Moderna & Merck’s Cancer Treatment Win & Figma CEO 8/19/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:26)
This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update. An original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com/marketupdatepodcast or find Schwab market update wherever you get your podcasts.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (0:56)
Bring in show music, please.

**Katie Kramer** (1:00)
Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer today on Squawk Pod, the promise of a personalized cancer vaccine. We have the CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bancel.

**Stephane Bancel** (1:11)
It's a big moment for medicine, big moment for patients.

**Katie Kramer** (1:15)
Milestone experimental results that could extend life for patients with the deadly diagnosis of melanoma. Merck's Dr. Dean Li.

**Dr. Dean Li** (1:23)
We don't know if this is going to be seven years, nine years, but there's a chance that you have an increased ability to be disease free and for a potentially extended period of time.

**Katie Kramer** (1:34)
Then, how Figma is bringing design, code and AI together for new digital products and weathering investor worry about AI, CEO Dylan Field on cultivating trust in tech.

**Dylan Field** (1:45)
I will commend OpenAI for the way that they are really holding themselves to account too. I think that we should see more of that actual holding yourself to account.

**Katie Kramer** (1:59)
Plus founder problems, tariffs, midnight reprieve, election night in Florida, and the popping stock of a Chinese robotics company that is not quite like Elon Musk's humanoids.

**Becky Quick** (2:09)
He's always wanted to make the robots a little smaller and a little less likely to be able to take us over.

**Katie Kramer** (2:15)
But might still take your job.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:17)
Once this really happens, it's a whole different game.

**Katie Kramer** (2:21)
It's Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 Squawk Pod begins right now.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:27)
Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1 Cue, please.

**Becky Quick** (2:32)
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Andrew Ross Sorkin. Joe is out today. We are coming off 3 days in a row of declines for all 3 of the major averages. And for both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, yesterday was their worst performance this month. However, you are talking about these major averages, making some pretty major moves over the course of this year. Even since the Iran war began, you can look at the S&P up by almost 12%. The NASDAQ is up by about 16%. And if you're looking at the NASDAQ 100, it is up by more than 18%.
It's kind of interesting when you look at how that shapes up against energy. WTI is up about 27% over that course of time. And yet, equities markets have marched steadily higher. You're looking this morning at energy prices higher once again, up by just over 1.1% for WTI, which is trading just under $86 a barrel at 85.93. And then you've got BrentCrew up by more than 1% as well. It's trading just above $92 at 92.01.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (3:37)
Meantime, President Trump paused 50% tariffs that were set to kick in at midnight last night on some products from Canada. In a post on Truth Social, the president's saying he's now delaying those tariffs for three days, quote, based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a deal, exclamation point. The great Keystone XL pipeline long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden may be awoken from the grave. Now, those tariffs would have hit imports on Canadian products, including wine and hockey sticks. That was in retaliation for what the Trump administration called Canadian trade discrimination in the motor vehicle, alcohol and dairy industries. Many of Canada's moves in those areas came in response to earlier US tariffs, so we'll see what that ultimately means.

**Angie Nixon** (4:25)
When they elected that mayor of New York, they won an NBA championship. When they elect me to become the national state senator, the Jaguars might win the Super Bowl.