The Morning Howl

Ryan Slaton

The Morning Howl is your daily wake-up call for what matters on the field, in the markets, and in your health. Get sharp takes on the latest financial news, NFL headlines, college football storylines, and practical health and fitness advice—all in one energetic show. Start your morning informed, motivated, and ready to attack the day.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    11. Wednesday, August 26, 2026

    Markets: S&P 500 closed at 7,677 — a narrow tech-led gain. Nvidia was the biggest contributor, up more than 2% ahead of its earnings print tonight. Raymond James upgraded AMD to Strong Buy, raising its target to $641, citing long-term AI server CPU opportunity. Exxon Mobil was the biggest drag, down ~2% on crude softness. Ten-year Treasury at 4.643%. GLD at $428, USO at $126. Boston Fed President Susan Collins flagged rates may need to rise unless inflation keeps declining — hawkish backdrop heading into Nvidia's print. Football: NFL preseason Week 3 final: 49ers 41-17 Chargers, Jets 17-0 Steelers, Packers 33-13 Broncos (Bo Nix returned from broken ankle), Chiefs 15-16 Buccaneers. Seattle took two major hits: rookie LB Bud Clark (broken ankle, multiple months) and WR Jake Bobo (serious knee). Week 4 runs Aug 27-29 — final preseason games before 53-man roster cuts. AP poll: Ohio State 1, Oregon 2, Georgia 3; Big Ten + SEC hold 17 of 25 spots. NCAA's new age-based eligibility model is opening the door for NFL players to potentially return to college — AP confirmed the possibility is being actively tested. Health and Fitness: BJSM 2026 study (147,374 participants, 30 years): resistance training optimally reduces all-cause mortality at 90-119 min/week — no additional mortality benefit above 120 min. ACE Mover Method: 10 minutes of client-centered nutrition coaching embedded in each workout session over 10 weeks produced measurable improvements in eating habits and cardiometabolic markers (published in IJREP). Supporting data: protein gains plateau at ~1.6g/kg/day per meta-analysis — the dose ceiling principle applies to nutrition as well as training.

  2. 3d ago

    9. Monday, August 24, 2026

    S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,674 — a weekly loss driven by the bond market, not earnings. Eight of eleven sectors finished in the red. Tech led the decline at -3.35% for the week; energy held up at +2.58%. The ten-year Treasury yield hit 4.68% and the thirty-year reached 5.25% — the highest since around 2007, per the Fed's H.15 release. Real yields (TIPS) at 2.41% mean investors can earn meaningful returns in safe assets without equity risk. WTI crude near $87.83/barrel; gold rallying as a defensive bid. September FOMC is the next catalyst. The Fed's July Monetary Policy Report notes household and corporate debt as a share of GDP is at its lowest since the early 2000s — the stress, if it comes, is a government-side story, not a consumer-default story. Football: NFL preseason Week Three is mostly done: Cowboys 31, Falcons 13 (Joe Milton III drove four scoring drives); Packers 20, Seahawks 7; Cardinals 20, Raiders 10. More Week 3 games on August 28. Roster cutdown to 53 is August 30 — the most important transaction day of the preseason. College football opened Thursday: South Florida blew out No. 25 Boise State 34-7, knocking the Broncos out of the rankings and sending the CFP Group of Five race into chaos. Other openers confirmed: NC State 24, ECU 17; Rutgers 34, Ohio 31; UCF 17, Jacksonville State 10. Ohio State (#1) travels to Texas (#5) on September 5. Health & Fitness: A landmark 2026 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (vol. 60, issue 12) followed three large U.S. cohorts for up to 30 years. The finding: 90–119 minutes of resistance training per week — independent of cardio — was associated with a 13% lower all-cause mortality risk, 19% lower cardiovascular mortality, and 27% lower neurological disease mortality. The benefit plateaued above 120 minutes per week. Two sessions of 45–60 minutes a week hits the optimal range. The combination of resistance and aerobic work is what the data optimizes — neither alone is enough.

