Ceasefire Expiry Pushes Yields Higher, Slams Mega-Cap Stocks on August 18

A 60-day ceasefire expired without resolution on August 18, 2026, lifting oil prices and Treasury yields. Higher yields hit mega-cap growth stocks hardest: Meta fell 3.5% and Microsoft dropped 3.0%, per Saxo. Chip stocks also dropped sharply. The move revived concerns about Federal Reserve rate hikes, overriding earlier disinflationary signals from soft labor data.