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Nasdaq Plunges 1,421 Points in Massive Tech Rout: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 21:15:03 +0000

It was a bloodbath on Wall Street Thursday, with stocks selling off sharply as market participants took profits on several of this year's biggest gainers. By the time the dust settled, the Nasdaq Composite had suffered its biggest one-day percentage drop since the April 2025 tariff tantrum. Meanwhile, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), also known as the market's "fear gauge," hit its highest point since March.

At the close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 5.5% at 24,315 — in correction territory, or more than 10% below its most recent high of 27,599.79 from October 6. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average surrendered 3.4% to 51,523 and the broader S&P 500 plummeted 4.4% to 7,353.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors closed lower today, with technology by far the biggest decliner. Memory stocks Micron Technology (MU, -17.5%) and Sandisk (SNDK, -22.3%), which have tripled and quadrupled this year, respectively, on enthusiasm for all things artificial intelligence (AI), were two notable decliners.

And Nvidia (NVDA), a bellwether in the AI industry, slumped 9.3% — its worst day since shedding 17% in the DeepSeek crash on January 27, 2025.

Several hyperscalers who have announced massive spending on AI initiatives also fell, including Alphabet (GOOGL, -2.2%), Meta Platforms (META, -4.0%) and Microsoft (MSFT, -3.6%).

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Why are stocks selling off?

Concerns that Democratic leadership in Washington and several states, from Texas to Ohio, will create headwinds for the data center buildout sparked the sell-off.

The "tech-led correction" is also being "driven by valuations that became completely disconnected from reality," says David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group. "Thursday's market action is what happens when euphoria and hype become the reason why stocks go up, rather than fundamentals, and that's exactly what has been happening with tech stocks."

While opinions may differ across Wall Street, Bahnsen does not see today's rout as a buying opportunity, considering "valuations in the tech sector remain way too high." Instead, he advises investors to "focus on more defensive parts of the market, such as consumer staples and energy stocks. These areas may be less exciting, but they have stable cash flows, and they include companies that have a long history of growing their dividends."

Qualcomm sinks on weak outlook

Qualcomm (QCOM) was hit with a double whammy Thursday, sinking 9.5% on broad-market headwinds and a disappointing earnings outlook.

The chipmaker reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $2.17 per share on revenue of $10.4 billion, both higher than Wall Street expected. But its fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings forecast of $2.25 per share at the midpoint is below analysts' estimate of $2.27 per share.

"While we recognize QCOM's leading position in modem and single-chip integrated chipset solutions, we believe the company is over-exposed to the mobile market, with its diminishing growth and increasing competition," says Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer.

And while Qualcomm is diversifying its revenue streams, including by expanding into the data center market, Schafer is maintaining "a wait and see approach" — and a Perform (Hold) rating — "as efforts outside core handset take root."

AppLovin stock bucks sell-off, soars 31%

Not all AI stocks sold off today. AppLovin (APP), which operates an AI-powered mobile ad platform, jumped 31% — its best day in two years — on a well-received earnings report.

APP's third-quarter earnings of $4.30 per share were up 76% year over year, while revenue jumped 55% to $2.18 billion. The results beat analysts' estimates too.

"We previewed Q3 as the test, and AppLovin passed it," says Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese, who reiterated an Outperform (Buy) rating on APP and raised her price target to $600 from $560 — nearly 70% above current levels. And considering Q4 is "the seasonal peak" for advertisers, Reese believes "e-commerce should inflate" AppLovin's fourth-quarter results.

Dow Rallies 1,569 Points on Midterm Relief: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 21:12:48 +0000

Stocks soared Wednesday after Tuesday's midterm elections offered little room for challenge on integrity grounds and left no question about control of Congress for the next two years. Indeed, President Donald Trump has said he will accept the results and work with Democrats over the balance of his term.

"We'll, you know, look forward to working with them," he said in an interview with The New York Times. "We'll probably work something out." At almost the same time, Trump posted an image of a MAGA-red "VETO" hat on Truth Social.

