This live blog is refreshed periodically throughout the day with the latest updates from the market. To find the latest Stock Market Today threads, click here. 

Good morning. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Aug. 19, 2025. The stock market is now open.

Here are the latest updates from the market:

Update: 8:35 a.m. ET

Economic Data: Starts surprise, Permits plummet

In the last five minutes, we’ve gotten today’s biggest economic prints: housing starts and building permits. Directionally, they couldn’t be anymore different.

Housing Starts (July): 1,428,000 (+5.2% MoM) [Expected: 1,297,000; -1.8%]

Prelim Building Permits (Jul): 1,354,000 (-2.8% MoM) [Exp: 1,386,000; -0.5%]

Where housing starts impressed, building permits remained tepid in the face of plummeting building demand. Later this morning, we’ll tackle how that’s affecting the price of lumber (and what that says about the broader economy.)

Update: 8:08 a.m. ET

Earnings Today: Home Depot, Medtronic, Viking Holdings

Today is set to be a quiet day, with just 45 earnings reports slated for today, per data from Nasdaq. Among the largest reports this morning are Home Depot  (HD) , Medtronic  (MDT) , and Viking Holdings VIK.

Here’s how they stack up against other earnings from this morning (including the prints from their respective reports):

A.M. earnings (Aug. 19, 2025)

TipRanks

Economic Data

There are a few pieces of hard data in store for investors this morning, specifically tracking the housing market. In light of yesterday’s anemic NAHB report, it’ll be interesting to see how this data shakes out.

Here’s what investors can expect:

All times are in ET

8:30 a.m. 

• Prelim Building Permits (July) [Prev: 1,393,000, -0.1% MoM]
• Housing Starts (July) [Prev: 1,321,000, +4.6% MoM]

2:10 p.m. 

• The Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision, Michelle Bowman, will speak