Subscribe
The DBTech45 Brief · updated four times daily

August 23, 2026

The week ahead is loaded: Nvidia earnings Wednesday and new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole speech will test a market still rattled by bond swings, even as Bitcoin rips 23% on the Treasury's buyback rescue and oil holds near $95 on Iran sanctions talk. Anthropic's bankers are floating a record 2 trillion dollar IPO. Beef costs stay pinned near all-time highs for restaurant owners, while Starbucks posts its best weekend ever on a Unicorn drink relaunch even as it cuts 200 corporate jobs. At Fenway, the Red Sox walked off the Giants 3-2 with Rafael Devers booed all night, and back home a Lynde Street house fire in Nashua ended with everyone out safe.

Filed at 9:00 AM ETBack to archive →

On my radar

4 ranked stories
#1World & Markets

Nvidia earnings and Jackson Hole to test the pillars of the stock rally

The market faces two big tests next week: Nvidia earnings on August 26 and the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium August 27 to 29, where new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh makes his first appearance since taking office in May. Treasury yields recently hit their highest levels since 2007, the S&P 500 sits about 2% off its record, and the chip index dropped 5% on the week. Markets are even pricing 35% odds of a September rate hike, which is why Warsh's tone matters so much. For an MNQ trader, these two dates are the biggest scheduled volatility events on the calendar.

SourcesReuters via KFGO
#2World & Markets

Bitcoin breaks out with a 23% weekly surge to $77,000 after Treasury buyback expansion

Bitcoin jumped roughly 23% this week to about $77,200, its best week in two years, after the Treasury moved on August 19 to expand long-dated bond buybacks and President Trump pushed Congress to pass the Clarity Act. Ethereum rose nearly 30% and crypto stocks like Coinbase and MicroStrategy gained over 15%. Bitcoin is still well below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,198. Crypto strength on falling long yields is a risk-on signal that often spills over into Nasdaq futures.

SourcesYahoo FinanceQuartz
#3AI & Builders

Anthropic's IPO could top SpaceX's record with a roughly 2 trillion dollar valuation

Anthropic's bankers have told investors the Claude maker could raise more than 100 billion dollars in its IPO, valuing the five-year-old company around 2 trillion dollars, which would beat SpaceX's record June debut. The company filed confidentially in June, may publish its prospectus within weeks, and could list this fall, ahead of OpenAI's planned 2027 listing. Reports say the filing will list public backlash against AI and data centers as a risk factor. For builders, the pricing of this IPO will shape how capital flows to the whole AI tooling ecosystem.

SourcesYahoo Finance (AFP)CNBC
#4Sports & Betting

Eli White slides home with winning run as Red Sox rally past Giants 3-2 at Fenway

The Red Sox came back in the ninth Saturday night, with Nick Sogard tying it on an RBI double and pinch-runner Eli White sliding home headfirst on Wilyer Abreu's grounder for the 3-2 win. The call at the plate survived a Giants challenge on video review. Former Sox star Rafael Devers went 0-for-4 in his Fenway return and heard boos all night. Boston sits in the AL wild card mix with the Yankees and Rangers, so every one-run win in late August carries playoff-odds weight.

SourcesESPNMLB.com

World & Markets

3 stories

Stocks rise Friday but Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq post weekly losses as bond volatility stays in focus

The S&P 500 rose 0.43% to 7,674 and the Nasdaq gained 0.43% to 26,180 on Friday, while the Dow added 0.98% to 53,277. Even with the bounce, the Nasdaq lost about 2% for the week and the S&P fell 1.4% as long-dated Treasury yields whipsawed despite the Treasury's expanded bond buybacks. For an MNQ trader, the Nasdaq remains hostage to the long end of the bond market, so yield spikes are the main downside trigger to watch into next week.

SourcesYahoo FinanceTheStreet

Oil heads for second weekly gain as US vows toughest sanctions in history on Iran

Brent crude traded near $95 a barrel Friday, up about 68% from a year ago, as the US-Iran conflict keeps Middle East supply at risk and hopes for a quick reopening of the Strait of Hormuz fade. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington will impose the toughest sanctions in history on Iran and plans to detail the plan at a Monday press conference. The UAE halted all trade with Iran after new missile fire in the Gulf. Rising oil on geopolitical escalation feeds inflation worries, which is a headwind for rate-sensitive Nasdaq futures.