Note that Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) was down 24.5% to close at $4.49 on Wednesday. The communication services stock has been in a steady slide since hitting an all-time high of $79.38 on March 26, 2024.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was down 7.7% to $88.67 per barrel, as investors, traders and speculators priced in potential post-midterm changes in U.S. foreign policy.

Treasury yields were lower across the maturity spectrum, including the 2-year (-3.5 basis points, 4.579%), the 10-year (-6.2 bps, 4.888%) and the 30-year (-4.7 bps, 5.277%).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 1.4% to 25,736, the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 1.6% to 7,688, the small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 1.6% to 2,856, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3% to 53,356 for its biggest post-midterm election rally since 1982.

Data centers and energy stocks lose

"Democrats won the Senate and the House, and governors favoring data center pauses won in a number of states, including Texas," observes Keith Parker, head of U.S. and global macro strategy at UBS. As Parker explains, exit polls show most voters oppose new data centers in their communities.

Price action for cloud computing platform CoreWeave (CRWV, -9.9%), data center operator Applied Digital (APLD, -6.7%) and Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX, -3.8%) reflected this rising electoral opposition.

"The blue wave will have implications for equities," the strategist writes, "with the biggest impact likely coming from an increase in data center regulation at the state level near-term."

At the same time, nine of 11 sectors, including tech stocks, consumer discretionary stocks and consumer staples, were up on Wednesday. But energy stocks were down 4.8%, and industrials shed 1.1% as a group.

Only Nvidia (NVDA, -3.2%), Chevron (CVX, -3.7%) and Caterpillar (CAT, -5.2%) among the 30 Dow Jones stocks closed in the red.

3M (MMM, +9.6%) was Papa Dow's top performer, though industrial stocks were generally lower on Wednesday. Sherwin-Williams (SHW, +6.6%) made another big move, as materials stocks did their part to paint it green.

Alphabet (GOOGL, +3.2%), Amazon (AMZN, +6.1%), Apple (AAPL, +5.3%) and Microsoft (MSFT, +6.7%) put up solid gains, too, as most of the Magnificent 7 stocks enjoyed fresh bids.

The chips are down

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +1.0%) stood out among semiconductor stocks after management beat Wall Street expectations with its third-quarter results and its fourth-quarter guidance on strong demand from data centers for its enterprise CPUs and its AI accelerators.

The chipmaker was up even as Nvidia and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, -2.8%) were well down by the closing bell on this post-midterm Wednesday.

We'll hear from the leader of the AI revolution and CEO Jensen Huang when Nvidia reports fiscal 2027 third-quarter results after the closing bell on Tuesday, November 17.

What to do in November

You know what midterm elections mean for your portfolio. But the midterms are over now. And stock market seasonality says it's a particularly good time to be invested.

Have some cash to deploy? Kiplinger contributor Kyle Woodley has some ideas about what you can do with it right now. And he avoids much mention of politics, other than to dismiss it.

"Don't worry," Kyle writes. "I'm on your side." Indeed, his look at some of the best investing options for November excludes factors such as Tuesday's midterms and Black Friday on November 27.

Nasdaq Bounces as Chips Lead AI Revival: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 21:07:08 +0000

The main equity indexes were mixed on the first Tuesday of November, though names related to the artificial intelligence trade lifted the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 into the green. Crude oil was flat, but bond yields were up, as voters across the U.S. headed to polling stations for midterm elections.

By the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had risen 0.8% to 25,372, and the broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.4% at 7,568. But the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 0.4% to 51,786.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was up 0.1% to $96.56 per barrel, amid continuing diplomatic efforts to end the war in the Middle East. Treasury yields were higher across the maturity spectrum, including the 2-year (+0.4 basis points, 4.623%), the 10-year (+6.4 bps, 4.958%) and the 30-year (+6.2 bps, 5.331%).

