20 Minutes to the Bell: Nasdaq Clawing Back Ground Despite the Walmart Shock

Looking at my screen right now, the S&P 500 is down 0.71% and the Nasdaq down 0.88%, and with twenty minutes left I'm still staring at a red session. The Kospi's blazing +5.89% and Kosdaq's +1.99% close yesterday (8/20) apparently didn't carry over to Wall Street today. Compared to my last check-in, the Nasdaq trimmed its loss by 0.22 points while the S&P barely budged, so my eyes are leaning more toward the Nasdaq right now. The drop looks like it's coming from Walmart's roughly 9% plunge on weak store sales plus tech stocks taking another hit as Treasury yields climbed back up, though Moderna's encouraging mRNA cancer vaccine trial data is keeping biotech and gold miners strong enough to cushion the fall. My own holdings are still smiling — Punjon +14.3%, Samsung Electronics +13.7% — while KT&G -1.3% and Isu Petasys -7.1% sit in the red as the clock winds down, and I'll be watching to the very last minute whether the Nasdaq manages to shave off more of that loss before the bell.