Close Brief
Desk Close Brief 2026-08-13
Close Tape
- Regime
- Mixed
- Score
- 73
- Risk
- Moderate
Explain this
This is the closing tape in four fields. It summarizes the quality of the session after the market has had the full day to process news, flows, and volatility.
- Regime is the broad condition of the tape. Mixed means the market is being classified by its current mix of price action, breadth, volatility, and risk appetite.
- Score is a 0-100 market-quality read. 73 should be read as the strength of the backdrop, not as a stand-alone buy or sell signal.
- Follow-through asks whether moves are being confirmed after the initial impulse. Weak follow-through means rallies or selloffs may be easier to fade.
- Risk is the caution label. Moderate tells you how carefully to treat the rest of the brief's conclusions before breadth, volatility, and catalysts confirm them.
Educational analysis. Not investment advice. Not a personal recommendation. We're not your financial advisor.
Day in Review
The close carried a mixed read rather than a clean directional message. The latest available market frame showed a MIXED regime, a 73 quality score, moderate risk, and 52 confidence, with the broader fear/greed gauge at 71. The read is best treated modestly because parts of the intraday price picture were stale, including SPY/QQQ intraday data, and gapper detail was suppressed.
Cross-Market Picture
Across the index complex, SPY and QQQ both screened as ANCHORED. SPY was marked at 772.49, with IV at 7.3 versus 20-day realized volatility of 13.4 and an implied-realized spread near -6.0. SPY IV was low within its range at a 27% rank, with skewed skew and a steepening term structure.
QQQ was marked at 723.70, with IV at 12.8 versus 20-day realized volatility of 24.4 and an implied-realized spread of -11.6. QQQ IV was low-to-middle within its range at a 44% rank, also with skewed skew and a steepening term structure. The supporting drivers were a watchful volatility backdrop, clear market-clarity input, low event-risk input, a supportive macro backdrop, and anchored SPY/QQQ structure, though the stale intraday price caveat keeps the read from sounding more complete than the data supports.
Catalysts and Next Session
The completed August 13 calendar included high-impact PPI month over month at 07:30 CT, with a 0.2% forecast versus a -0.3% prior reading, and high-impact Core PPI month over month at 07:30 CT, with a 0.3% forecast versus a 0.2% prior reading. Unemployment Claims were also listed for 07:30 CT, with a 202K forecast versus 199K previously.
The next session’s calendar turns to August 14. Retail Sales month over month is due at 07:30 CT, with a 0.1% forecast versus 0.2% previously, alongside Core Retail Sales month over month, forecast at 0.2% versus -0.2% previously. At 09:00 CT, the calendar lists Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment, forecast at 54.7 versus 54.4 previously, and Prelim UoM Inflation Expectations, with the prior reading at 4.2%.
Source Notes
Market overview includes stale components: stored market data. SPY/QQQ intraday price data is stale. gappers suppressed because intraday price data is stale. Market overview includes stale components: price history data. Week-ahead calendar includes stale components: macro events. Week-ahead calendar includes stale components: schedule empty. Weekly recap data includes stale components: price history data. Weekly recap data includes stale components: current week ohlcv missing. Universe performance data includes stale components: vol surface. Universe performance data includes stale components: market metrics. Source coverage is limited to the station's tracked market universe; this is not a full-market research note.
Sources
- Unemployment Claims
- Retail Sales month over month
- Prelim UoM Inflation Expectations
- Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment
- PPI month over month
- Market overview
- Core Retail Sales month over month
- Core PPI month over month
- Volatility dashboard