Nvidia (NVDA, +2.3%) was among the top two Dow Jones stocks as investors, traders and speculators saw value amid an AI boom, as opposed to traps in an AI bust, particularly with regard to chipmakers. Indeed, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, +2.0%) ended a three-session losing streak.

Fellow Magnificent 7 stock Microsoft (MSFT, +2.7%) set the pace for Papa Dow, while Sherwin-Williams (SHW, -3.3%) was the 30-stock index's biggest loser a day after the materials stock was its biggest winner.

Nvidia surged ahead of Apple (AAPL, -1.9%) in the global market cap leadership standings after the iPhone maker slid on concerns about slowing growth and shrinking margins in its core services business.

Earnings and opportunities

Palantir Technologies (PLTR, -1.7%) was lower, too, in the aftermath of its third-quarter earnings report, as analysts focused on slowing total commercial contract value growth for the AI-powered software stock.

Both AAPL and PLTR "are great near-term buys," according to Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates.

Apple's free cash flow rose by $136 billion, giving it plenty to spend on AI and acquisitions, while Palantir's commercial revenue rose 148%, making it less dependent on government contracts.

Navellier also notes market anticipation for results from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +3.7%) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI, +3.1%), which are reporting after the closing bell.

AMD and SMCI were among multiple semiconductor stocks posting solid gains, as tech stocks led the way higher today.

Why Eaton is one of the best stocks to buy

Eaton (ETN, +7.0%), meanwhile, demonstrated why it's one of the best stocks to buy now with another expectations-beating quarter and guidance for more growth.

As Kiplinger's Anne Kates-Smith notes, demand has never been higher for the mission-critical components Eaton makes for use in data centers, as well as by utilities and other customers to manage electric power production and other complex systems.

Management of the industrial stock reported earnings growth of 20% to $3.68 per share on revenue growth of 28% to $8.9 billion. Wall Street forecast EPS of $3.54 on sales of $8.5 billion.

Eaton estimates fourth-quarter EPS of $4.10 on organic revenue growth of 13% to 15%. Analysts expect earnings of $4.09 per share and organic growth of 11%.

In a press release announcing results, CEO Pablo Ruiz (PDF) highlighted segment margins above the high end of guidance and continued momentum across Eaton's electrical businesses.

"Record orders grew sequentially, backlog continued to expand, and we remain well-positioned to help customers deliver on their critical power infrastructure investments," Ruiz said.

What the midterms mean for your stock portfolio

"Positioning your portfolio with the outcome of electoral politics in mind is a bad idea," Kiplinger's Dan Burrows writes at the very top of his article on what midterm elections mean for your portfolio.

If you plan to mess with your portfolio based on Tuesday's results, "you might want to think again." To begin with, forecasts about sectors and stocks that could outperform or underperform following elections "are too often wrong."

At the same time, we're right at the beginning of one of the best seasonal periods for the stocks. And the S&P 500 has risen during the 12 months following midterm elections 18 straight times since 1954. So why not sit tight.

Bottom line, whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress, sticking to a long-term plan maintaining a well-diversified portfolio is all you really need to do right now.

Dow Rises Amid More Selling for AI Stocks: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 21:12:29 +0000

Stocks were mixed on Monday, as an early across-the-board bounce for the main equity indexes softened during the second half of the trading session. There's renewed optimism about peace in the Persian Gulf, though investors, traders and speculators remain cautious about the AI trade.

According to Axios, President Donald Trump told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he's open to diplomacy as a way out of the stalemate in the Middle East. In a separate but related development, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has permitted Iran's government to engage in peace negotiations.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract declined 8% to $95.84 per barrel, while Treasury yields were mixed, with the 2-year (+1.3 basis points, 4.594%) ticking higher, but the 10-year (-2.5 bps, 4.904%) and the 30-year (-2.9 bps, 5.28%) tracking lower.