SourcesYahoo FinanceCNBC

Gold holds above $4,600 on a weaker dollar and US debt fears

Gold traded above $4,600 an ounce Friday, extending a multi-week rally as the dollar index fell to a three-month low and worries grew about US government debt after the Treasury doubled its long-dated bond buybacks. Lower long yields cut the cost of holding gold, and safe-haven demand added fuel. Persistent gold strength on debt fears tells an index futures trader that the bond market anxiety behind recent equity swings has not gone away.

SourcesGoldSeekMorningstar / Dow Jones

AI & Builders

4 stories

Nvidia research finds the harness matters more than the model for AI agents

Nvidia published research showing that the scaffolding around a model, including memory management, tools, and a supervisor component, drives agent performance on long-horizon tasks more than the model itself. With a custom harness, Claude Opus 5 scored 100 percent on the ARC-AGI-3 benchmark versus 30 percent without one. For a solo builder, this is evidence that time spent on tooling, memory, and orchestration around an off-the-shelf model can beat waiting for a smarter model.

SourcesTechCrunch

Nvidia to pay Poolside 6 billion dollars to license its coding models and hire over 100 staff

Nvidia agreed to pay 6 billion dollars to license coding-focused AI models from startup Poolside and will hire more than 100 of its employees, while also investing another 1 billion dollars at a 12 billion dollar valuation. The deal is structured as a license rather than an acquisition, a pattern Nvidia also used with Groq, and lawmakers have criticized the approach as a way around merger review. It shows how much value is being placed on coding models and the people who build them.

SourcesYahoo Finance (Bloomberg)

DeepMind alumni startup Inherent says its Faraday agent beats bigger models at replicating research

London lab Inherent, founded by Google DeepMind alumni, released Faraday, an AI agent that independently reproduces the findings of published scientific papers without being told the answers. It outperformed Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on this task while running on Qwen 3.6, a 27 billion parameter open model roughly a tenth the size of its rivals. The lesson for solo builders is that reinforcement learning on a small open model plus a narrow task can beat frontier models, which keeps costs down.

SourcesTechCrunch

AI accounting startup Rillet raised 100 million dollars and hit unicorn status in 48 hours

Rillet, an AI-native accounting platform, raised 100 million dollars at a 1 billion dollar valuation in two days without running a formal fundraise, after its CEO shared growth numbers including doubled annualized revenue. The company has about 600 customers migrating off legacy systems like Oracle and NetSuite and pitches itself as automating routine accounting work amid an accountant shortage. For microsaas builders, it is a reminder that boring back-office workflows plus AI remain one of the fastest paths to real revenue.

SourcesTechCrunch

Restaurant Business

5 stories

Closing grain and livestock futures: cattle hold near records as feeders climb

Friday's close showed October live cattle at $217.92, down slightly, while September feeder cattle rose to $329.02, keeping cattle markets near record territory. Lean hogs settled at $80.87 and corn, wheat, and soybeans were little changed. With cattle supplies tight, wholesale beef costs are staying at or near all-time highs. For a restaurant owner that means burger and steak costs are not getting relief soon, so it is worth repricing beef items or leaning menus toward pork and chicken.

SourcesBrownfield Ag News

Starbucks sold 2 million Unicorn drinks in its best weekend ever

Starbucks sold 2 million Unicorn Frappuccinos over the August 15-16 weekend after bringing the drink back, and posted its best weekend ever at North American company stores. Saturday foot traffic ran 44.3 percent above the chain's 2026 daily average. CEO Brian Niccol called the relaunch one for the record books. The lesson for a small operator: a well-timed nostalgic limited-time item can move real traffic, and it does not have to be complicated to make.

SourcesNation's Restaurant News

Starbucks is laying off more than 200 corporate workers

Starbucks is cutting over 200 corporate support jobs through two moves: about 104 layoffs tied to a restructuring announced in May that closes four regional offices, plus roughly 120 workers who declined to relocate to the company's new Nashville support center. All separations wrap up by November 1. These are office jobs, not baristas, and part of a longer cost-cutting push under CEO Brian Niccol. For an independent owner it is a reminder that even the biggest chains are trimming overhead to protect margins in a tight consumer environment.

SourcesNation's Restaurant News

California Pizza Kitchen announces major expansion of vending machine program

California Pizza Kitchen will roll out 1,000 automated pizza vending machines across 30 US markets over three years with partner T-Roc Global. The machines use TurboChef ovens that cook a pizza in 90 seconds and will go into airports, universities, hospitals, and hotels. It is a bet on selling the brand in places a full restaurant cannot go. For independents it signals where chains are headed: unattended, low-labor points of sale that compete for the same quick meal occasions.

