Major U.S. stock indexes declined on Thursday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's commentary. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% for its fifth consecutive losing session, with the Dow and Nasdaq dropping 0.3%. The solar sector saw significant losses, led by First Solar (FSLR), which plunged 7% after former President Trump commented on renewable energy projects. Sunrun (RUN), Enphase Energy (ENPH), and SolarEdge (SEDG) also declined. Walmart (WMT) shares fell nearly 5% despite a 4.3% increase in comparable store sales, as its quarterly profit missed forecasts. Paramount Skydance (PSKY) surged over 14% after acquiring UFC programming rights. Packaging Corp of America (PKG) and Smurfit WestRock (SW) rose due to International Paper (IP)'s announcement of plant closures, which could reduce supply. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) gained 3.7% following a Morgan Stanley upgrade, and Nordson (NDSN) rose 3% on strong results and a new stock buyback plan. Allstate (ALL) shares declined 3.3% after reporting monthly catastrophe losses.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's stock surged by 3.49% on August 21, 2025, driven by strategic advancements in AI computing, particularly through the integration of NVIDIA GPUs in new servers. Key developments include a partnership with Subaru to power its EyeSight driver assist system using HPE Cray servers, aiming for zero traffic fatalities by 2030. Deutsche Bank raised its price target to $26, citing the Juniper acquisition as a growth catalyst, while Evercore ISI rated HPE as 'Tactical Outperform.' Despite a net income loss of over $1 billion in recent financials, HPE's strong gross margin of 66% and a projected $30.13B revenue highlight its financial resilience and innovation potential. A UK court awarded HPE $944 million from Mike Lynch's estate, adding to its financial strength.

VAST Data has launched SyncEngine, a universal data catalog and high-performance onboarding solution designed to discover, catalog, and migrate file and object data from various storage systems and SaaS applications into its private, AI-focused VAST AI OS. SyncEngine enables real-time, searchable access across file systems, object stores, and platforms like SharePoint, Google Drive, and Salesforce, addressing data sprawl by making distributed, unstructured data discoverable and accessible for AI pipelines. The tool supports bi-directional data flow, eliminates the need for external ETL processes or custom scripts, and integrates with VAST’s InsightEngine and DataEngine for AI workflows. It is available at no charge to VAST customers and replaces standalone tools such as Datadobi, Data Dynamics, Diskover, and Komprise. The solution claims to offer record-breaking migration speeds and deep metadata indexing with multiple namespaces, simplifying infrastructure and reducing total cost of ownership.

The S&P 500 index has retreated from its recent all-time high of 6,450, prompting market concerns ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's policy speech at the Jackson Hole symposium. While the broader market remains technically bullish with support levels at 6,150, 6,200, and 6,260, several internal indicators signal caution. These include a sell signal from the McMillan Volatility Band (MVB), rising equity-only put-call ratios, deteriorating market breadth, and a sell signal from 20-day historical volatility (HV20) at 11%. In contrast, bullish signals persist in the VIX trend, the new highs versus new lows on the NYSE, and the slope of VIX futures term structures. A new weighted put-call ratio buy signal in PPL Corp. has prompted a recommendation to buy 6 PPL (Oct. 17) 37 calls. The report also analyzes earnings impacts, noting Estee Lauder’s volatile performance, Walmart’s slight price drop, and Canadian Solar’s strong post-earnings gain. Specific option positions are recommended or adjusted for SPY, PPL, AAPL, ATAI, OPEN, HPE, and XLF, with stop-loss conditions and holding criteria outlined. Lawrence G. McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis, provides the analysis and may hold positions in recommended securities.

The global Cloud Management Platform (CMP) market is expanding from USD 21 billion in 2024 to USD 54.8 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.3%, driven by hybrid and multi-cloud adoption, digital transformation, AI-driven automation, and cloud-native applications. Key sectors including BFSI, healthcare, retail, and telecom are adopting CMPs for governance, security, cost optimization, and performance monitoring. North America dominates the market with 35.5% of demand, while Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest regional CAGR of 21.4%. The software/platform segment holds 64.4% of market share, with services growing faster at 17.8% CAGR. Public cloud deployments account for 50% of the market, and hybrid/multi-cloud solutions are projected to grow at 19.5% CAGR. Large enterprises represent 70.7% of deployments, though SMEs are growing faster at 18.3% CAGR. Provisioning & Orchestration leads with 30.1% share and a 20.5% CAGR. The BFSI sector accounts for 21.6% of demand, with Retail & Ecommerce seeing the fastest growth at 21.9% CAGR. The report covers over 35 leading CMP companies across global regions.