"The stock market's longer-term bullish narrative may have taken some hits in recent weeks, but it's still intact," E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin observes. "The challenge has been short-term momentum — stringing together more than a few days without being disrupted by surging oil prices, concerns about AI spending, inflation, or geopolitics."

By the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4% to 51,983. But the broad-based S&P 500 had shed 0.5% at 7,541, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.1% to 25,164.

As Larkin notes, the market's "volatility triggers" this week include midterm elections on Tuesday and the October jobs report on Friday. "Its ability to bend but not break under pressure has been a positive sign," he concludes.

Who's bigger, Apple or Nvidia?

Apple (AAPL, -1.8%), which is reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell, went back and forth atop the global market cap leaderboard with Nvidia (NVDA, -1.3%), amid another down day for semiconductor stocks.

Amazon (AMZN, +2.2%) and Tesla (TSLA, +1%) and were well in the green on Monday, with some Magnificent 7 stocks catching bids despite general skepticism about the group.

Hyperscalers Alphabet (GOOGL, -0.3%), Meta Platforms (META, -1.3%) and Microsoft (MSFT, -2.8%), for example, lagged amid lingering concerns about capex, cash flow and return on AI investment.

Idexx Laboratories (IDXX, +21.9%) led S&P 500 stocks after management of the pet healthcare outfit reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its full-year outlook.

Sherwin-Williams (SHW, +6%), meanwhile, was the top-performing Dow Jones stock, as materials, financials, industrials, consumer staples and real estate, as well as consumer discretionary stocks, rose more than 1%.

Note that a Nasdaq stock with significant AI exposure, Palantir Technologies (PLTR, -3.1%), joins iPhone maker Apple on the earnings calendar this evening.

Marvell is buying Lumentum

Marvell Technology (MRVL, -12.7%) will buy Lumentum Holdings (LITE, -18.6%) in a tie-up of tech stocks with "complementary electrical and optical capabilities" that will "address increasingly complex connectivity requirements across next-generation AI infrastructure."

Lumentum shareholders will receive 4.5 MRVL shares for each LITE share they own. The deal values LITE at approximately $1,132 per share, a premium of about 24% based on each company's closing price on October 28.

Marvell says its portfolio will span "leading-edge CMOS, silicon photonics, compound semiconductors, advanced packaging and manufacturing capabilities" and deliver "highly optimized connectivity solutions across a wide range of distances," including distributed data centers.

Management expects the transaction to boost revenue growth and margin expansion over the long term, with "line of sight to more than $1 billion in annual run-rate cost synergies."

It'll be bottom-line accretive in "year one post-close." But both MRVL and LITE were down double digits in the immediate aftermath of the deal's announcement, despite the AI optimism.

Anthropic reports revenue of $17 billion

Anthropic (ANT), on track to complete what could be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in stock market history before Thanksgiving, reported third-quarter revenue of $16.96 billion in an updated registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.

Top-line growth was about 1,127% on a year-over-year basis. But growth slowed quarter to quarter, to 47% from 144% in Q2 and 132% in Q1. Management of the self-described AI research and safety company reported a net loss of $23.29 billion.

Indeed, whether to buy ANT stock is a simple question with more complex ramifications as investors, traders and speculators continue to price the durability of the AI revolution.

Nasdaq Falls Another 747 Points as Intel Is Way Outside: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:25:16 +0000

All three main equity indexes gapped down at Friday's open, as the rotation out of technology and artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerated to a frightful pace on All Hallows Eve. Investors, traders and speculators are seeking safety in energy, consumer staples and healthcare stocks, as well as Treasury bonds, amid rising concern about capex plans and return on AI.

By the closing bell, the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 2.9% to 25,437, the tech-heavy index's steepest single-day decline since March 2025, turning what had been a modest weekly gain into a 2% weekly loss.

The broad-based S&P 500 was off 1.8% at 7,580, resulting in a 0.6% decline for the week. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.1% today to 51,770. Papa Dow dipped 0.9% this week.