  3. 6d ago

    8. Friday, August 21, 2026

    Markets: Bonds Rattle Stocks: The S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 7,641 Thursday — the worst single-day drop in three weeks. The Dow shed 704 points; the Nasdaq dropped 264. The ten-year Treasury climbed back to 4.69% after a brief pullback. Brent crude surged 2.4% on Trump-Iran tensions, reigniting inflation fears. Walmart's earnings added pressure on the Dow. The Fed's July minutes confirmed many officials believe rates may still need to rise. Gold hit 4,499/oz. Treasury Secretary Bessent's bond market interventions are not working — the credibility gap moved markets. Watch the ten-year: if it cracks 4.75%, more selling follows. Football: NFL Week 3 Dress Rehearsal and LSU's Big Opener NFL preseason Week Three (Aug 27–29) is the "dress rehearsal" — starters get real snaps. National TV: Steelers-Bills on NFL Network, Bengals-Eagles on CBS. Every team cuts to 53 players on August 30. Roster battles already forming: in Cleveland, rookie Dillon Gabriel has the backup QB job over Shedeur Sanders (#3); in Indy, Anthony Richardson trade rumors are circulating. On the college side, Lane Kiffin's LSU debut vs. Clemson on Sept. 5 will have ESPN College GameDay in Baton Rouge. Week 2 he goes back to Ole Miss. September is appointment viewing. Health: Sleep Timing vs. Sleep Volume A 2026 randomized controlled trial in Sports Medicine Open pushed 27 elite swimmers' 7am practice to 9am — they gained ~1 extra hour of sleep per night. Performance on 100m and 800m did not improve. A separate 2026 analysis found one night of full sleep deprivation cuts endurance performance by ~4%. The gap: volume isn't the fix — quality and circadian alignment are. Division I football research found bidirectional night-by-night links between sleep quality and next-day performance. An athlete's circadian type shapes how they respond to exercise timing. Before you reschedule your training to chase an extra hour, ask whether the hours you already have are actually restorative.

  4. Aug 20

    7. Thursday, August 20th 2026

    FOMC Goes Hawkish, NFL Preseason Week 3 Opens, Resistance Training Sweet Spot Markets: The Federal Reserve's July FOMC minutes dropped Wednesday — and the tone was hawkish. According to the AP, many Fed officials believe rates may need to rise if inflation doesn't ease. The ten-year Treasury held above 4.7% as the session wrapped. The Treasury separately doubled its liquidity buyback operations for longer-dated bonds, which briefly pulled yields lower before the minutes pushed them back up. Walmart Q2 earnings hit Thursday morning before the open — a major consumer read-through. On commodities, the US-Iran situation remains the dominant oil driver: the Hormuz strait has been severely disrupted for most of the past five months per a Congressional Research Service report, and Iran is conditioning reopening on sanctions relief. Football: NFL preseason Week 3 is underway — the window runs August 20-23. The Falcons QB battle is unresolved: Michael Penix Jr. is limited with a knee issue and hasn't been cleared for full team drills. He's competing against Tua Tagovailoa with the 53-man cutdown just 11 days away. The Vikings are also running a true starter competition, per NFL.com and CBS Sports. On the college side, a federal court's July 31 injunction opened the door for 2022 recruits to return for a fifth year — clarified on August 2 to exclude players who went pro and changed their minds. The NCAA also adopted a new age-based eligibility model for fall 2026 enrollees. And at North Carolina: DC Steve Belichick is on medical leave; GM Michael Lombardi is on administrative leave amid a misconduct inquiry — all during Bill Belichick's first training camp as head coach. Health: A landmark study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (vol. 60) followed 147,374 participants for up to 30 years and found that 90-120 minutes of resistance training per week is the longevity sweet spot — associated with the lowest all-cause mortality. Cardiovascular and neurological mortality risk dropped too. The curve flattens above 120 minutes: more doesn't help past that threshold. The protective effect is strongest when combined with aerobic activity. That's 2-3 sessions of 40-60 minutes per week. Observational study caveats noted; the dose-response plateau is the mechanistic detail that distinguishes the finding.