SourcesNation's Restaurant News

Mod Pizza updates its menu based on guest feedback

Mod Pizza is launching five new signature pizzas, a Mediterranean salad, new desserts, and its first limited-time item in three years, a Spicy Thai Pizza, starting August 24. The changes came directly from customer feedback as the chain rebuilds after its 2024 sale and a wave of closures in 2025. The takeaway for a family restaurant is straightforward: asking guests what they want and refreshing the menu around it is the same playbook at any size, and it costs almost nothing to start.

SourcesNation's Restaurant News

Sports & Betting

4 stories

Kalshi appears to quietly partner with the Red Sox as prediction markets keep raiding team sponsorships

RotoWire's weekly prediction market roundup reports Kalshi branding showed up on Red Sox social content and in a team ticket-list email, which would make Boston the third MLB club aligned with a prediction market after the Yankees with Polymarket and the Mets with Novig. Neither Kalshi nor the Red Sox would comment. The same report covers a tense CFTC hearing, New York's $36 billion suit against Kalshi, and Novig processing $125 million in trades in its first week. For bettors, prediction markets are now live in all 50 states and are pricing the same games as sportsbooks, sometimes with better numbers.

SourcesRotoWire

Patriots edge Eagles 24-21 on Behren Morton's late TD pass in preseason Week 2

Rookie quarterback Behren Morton hit a 37-yard touchdown in the final minute to beat Philadelphia 24-21 at Gillette. Tommy DeVito connected with Kyle Williams on a 69-yard score earlier, Williams' second straight strong preseason outing, and kicker Andy Borregales bounced back from a rough Week 1. Preseason results mean little for win totals, but backup QB and depth performances like these move roster locks and can shift season-long team props before cuts.

SourcesNBC Sports BostonPhiladelphia Eagles

Celtics offseason check-in: Tatum takes over as the undisputed leader after the Jaylen Brown trade

Saturday's Celtics roundup pulls together where Boston stands heading into 2026-27: the fallout from trading Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George, Jayson Tatum stepping in as the clear leader coming back from his Achilles tear, and questions about how the frontcourt fits after the Mitchell Robinson signing. Analysts have Boston among teams trending the wrong way in a reshuffled East, with Miami adding Klay Thompson and Cleveland loading up. If oddsmakers agree, Celtics win totals and title prices could drift to numbers worth watching for value either way.

SourcesYahoo Sports (CelticsBlog)

Rams blank Saints 34-0 in sloppy preseason Week 2 rout

The Rams shut out New Orleans 34-0 at SoFi Stadium in the ugliest game of Saturday's 10-game preseason slate. The Saints turned it over three times, took 12 penalties for 96 yards, and their defense could not get off the field. One preseason blowout does not decide a season, but this is the kind of tape that pushes a low Saints win total even lower before September numbers close.

SourcesNew Orleans Saints

Nashua & New Hampshire

4 stories

NH stays silent as other New England governors oppose NextEra-Dominion utility merger

Gov. Kelly Ayotte did not join the other five New England governors in a letter opposing the proposed merger of NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, which would create the largest regulated utility in the world and put both of New England's active nuclear plants, including Seabrook Station, under one owner. NH's consumer advocate says he is skeptical but his office has not taken a position yet. For a restaurant owner, this is one to watch since utility consolidation can affect electricity rates, a major line item for any kitchen.

SourcesNew Hampshire Bulletin

NH food pantries warn of rising hunger as food insecurity climbs

Food pantries in Strafford County say more New Hampshire families are struggling to put food on the table. Feeding America data shows food insecurity in NH rose from 10.7 percent of residents in 2023 to 11.7 percent in 2024, and pantry operators say demand keeps growing. For a restaurant owner, it is a signal that household food budgets across the state are tight, and a reminder that donation partnerships with local pantries are in high demand right now.

SourcesNew Hampshire Bulletin

Cold Case Unit releases new images in 1977 killing of Shari Roth in Bartlett

New Hampshire's Cold Case Unit released previously unseen photos and renewed its call for tips in the 1977 murder of Shari Roth, a 22-year-old social worker who disappeared while hiking near Bartlett and was found strangled three days later. Marking the 49th anniversary, investigators are asking anyone who was in the North Conway area that August, especially hikers or the owner of a red Volkswagen Bug seen near the trail, to come forward.

SourcesNHPR