U.S. economic offense, Lego's record revenue, Nvidia's losing streak and more in Morning Squawk

Happy Tuesday. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is having trouble with the last step of his Warner Bros. Discovery purchase, as a group of states challenge the deal. One might even say he's struggling with, to borrow from a Paramount title, the longest yard.

Stock futures are higher this morning. The market had a mixed session yesterday.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

The Trump administration went on economic offense yesterday, threatening higher tariffs on Canada and launching a global sanctions plan targeting Iran. "Operation Economic Outcast," detailed in a press conference by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, aims at isolating Tehran through threats of secondary sanctions on its "enablers."

Here's what to know:

• As CNBC's Anniek Bao writes, China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey are among the countries most exposed to the Trump administration's push to cut off Iran's economy.
• Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would raise its Canadian auto tariffs to 50% on Jan. 1, 2027 as the trade war between the North American neighbors continues to escalate.
• Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's trade minister for the U.S., will join CNBC's "Squawk Box" at 8:20 a.m. ET. Watch live on CNBC or CNBC+.
• Gold and crypto continued their ascents yesterday as investors looked to hedge against the U.S. dollar, a sign that the so-called debasement trade could be returning.
• Treasury yields and oil prices declined in Monday's session, but that wasn't enough for investors to send the S&P 500 higher.
• Follow live market updates here.

Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods are 15% lower before the bell after the retailer missed Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter and lowered its full-year outlook for its Foot Locker business, citing a challenging footwear market.

Comparable sales at Foot Locker, which Dick's acquired last year, fell 3.6% in the period. Sales at Dick's stores meanwhile rose 4.9%, helped in part by this summer's World Cup.

Elsewhere in retail: Lego reported record revenue for the first half of 2026 with a year-over-year increase of 21%. CEO Niels Christiansen told CNBC that the toy brickmaker has both recruited new consumers and retained its current fans.

Nvidia's Groq 3 LPX rack is in full production and will be online later this year, the chipmaker announced yesterday. It marks the technological commercialization of Nvidia's $20 billion purchase of Groq assets — Nvidia's largest acquisition on record.

As CNBC's Kif Leswing writes, the race to get Groq's chip out there underscores the role of low-latency inference in making artificial intelligence agents more responsive. The Groq 3 LPX rack can provide 3,400 tokens per second, according to Nvidia.

All eyes are on the "Magnificent 7" chipmaker ahead of its earnings report tomorrow after the bell. Nvidia shares have fallen for seven straight days, marking its longest losing streak since 2022.

A new report from Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee alleges that Trump's oil and gas stock positions gained as much as $15.5 million this year, as the oil supply crunch sent energy sector names surging.

According to his 2025 financial disclosure, the president owned between $12.5 million and $45.6 million in oil and gas stocks last year. Estimating an average gain of around 39% as of Aug. 17, the committee said the value of those holdings rose to between $17.2 million and $61.1 million.

The Trump Organization has told CNBC that Trump does not direct individual trades, and that his investments are held in discretionary accounts managed by independent financial institutions. Over the weekend, the president disclosed more than 1,000 financial transactions for the month June.

United Airlines is adding several international routes next year, as the carrier continues to bet on premium overseas travel. The new destinations announced this morning range from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Okinawa, Japan to Catania, Sicily.

Patrick Quayle, United's senior vice president, said the company is seeing its clientele "want to get away from the overcrowded, large European cities." United CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC's Phil LeBeau this morning that the new destinations aren't just for summer travel, either: "These go all the way through October," he said. "October has become one of our best months of the year."

Goldman Sachs partner Chris Churchman warned on a podcast about the perils of AI replacing bankers' reasoning skills. Here's what he said, according to a transcript shared exclusively with CNBC:

— CNBC's Kevin Breuninger, Michael Wayland, Anniek Bao, Luke Fountain, Sean Conlon, Tanaya Macheel, Sarah Whitten, Kif Leswing, Michelle Fox, Leslie Josephs and Hugh Son contributed to this report.

Luke Fountain assisted in the production of this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.