"Mega-cap stocks have faced increased selling pressure over the past two weeks as elevated AI-related spending and rising financing costs raise concerns over the path to profitability," LPL Financial Chief Cross-Asset Strategist Adam Turnquist observes. "Recent earnings reports have added to these concerns, revealing slowing growth in select hyperscalers' core businesses."

Alphabet (GOOGL, -1.4%) reported its weakest ad revenue growth in five quarters, while e-commerce sales for Amazon (AMZN, -1.4%) slowed to a three-year low. But Microsoft (MSFT, -1.6%) reported a nice pop for cloud revenue, including expectations-beating Azure sales.

Still, according to Turnquist, the Magnificent 7 stocks are showing signs of weakness from a technical perspective.

Indeed, the Magnificent Seven Index has broken below support near its May highs and is approaching another key level. Relative strength "is also at a critical inflection point," with more deterioration from here suggesting leadership "is rotating away from mega-cap stocks."

The wider technology complex was also destabilized on Friday by a reported $6.3 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange Binance engineered by agents of North Korea's government.

Intel is way outside

Intel (INTC, -28.6%) was the worst S&P 500 stock on Friday after management reported mixed results and offered weak guidance, amid a more-rapid-than-anticipated deceleration for its core PC market.

The chipmaker expects to report earnings of 25 cents per share for the fourth quarter on revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion. Wall Street forecast EPS of 45 cents on revenue of $17.3 billion.

Other semiconductor stocks got dragged down, too, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, -10.9%), which is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday.

Nvidia (NVDA, -4.2%) was the worst Dow Jones stock. Fellow Mag 7ers Meta Platforms (META, -1.5%) and Tesla (TSLA, -0.9%) looked better by comparison.

Apple (AAPL, -1.2%) will be the sixth Magnificent 7 stock to report this season when it reveals fiscal fourth-quarter results after Monday's closing bell.

As Turnquist explains, AAPL outperformed this month because the iPhone maker is "more asset-light compared to peers" and is still generating strong positive free cash flow.

Crude oil up, bond yields down

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract rose 2.4% to $104.45 per barrel, and Brent futures added 1.5% to $112.44, reflecting expectations the war in the Middle East will intensify after midterm elections in the U.S.

The 2-year Treasury yield (-6.4 basis points, 4.592%), as well as the 10-year (-5.8 bps, 4.931%) and the 30-year (-1.9 bps, 5.31%), declined as investors bid up bond prices in their search for safety.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will share its October update on the employment situation before the opening bell next Friday. Markets expect the data to reflect continuing stability.

Indeed, even after a cooler-than-expected September jobs report, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) remains focused on the inflation problem.

That includes Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, who dissented from the decision to hold interest rates steady at the October Fed meeting and promises to generate economic calendar sparks next Thursday.

Note that the Treasury Department announced an I-bond rate of 5.51%, which is fixed for the six months through April 30, 2027, and looks even more attractive after today's price action.

What is it about Berkshire Hathaway?

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, +0.3%), because of what's inside Warren Buffett's and Greg Abel's portfolio, is a lot like an equity index fund. It's actually the biggest financial stock in the S&P 500.

But Berkshire's holdings include American Express (AXP, -1.4%) and Bank of America (BAC, -2.2%), as well as Apple, which remains the biggest holding, and Alphabet, which will go down as Buffett's last major equity buy.

It also includes consumer staples such as Coca-Cola (KO, +1.4%), energy stocks such as Chevron (CVX, +1.7%) and industrials such as Delta Air Lines (DAL, -1.8%).

Today, the blue chip stock traded like a safe haven. Next Saturday, Abel's team will report quarterly earnings for the first time since Buffett's retirement as chairman of the board in September.

Nasdaq Drops 365 Points on Big Alphabet Miss: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 20:08:22 +0000

Stocks opened lower Thursday and stayed there through the close as market participants wondered what another hot inflation reading means for a December rate hike. The latest batch of corporate earnings also kept a lid on sentiment, with a rare miss from Google's parent, Alphabet (GOOGL), sending the mega-cap stock sharply lower — and renewing fears over big AI spending.

