Recaps · August 4, 2026

NUWE, August 4: an 8:30 headline, a wall at $2.40, and $2.42

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: pre-market and the first 30 minutes
• Catalyst: news
• Round-number break
• No halts
• Float traded before the open
• Faded

Float

3.17 million shares

Volume

13.89 million shares

Previous close

$1.61

Open

$2.13 (up 32.3%)

High

$2.42 at 10:00 a.m.

Close

$1.88

The day before

On August 3, NUWE traded between $1.36 and $1.82. The official close was $1.61.

Pre-market: quiet, then the headline

For four hours the stock barely moved. From 4:00 a.m. it mostly sat between $1.53 and $1.62 with thin volume. A few spikes, like $1.66 at 4:32 a.m., faded within minutes. At 8:27 a.m. it traded at $1.56.

At 8:30 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: “Nuwellis Announces Next-Generation Aquadex Platform Strategy to Expand Future Critical Care Applications.” The 8:30 minute went from $1.58 to $1.68 on 17,595 shares, more than the stock had traded in most hours before it.

It climbed to $1.90 at 8:37 a.m. Then it ran again: $2.15 at 8:44 a.m., on 166,357 shares in that minute. It dropped to $1.75 at 8:49 a.m., then went back to $2.15 at 8:51 a.m. Both swings were about 20% in a few minutes.

During the 9:00 a.m. minute, the day's volume passed the whole float (3.17 million shares). The pre-market high was $2.39 at 9:00 a.m. 5.71 million shares traded before the bell.

The open

It opened at $2.13, up 32% from the $1.61 close. The first 10 minutes were rough. The 9:32 candle fell to $1.93 on 301,444 shares. At 9:39 it hit $1.85. By 9:44 it was back at $1.98.

The wall at $2.40

At 9:52:25, an ask wall appeared at exactly $2.40. It peaked at 41,573 shares, about 1.3% of the float. A larger ask wall also sat higher, at $2.50, peaking at 81,698 shares at 9:52.

The stock worked back up. At 9:57 it printed $2.27 on 436,515 shares.

Here's what happened. At 10:00:28 a buy sweep of 28,238 shares ran from $2.39 to $2.42. In under a second, 21,729 shares traded at exactly $2.40 and the wall was gone. It wasn't pulled. Buyers ate it. The high of the day was $2.42, in the 10:00 minute, on 653,898 shares.

The slide to $1.75

The top didn't hold. By 10:03 the stock had dropped to $2.00 as a 63,515-share sell sweep ran from $2.13 to $2.02. Another sell sweep of 55,536 shares ran from $2.00 to $1.92 at 10:10.

It then drifted lower. A 61,230-share sell sweep at 10:34 took it from $1.93 to $1.88. Another of 54,047 shares at 10:46 took it from $1.86 to $1.79. The low after the open was $1.75 at 10:49, 28% below the $2.42 high. A bid wall at $1.70 had first shown up at 8:49 a.m. and peaked at 45,180 shares at 1:12 p.m.

The rest of the day

There was one more push. At 11:35 it reached $2.02, a lower high under the $2.42 top. From there it went flat. It traded between $1.83 and $1.98 for most of the afternoon, with very little volume.

The regular session closed at $1.88. Volume by the close was 7.94 million shares, about 2.5 times the float. After hours it dropped to $1.57 at 4:09 p.m., then recovered to $1.80 by 7:58 p.m. No halts all day.

For the whole day including pre-market and after hours, 13.89 million shares traded, about 4.4 times the float and about 4 times normal volume.

What to take from it

• A wall at a round number can break in under a second. Here 21,729 shares traded at $2.40 in 0.8 seconds, and the top came in the same minute.
• The breakout minute was the high. The stock hit $2.42 at 10:00 and was at $2.00 by 10:03. Chasing the break cost more than the screen showed.
• Most of the move happened before the open. The day's volume passed the float during the 9:00 a.m. minute, and the session high of $2.42 was just 3 cents above the pre-market high of $2.39.