The Rundown - U.S. Tariff Deal with Canada Collapses, Nvidia Warns Price Hikes are Coming

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Market update for August 24, 2026. Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode, Zaid covers:The biggest market week of the summer, inflation data, GDP, and the Fed Chair’s Jackson Hole speechThe US-Canada trade war update: 50% tariffs, a collapsed deal, and no talks in sightWhat to expect from Nvidia’s earnings report on WednesdayUS Steel stocks surge from Canada tariffs Alibaba falls and the company issues new shares Fun fact: A humanoid robot that just beat Usain Bolt’s 100-meter world record 

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Monday, August 24th. And today's episode will break down the collapse of U.S.-Canada trade talks and why both nations are heading for a trade war. We'll also tell you why Nvidia is planning to raise prices on their newest AI chips. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out which famous world record, a robot just broke over the weekend.

We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks are coming off a losing week with the S&P 500 dropping 1.4% last week, while the NASDAQ fell by 2.1%. Both of these indices snapped a three-week winning streak. The big story last week was the bond market. Long-term treasury yields served to their highest level

in nearly two decades, with the 30-year-old. year yield hitting its highest level since 2007. So what that effectively means is that the U.S. government currently has to pay more than 5.2% a year to borrow money for 30 years. And you know, when Treasury yields start spiking everything from mortgages to corporate borrowing gets more expensive, so there is a ripple effect across the economy. In fact, it got bad enough last week that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant tried to step in. He announced that the government would buy back more of its own long-term debt to calm things down. That strategy, didn't really work. Now, we talked more about what's happening in the bond market, and if the era of

cheap money might be coming to an end in the deep dive over this past weekend, we got some really great feedback on that episode. So if you missed it, definitely go back and check it out. Now, we'll continue to keep an eye on the bond market, but looking ahead, we have a pretty stacked week coming up. This week, we are getting the PCE inflation report, which is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. We're also getting the second quarter GDP data, and then Nvidia earnings come out on Wednesday after the bell. And then to top things off, the Federal Reserve is having their annual gathering at Jackson Hole later this week. We're going to get a keynote speech from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on Friday.

And with the chaos happening in the bond market, it'll be really interesting to see what Kevin Warsh has to say. So between inflation and Nvidia and the bond market, we could get a ton of big swings this week. We're going to stay on top of everything. So make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. starting with a Canada tariff update.

The trade war between the U.S. and Canada is officially back on again. Over the weekend, trade talks between the two countries completely collapsed, and now the U.S. has imposed a 50% tariff on around $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, including things like furniture, plastics, plywood, electrical equipment, and hockey sticks. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by saying that Canada will retaliate with its own tariffs starting September 8th, targeting things like steel, dairy, appliances, and electronics. So things are starting to escalate again. And, you know, all of this started because President Trump was upset that Canada retaliated

with their own tariffs when the U.S. imposed their initial tariffs last year. So Trump threatened Canada with even more tariffs using a provision of the Tariff Act of 1930 that had never been used before, and he was doing this to get around the Supreme Court blocking the AIPA tariffs from earlier this year. Now, the two sides were actually close to a deal, but according to Kekyllis, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., the talks fell apart over the fine print. Basically, Canada thought they had agreed to certain terms, but when they saw the actual written agreement, they felt the details were much less favorable.

And what's interesting is that Canada is digging in here. Prime Minister Mark Carney basically said that no deal is better than a bad deal. But there could be some real economic costs for Canada here. Canada relies heavily on the U.S. as its biggest trading partner. Last year, Canada exported $454 billion worth of goods and service. to the U.S. One estimate projects that around 90,000 Canadian jobs could be at risk if these new tariffs persist. So it's an interesting gamble by Mark Carney to dig in, but he does have the political support back home. More than 75% of Canadian surveyed said that Mark Carney was right to walk away

from negotiations. Now again, these tariffs only apply to around 5% of what Canada imports to the U.S. But I think what the big picture fallout could be is that Canada will try to diversify their economy away from being too reliant on the U.S. So we'll see if the two sides end up working things out, but as of right now, it doesn't seem like it. Let's shift gears and talk about Invidio. As I mentioned earlier, Nvidia reports earnings on Wednesday after the close, and as usual, there is a lot writing on this report. And there have been a few interesting Nvidia stories that have come out over the last few days.

The first is that Nvidia is raising prices. According to Bloomberg, some of Nvidia's biggest customers have been told that prices of AI servers containing Nvidia chips are going up by more than 15. These increases will impact systems using Nvidia's newest chips like Vera Rubin and Blackwell. Now, the main reason that Nvidia is raising prices is the memory bottleneck. Invidia's AI chips need a ton of high bandwidth memory, and memory companies like Samsung, SK-Hinix, and Micron are charging a lot more for those components because of supply shortages. So, Nvidia is raising prices probably just to protect their margins.