At the close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 1.4% at 26,184, the broader S&P 500 was off 0.3% at 7,720, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.3% lower at 52,342.

Alphabet created a massive drag on the three main equity benchmarks, shedding 12.6% — its worst day ever — after the Google parent unveiled its third-quarter results.

GOOGL reported earnings of $2.67 per share, down 7% year over year, on revenue of $127.6 billion (+25% YoY). The results fell short of Wall Street's estimates for earnings of $3.00 per share on $127.9 billion in revenue, and marked the company's first double miss since Q4 2022.

Alphabet also reported negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion and Q3 capital expenditures of $51.4 billion. The company maintained its full-year capex forecast of $195 billion to $205 billion.

Long-term debt, meanwhile, jumped to $125.1 billion from $21.6 billion the year prior, signaling a sharp rise in borrowing to fund its AI initiatives.

The quarter-over-quarter slowdown in Search ad revenue growth (+12% YoY in Q3 vs +17% YoY in Q2) outweighs all other points in the print, says Wedbush analyst Ygal Arounian. Worries over free cash flow and spending also weighed on the stock.

But Arounian, who has an Outperform (Buy) rating on Alphabet, believes the company is "well positioned, with a strong ecosystem that, yes, is evolving, but with the pieces in place to capitalize." And Google, he adds, "will prove a winner as AI advertising evolves."

Caterpillar stock has its worst day in six years

Alphabet was the worst Dow Jones stock today, but Caterpillar (CAT) came in a close second. The blue chip stock sank 9.3% — its biggest one-day decline since March 9, 2020 — after the construction equipment maker reported its Q3 results.

CAT said earnings grew 45.5% year over year to $7.20 per share, more than analysts expected. But revenue of $20.7 billion (+17% YoY) fell short of the $20.8 billion Wall Street called for.

"Results reflected strong sales to users across all three primary businesses, led by 75% growth in" its Power & Energy segment, says Oppenheimer analyst Kristen Owen. This division, which supplies AI data centers, has seen impressive growth in recent quarters.

"On the outlook, CAT called for moderate year-over-year growth in Q4 despite difficult YoY comps and change in dealer inventory headwinds, supporting its unchanged mid-to-high teens FY26 revenue growth expectation," Owen adds.

September PCE shows inflation remains elevated

Wall Street also kept a close eye on today's economic calendar. In the wake of what many are describing as a hawkish pause from the Federal Reserve at its October meeting, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index — the central bank's preferred inflation gauge — rose 0.5% from August to September. PCE was up 3.6% year over year.

Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.3% month over month and was 3.1% higher than the year-ago period.

"Although the inflation data came in line with expectations, because it is higher than the prior month, it emphasizes the problem we face — inflation is not coming down to the 2% target," says Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management.

Still, he says the current inflation level "isn't terrible; it will just require slightly higher interest rates. And despite all of this, growth is very good." Indeed, a separate BEA report showed the U.S. economy grew 3.4% in the third quarter.

Expectations for a December rate hike fell slightly after Thursday's economic data. CME Group FedWatch shows futures traders are pricing in a 78% probability the Fed will increase the federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point in December, down from 84% one day ago.

Stocks Rise Despite Inflation and War Talk: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 20:17:22 +0000

Stocks rallied after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced a widely anticipated decision to hold its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, even as markets priced in rising probability of more war in the Middle East. The main equity indexes were comforted by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's explanation for the pause, as well as a new change to FOMC meetings moving forward, but still weakened late in the session.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. is telling allies in the Persian Gulf region "to be prepared for a short, intense military campaign" against Iran following next week's midterm elections.

"We did a little cease-fire, which I never liked very much," President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday. "I consider it sort of a waste of time. But, you know, you like to listen to professionals."

