Oil Tops $90, Tim Cook Signs Off

 

U.S. stocks closed lower Monday after renewed U.S.-Iran strikes pushed crude above $90 and revived inflation fears. Energy was one of only two sectors to finish green, and the Dow took the hardest hit. The President posted an AI video of Kharg Island, a massive oil depot in Iran, burning to the ground.  It was a fake, but at home in Asheville, North Carolina, the G20 met with Fed Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, both burning through excuses not to raise rates in September. A red day to end a green month for markets.  California utility shareholders had an uglier afternoon. Edison International lost 23% and PG&E fell 20% after lawmakers rejected a shield from wildfire lawsuits. Amazon slid 2.5% after the FTC and more than 20 states sued over its ad-pricing practices. Tim Cook stepped down as Apple CEO Monday, telling employees to share ‘a belief that what we build matters.’ He had the reins since 2011.  Stocks attention clustered around Amazon, Coinbase, Tesla, Edison, and Circle. Bulls chased Cybercab and crypto strength, while Edison traders called the utility collapse overdone.  Today's Briefing: Powered by Stocktwits Community API. After the Bell: Amazon faces a $20B advertising-auction lawsuit  Stocks: Edison and PG&E crater as California leaves wildfire liabilities uncapped  Macro News: Q2 earnings growth stays strong as the season enters its final weeks  What's Trending Now on Stocks

AFTER THE BELL Amazon’s Ad Auction Lands in Court

Amazon, the e-commerce, cloud, and advertising giant, fell Monday after the FTC and more than 20 states sued it in Seattle federal court over sponsored-ad pricing. The complaint alleges Amazon secretly raised advertisers’ minimum bids and collected tens of billions of dollars over seven years. Amazon called the claims “patently false.”

The RIP: $AMZN fell 2.5% to $259.77 on 45.1M shares, 1.4x recent pace. Amazon generated $68B from advertising in 2025. The complaint alleges advertisers suffered more than $20B in harm.

This is the FTC’s third major case against Amazon, following a $2.5B Prime settlement and with a separate monopolization trial set for next year. Amazon said advertisers never paid more than they bid. Long-term holders treated Monday’s drop as noise, with one saying they would only consider selling in 20 years.

The Community Read: The $AMZN room leaned bearish, see the long-term pushback ->

Edison’s Wildfire Shield Burns Up  Edison International, the parent of Southern California Edison, plunged Monday after California lawmakers rejected a plan to limit utility wildfire liability. Los Angeles County investigators concluded that SCE equipment caused the Jan. 7, 2025 Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people, destroyed 9,414 structures, and caused an estimated $8B to $17.5B in damage.  The RIP: $EIX fell 23.1% to $53.98 on 24.7M shares, 6.9x recent pace. Mizuho cut its Edison target to $70 from $86. $PCG also lost more than 20%.  SCE had extended more than $775M in settlement offers and paid over $375M by the second quarter, but Edison still cannot estimate its total losses. The rejected proposal would have blocked insurers from suing utilities to recover wildfire payouts. One Stocktwits trader argued California utilities will now need regulated returns above 10% to attract capital, with customers eventually picking up the bill.  The Community Read: The $EIX room stayed bullish after the crash, see who called it overdone ->

MACRO NEWS Earnings Season Hits the Last Lap  S&P 500 earnings season is nearly finished, with 477 of 500 companies counted as reported for Q2. Results cooled slightly from Q1, but companies still delivered stronger growth and more beats than they did late last year.  The RIP: $SPX companies posted an 85.7% EPS beat rate and 76.4% revenue beat rate. Median EPS surprise was +5.8%, while median EPS and revenue grew +15% and +8.7% YoY.  Q1 remains the season to beat, with higher EPS and revenue beat rates and slightly faster median growth. Q2 still finished comfortably ahead of Q4 ’25 and Q3 ’25. The inclusive grading can mildly inflate the beat rate, but 71% of graded companies grew earnings and 88% grew revenue.  Fourteen index companies have confirmed dates left. $PANW, $DELL, and $MDT report Tuesday; $AVGO, $HPE, and $NTAP Wednesday; and $CIEN, $CPRT, and $LULU Thursday. $CASY, $COO, $ADBE, $ORCL, and $LEN round out the confirmed calendar through Sept. 17.  The Community Read: The $PANW room is neutral before earnings, see the setup -> PANW earnings preview: Q4 '26 PANW reports tomorrow after close (Sep 1, 2026).  EPS: $0.98 expected, up 3.2% YoY from $0.95  Rev: $3.35B expected, up 32.1% YoY from $2.54B

POPS & DROPS Trending Now $TSLA +5.7% | Tesla: Cybercab hype hits the gas 1.1M WATCHERS · 67% BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY Tesla climbed ahead of Thursday’s Cybercab launch event in Austin. The company is expected to add its steering-wheel-free robotaxi to a ride-hailing service that still relies on Model Ys. Bulls chased the autonomy story, while bears called it another buy-the-rumor setup.  $SNDK +5% | SanDisk: Index funds join the party 34.9K WATCHERS · 64% BEARISH · LOW ACTIVITY MSCI added SanDisk to the MSCI World Index at Monday’s close, forcing passive funds tracking the benchmark to rebalance into the memory maker. The bearish community read suggests plenty of traders treated the closing-volume rush as temporary.  $COIN +5.2% | Coinbase: Crypto stocks catch another bid 138.3K WATCHERS · 59% BULLISH · NORMAL ACTIVITY Coinbase rose as crypto-linked stocks extended Bitcoin’s August rebound. $CRCL climbed 9.4%, $ASST added 11.4%, and $GLXY gained 6.2%. The group traded like a high-beta bet on stronger crypto activity and renewed CLARITY Act hopes.

WHAT’S ON DECK Tomorrow’s Top Things

Macro: S&P Global Final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) (9:45 AM ET), Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) (10:00 AM ET), Construction spending (10:00 AM ET), Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing PMI (10:00 AM ET).  Pre-Market Earnings: $ZENA ZenaTech Inc., $RZLV Rezolve AI PLC ., $MDT Medtronic Plc, $HMR Heidmar Maritime Holdings Corp., $RGS Regis Corp., +2 more.  After-Market Earnings: $PANW Palo Alto Networks Inc, $DELL Dell Technologies Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class C, $MDB MongoDB Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class A, $CRDO Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd, $GTLB Gitlab Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class A, +2 more.