Weekly Market Recap – August 3, 2026

Last week’s 2Q26 GDP report showed annualized real growth of 1.5% in 2Q26, down from1Q26’s pace of 2.1%. While consumer spending stayed elevated and business fixed investment remained strong amid the AI capex buildout, a few key areas led to the weaker print. In particular, a 11.5% q/q jump in imports, 89.4million barrels of oil released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (which is counted as reduced government spending) and a $50.8bn annualized fall in private inventories all cut reported growth.