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract rose 2.7% to $102.56 per barrel, while Brent futures, the international benchmark, added 1.8% to $111.40.

Market-based interest rates were mixed, with the 2-year Treasury yield tracking back 3.1 basis points to 4.706%, but the 10-year (+3.3 bps, 5.024%) and 30-year (+4.6 bps, 5.351%) ticking higher for the day.

By the closing bell, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.3% at 7,743, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.2% to 52,475, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was higher by 0.3% at 26,549.

Fed puts inflation fight on hold

The FOMC voted 10-2 to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4.00%, noting as it did in September that the economy is strong, capex is robust and the unemployment rate is little changed.

At the same time, inflation remains elevated, as does uncertainty, "owing, in part, to geopolitical developments." The FOMC said waiting for more information will help it decide what to do about getting back to its 2% inflation target. "The Committee will deliver price stability," it repeated.

"It's our responsibility to get inflation down," Warsh said during his post-meeting press conference. "That's the reason the FOMC's discussion over the last couple of days focused mainly on the price stability side of our remit."

The Fed chair added that he and the committee have "made clear our readiness to act as circumstances require, and we have shown our willingness to act."

Note that the main indexes turned positive across the board after Warsh said that the Fed will still have eight meetings in 2027. However, one of those meetings will not include a policy decision or statement; rather, it will be devoted to the central bank having richer conversations and strategic deliberations about monetary policy.

In 2028, two of the Fed's eight meetings will likely not have a policy decision or statement.

You can follow more news and updates about the October Fed meeting on our live blog.

Vertiv goes vertical, Alphabet and Microsoft take center stage

"Meanwhile," observes BlackRock Global Chief Investment and Portfolio Strategist Gargi Pal Chaudhuri, "strong corporate earnings continue to support our constructive outlook on equities, particularly AI, where demand remains robust."

Chaudhuri says earnings growth is broadening beyond tech stocks.

Indeed, Vertiv Holdings (VRT, +16.5%), basically an HVAC company that specializes in cooling down AI data centers, reported greater than 100% organic order growth for the third quarter, as the industrial stock beat Wall Street's revenue and earnings estimates, as well as analysts' Q4 forecasts.

"Results materially strengthen the execution thesis," Oppenheimer analyst Noah Kaye writes in a review of Vertiv's results, noting that management continues to expect to benefit from pricing power amid rising costs this year.

Kaye reiterated his Outperform (Buy) rating and his $325 12-month target price, with results also underscoring demand reacceleration.

Investors, traders and speculators will look for more signs of sustainability for that kind of demand trajectory as Alphabet (GOOGL, +1.3%) and Microsoft (MSFT, -0.06%) report results and share guidance after today's closing bell.

Nasdaq Jumps 308 Points on Broadcom's Big Gains: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:14:57 +0000

Stocks closed higher Tuesday as market participants panned a busy batch of corporate earnings reports and looked ahead to tomorrow's Federal Reserve policy announcement. Chip stocks were a notable pocket of strength, with several mega caps soaring on news of a $63 billion deal between Broadcom (AVGO) and Anthropic (ANT).

At the close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 1.2% at 26,477, the broader S&P 500 was 0.6% higher at 7,722, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.03% to 52,377.

Broadcom jumped 4% to trade near the top of the S&P 500 after the chipmaker late Monday announced a $63 financing deal that will allow Anthropic to buy AVGO's artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The agreement is not a straightforward purchase. Rather, several major financial institutions — Bank of America (BAC, +0.3%), Blackstone (BX, -1.0%), and Morgan Stanley (MS, +1.9%) — will finance purchases of Broadcom's AI chips and infrastructure via a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will then lease the hardware to Anthropic.

"The announcement should help ease investor fears around financing the AI buildout, in our view," says Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer, who has an Outperform (Buy) rating on the semiconductor stock. "AVGO is providing residual value support (RVS) up to the first-lien financing amount rather than an upfront cash investment."