But we'll have to see if those higher prices impact their sales down the line. so the guidance number from Nvidia's will be pretty important. And by the way, Nvidia keeps using all the cash they make and spreading it across the AI ecosystem. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia is investing a billion dollars in an AI startup called Poolside, and they're paying another $6 billion to Poolside

to license their technology and bring over more than 100 engineers. Nvidia's goal is to build a powerful open-weight AI model to compete directly with Chinese models like DeepSink. And on top of that, the information recently reported that Nvidia has in talks to invest billions of dollars in the AI search company perplexity. So, Nvidia keeps investing in the AI ecosystem. And don't forget, Nvidia also is partnering with Wall Street firms to help with $500 billion in AI financing.

So at this point, Nvidia is acting like the central bank of the AI space. But this is obviously raising concerns of circular financing. You know, Nvidia invests billions of dollars in these startups, and these startups turn around and use that money to buy more of Nvidia's chips. So we'll see if Jensen addresses some of these concerns. on the earnings call. I'll definitely be tuning into the earnings call and we'll break it all down later in the week. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of U.S. steel makers are moving higher this morning after trade talks between the U.S. and Canada broke down over the weekend, which means tariffs on Canadian steel will remain in place. Stocks like New Corps and steel dynamics are benefiting because these tariffs make it harder for Canadian steel producers to compete in the U.S.

The U.S. steel stocks had dipped last week when a trade deal looked possible, but they're bouncing back this morning. And, you know, big picture, foreign steel imports are down big. Steel imports to the U.S. fell nearly 23% in the first half of the year, while Canadian steel imports are down 44% over the past 12 months. These tariffs give domestic steel makers like New Corps and Steel Dynamics more pricing power. And that's why shares of both companies are up around 4% in pre-market trading. And if you zoom out, New Core stock has gone up more than 40% this year and Steel Dynamics is up more than 30%. So this is one of the clearest examples of how

tariffs can create winners and losers. Now, moving on, let's talk about Alibaba. The Chinese tech giant is selling off this morning after the company announced a massive stock offering to help fund its AI ambitions. Alibaba says they plan to issue 710 million new shares to investors outside the U.S. raising about $10.2 billion in the process. And the company says this money will go towards investing in AI. Now, issuing new shares dilutes existing shareholders, which is one reason why Alibaba's stock fell more than 8% in Hong Kong, is down around 2% here in pre-market trading. I think the bigger concern for investors, though, is not just a dilution. It's the fact that Alibaba is now entering the same AI spending race as everyone else. Alibaba is spending billions

building out AI capabilities, but when does all this spending actually translate into profits? Alibaba's net profits fell by 76% last quarter. So these Chinese tech companies are now facing the same question that U.S. tech companies are facing. When will all the AI spending lead to actual profits? This uncertainty is one reason why Alibaba's stock is down almost 20% on the year. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Usain Bolt's 100-meter world record time just got beat by a robot.

At the World Humanoid Robotics Games in Beijing this past weekend, which is like the Olympics for robots, a robot called Tiengong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds. Usain Bolt's world record is 9.58 seconds. And by the way, the second place winner in that race was a robot called Lightning, which also beat Usain Bolt's record, finishing in 9.47 seconds. And what's crazy is that the improvements from last year. At this same event last year, the winning time in this race was 21 and a half seconds.

So in just 12 months, these robots went from jogging to outrunning the fastest human to ever live. Before you start having nightmares about the Terminator chasing you down, there is one hilarious catch about this race. Neither robot has figured out how to slow down yet. I saw a clip of the race right after crossing the finish line, Tien Gong basically lost control and slammed into a padded wall. And then lightning the robot collapsed and had to be carried away. on a stretcher. So I think Hussein Bolt still wins on style points. All jokes aside, though, China continues to make a big push in developing these humanoid robotics. The Chinese government sees them as a key technology for the future of manufacturing, logistics, and who knows, probably

the military too. And it's already a big business. I mean, last week we talked about how the Chinese robot maker Unitary IPOed in Shanghai and the stock five X on the first day of trading. Now, shares in the company have come down around 25% since then, but the company is still valued at over 3,000. $30 billion. So investors see robotics as the next big thing. And honestly, with the way these robots are improving, I mean, are we going to see a robot run the 100 meter in five seconds next year? That is kind of scary when you think about it. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and V for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys.

back here tomorrow.