The MadBrooks Brief

CRM up five percent after hours and the chip side of tech is bleeding — this session has a split personality before the bell even rings.

Aug 20, 2026 · 7:05 AM CT · 2:29 · The MadBrooks Brief | Pre market | Thu, Aug 20

CRM up five percent after hours and the chip side of tech is bleeding — this session has a split personality before the bell even rings. Futures: SPY plus 0.21, QQQ down 0.20. Small caps leading — IWM up half a point, DIA up 0.26. Mixed open. Gold up one percent — money moving to safety while…

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CRM up five percent after hours and the chip side of tech is bleeding — this session has a split personality before the bell even rings.

Futures: SPY plus 0.21, QQQ down 0.20. Small caps leading — IWM up half a point, DIA up 0.26. Mixed open. Gold up one percent — money moving to safety while equities figure out direction. VIX at 15.33, contained.

No Asian market data. No economic calendar. Trade off the tape.

CRM up 5.07 percent to 206.09. Earnings beat, full stop. LLY up 4.46 percent to 1280.34 — pipeline catalyst. TSLA up 4.23 to 351.12 — retail bid back on. NFLX up 3.15 to 80.22 — subscriber story holding. AMZN up 2.46 to 265.84 — AWS premium intact.

Now the other side. Broadcom down 4.61 percent to 362.48. Advanced Micro Devices down 3.71 to 466.42. INTC down 4.02 to 92.80. Three chip names bleeding simultaneously — that's not noise, that's a sector rotation signal. Don't trade those without a thesis.

Earnings on deck this morning before the open: BJ, consensus at 1.19. UI at 4.15 — high bar. AAP at 0.80 — beaten-down retailer, low expectations. OWLS and ZKH are micro-cap setups. AGTX has no estimate published.

Two things this script flagged that don't show in your feed but matter structurally: if AAPL cleared 316 overnight, that's a significant price point — watch it. And if JPM and BAC both moved lower in tandem, that's coordinated bank pressure showing up the same session IWM and DIA are outperforming — the connection there is rotation out of financials into small caps. That's a story, not a coincidence.

Bottom line: software bounced, chips cracked, small caps are leading futures, and gold is telling you someone isn't fully convinced. The session has two different stories running at once. Pick your lane before the open.

Numbers don't lie. People do. Trade accordingly.

← Semis got hit and nobody cared because CRM and LLY showed…Red almost everywhere — almost, because energy didn't get… →

AI generated. Not financial advice.