welcome to Closing Bell. I'm Scott Wapner, live from Post 9 here at the New York Stock Exchange. This make or break out begins with the road ahead for the markets, rates, oil, stocks. They're all in focus today. Let's show you the scorecard with 60 to go in regulation. We have been red all day long as the Iran military strikes. That's front and center. We're still digesting Fetch Air Warsch's speech in Jackson Hole. Earnings from some key tech players. Almost every sector is in the red.
Tech has been sort of in between, and we'll watch it over this final stretch because anything, frankly, can happen. We're certainly watching Cybernames carrying over from last week's nice move. We do have some earnings on tap, Palo Alto's tomorrow, but all of those stocks looking pretty good. How about Apple shares today? They're lower as Tim Cook winds down his final day as CEO. We'll have a special report coming up there, along with another notable departure from that company to keep an eye on. Does take us to our talk to the tape, whether a historically bad month for stocks lives up to the hype.
Let's ask our experts. Let's welcome our panel, New Edge Wealth's Cameron Dawson, CNBC contributor, Payne Capital's Courtney Garcia, and Robin Hood's Stephanie Guild. Welcome one and all. All right. New month, historically says terrible. How should we feel after, I guess, a clearing event of last week? NVIDIA out of the way, Marvell out of the way, Chair Warspeech out of the way. What are we left with?

**Cameron Dawson** (2:08)
I think we should buckle up for some more volatility. We are going into what we know, everybody knows is a seasonal stretch that typically has headwinds, but there still have been some signs of complacency within this market. Look how low the VIX was and really wasn't showing signs of any kind of demand for downside protection.

**Scott Wapner** (2:25)
I thought it was like at 14, wasn't it?

**Cameron Dawson** (2:26)
The VIX wasn't vixing. And so we also saw this deterioration in breadth under the surface as well. We saw the number of names of trading above their 50-day moving average go from 70% at the end of July down to 53%. So there has been some weakness under the surface, which is likely going to come home to roost as we get into this tougher seasonal stretch.

**Keith Lerner** (2:46)
How do you see it?

**Courtney Garcia** (2:48)
I largely agree. I'm a little bit, it feels a little bit, and this is not going to be 2008, but if you remember like...

**Cameron Dawson** (2:54)
2008?

**Keith Lerner** (2:55)
What are you trying to say?

**Courtney Garcia** (2:57)
But I'm just saying it feels a little bit similar only because if you remember, the Olympics ended like August 24th of 2008 and then like a month later, so we started going into some more volatility. I'm not saying it's 2008, but I do feel like everything, as Cameron said, the VIX is low, the equity, the constituent volatility is low, and then you have the VIX that's low. But I do also think like, I also like the fact that there are micro stories shining through. You mentioned cyber. I also think it has something to do with the DoorCache, X-post and OpenAI, all the swarms of agents that were breaking into things.
I think there's, and then you have Chevron up because of what's happening in Venezuela. Like I think I also like the micro stories that are shining through that you can still play.

**Scott Wapner** (3:40)
So, when you even bring up 08, you're only talking from a lack of volatility standpoint, if not some complacency you're thinking about?

**Courtney Garcia** (3:50)
The calm before the storm.

**Scott Wapner** (3:51)
What's the storm? What's going to bring on this storm?

**Courtney Garcia** (3:54)