  5. Aug 18

    Markets Slip on Oil, NFL Preseason Week 1 Done, Protein Science

    S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 7,745 as Brent crude surged 2.7% to $90.87 — oil back above $90 and stoking inflation worries. Dow -272 pts, Nasdaq -0.3%. All three indexes remain near all-time highs. Fed held rates at 3.5–3.75% on July 29; the July CPI reading (due Aug 12) is the swing factor for September rate-cut odds. Ten-year Treasury hovering around 4.55%. Tech and energy led Q2 earnings. NFL preseason Week 1 results: Eagles 24, Ravens 19 (confirmed). Cowboys 17, Seahawks 7. Falcons QB battle heating up — Tua Tagovailoa missed practice with a minor flare-up, Michael Penix Jr. limited to individual drills; Cooper Rush signed as insurance. Mahomes fully cleared for camp in Kansas City. Week 2 kicks off Thursday Aug 21. AP preseason Top 25 dropped today — Ohio State No. 1, Oregon No. 2, the first time the Big Ten has held the top two spots in 65 years. College season opens Aug 29. Transfer portal teams LSU and Ole Miss built to contend. 2026 Frontiers in Nutrition systematic review: whey protein preserves fat-free mass during calorie restriction — it is a muscle-preservation tool, not a fat-loss shortcut. 2026 semaglutide meta-analysis: GLP-1 users shed roughly 35% of total weight loss as lean mass — significant metabolic risk without protein + resistance training. ACSM 2026 overview of 137 systematic reviews: 10+ working sets per muscle group per week is where hypertrophy gains become most consistent.

  6. Aug 16

    S&P Near Highs, NFL Preseason Week One Wraps, Intermittent Fasting vs. Muscle

    Markets — The S&P 500 ended Friday at 7,785, off 0.2% from a Thursday all-time high. July CPI came in at 3.4% YoY — cooler than expected and enough to drive a mid-week rally. Q2 earnings are the structural story: FactSet reports 37.9% blended earnings growth with 86% of companies beating EPS. Bond market isn't celebrating — ten-year Treasury at 4.66%, thirty-year near 5.2%. September 15-16 FOMC meeting is the next major catalyst; no-change odds sit at 56.5%. WTI crude near $79.71/barrel; gold near $4,042. Energy sector earnings face tougher comparisons with crude well off its highs. Football — NFL preseason Week One is nearly complete. Completed results: Steelers 28, Packers 9 · Commanders 20, Dolphins 7 · Broncos 27, Falcons 7. Eagles at Ravens and Cowboys at Seahawks kick off tonight at 4 PM Pacific. August 30 is the 90-to-53 roster cutdown deadline — the real evaluation period. On the college side, Texas opens the season ranked #1 (first time in program history) and faces Ohio State September 12 in a top-three matchup. Their schedule — Tennessee, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M — will stress-test that ranking fast. Health & Fitness — 2026 meta-analyses give a cleaner answer on intermittent fasting: a Frontiers in Nutrition meta-analysis and a separate PubMed systematic review both find lean mass is preserved with fat loss. But a 2026 multilevel meta-analysis (11 studies, 303 participants) found fasting did NOT improve strength or hypertrophy beyond resistance training alone. The mechanism is leucine — a 2025 systematic review confirmed leucine dose post-training is a key anabolic trigger. A 2024 controlled trial showed fasting with matched total protein doesn't impair muscle protein synthesis. Bottom line: fasting works for fat loss and preserves muscle when protein targets are met. It is not a muscle-building accelerator.

About

The Morning Howl is your daily wake-up call for what matters on the field, in the markets, and in your health. Get sharp takes on the latest financial news, NFL headlines, college football storylines, and practical health and fitness advice—all in one energetic show. Start your morning informed, motivated, and ready to attack the day.