The upside had a halo effect on other chipmakers, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +5.5%), Intel (INTC, +3.6%) and Micron Technology (MU, +2.8%).

Boeing stock slumps after earnings

Boeing (BA) was the worst Dow Jones stock today, shedding 10.7% — its worst day since June 2020 — after the aerospace giant reported earnings.

While Boeing's third-quarter revenue of $24.2 billion came in higher than expected thanks to strong sales in its defense unit, its per-share loss of 34 cents was wider than analysts forecast.

The company also said it does not expect to ramp up production of its 737 Max planes until the second half of next year on slower-than-expected wing production.

JetBlue stock soars on strong outlook

After hitting a record low on Monday, JetBlue (JBLU) soared 19% today, its best day since April 9, 2025, after the discount air carrier reported earnings.

JBLU had a wider-than-expected per-share loss in Q3, and its revenue came in just shy of analysts' estimates. However, the company said it expects its revenue per available seat mile (RASM) — a key financial metric for airlines — to increase as much as 22% in Q4.

"All in, JBLU's trends appear to be strong operationally in areas within control," says UBS Global Research analyst Atul Maheswari. "High fuel costs remain a headwind, but we continue to believe JBLU has enough liquidity reserves to manage through at least the near term."

Consumer confidence rises ahead of the October Fed meeting

Several economic reports were released Tuesday, including better-than-expected readings on September new home sales and durable goods.

The Conference Board also released its latest Consumer Confidence Index, which rose 7.5 points from September to October, to 91.7.

The data reflect "improved perceptions of current and expected business conditions," says Fergus McCormick, senior economist of global indicators at The Conference Board.

Still, McCormick notes that consumer confidence remains in a long-term downtrend. "Consumers planned less spending on services and durable goods over the next six months. This likely reflected higher price levels and persistent inflation, which eroded consumers’ purchasing power."

Indeed, "further strength in the coming months is still required for the trend to turn and become a more meaningful tailwind," says Jordan Rizzuto, managing partner & CIO at GammaRoad Capital Partners.

The economic calendar remains busy the remainder of the week, with all eyes on tomorrow's conclusion of the October Fed meeting. You can follow along with all the latest news and updates on our live blog.

Stocks Start a Big Week With Solid Gains: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 20:14:15 +0000

Stocks rebounded Monday on the revival of the artificial intelligence trade, as the developer of the Claude large language model and AI assistant filed for what would be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in stock market history. Markets are also looking forward to quarterly reports from three more Magnificent 7 stocks, as well as this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which begins tomorrow and concludes on Wednesday.

"AI jitters and oil prices have kept stocks off balance," E*TRADE From Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin observes, "but this week's lineup of high-profile earnings and economic data may have the potential to push the market out of its trading range — one way or the other."

As Larkin notes, the Fed will probably hold interest rates this week, so "traders will be focused on tech earnings, especially hyperscalers Microsoft and Amazon, to gauge the strength of the AI trade as we head into year-end."

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was down 1.8% to $101.48 per barrel. WTI has risen more than 12% in October, as investors, traders and speculators continue to balance risks of escalation after midterm elections in the U.S. with improving flows from the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the yield on the 2-year Treasury was up 3.2 basis points to 4.716%, while yields on the 10-year (-0.2 bps, 4.986%) and the 30-year (-1.6 bps, 5.299%) were lower for the day.

By the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had risen 0.8% to 26,169, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.7% at 7,676, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.3% to 52,361.

What the Fed will do (and when the Fed will do it)

Like most market participants, Deutsche Bank Senior U.S. Economist Brett Ryan expects the Fed to hold the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4.00% this week. At the same time, Ryan says dissents from a decision to hold are likely.

The economist expects Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's post-meeting press conference to focus on why the FOMC decided not to raise rates, how recent inflation data has impacted the monetary policy outlook and what, if anything, has changed about the committee's assessment of financial conditions amid recent AI-related volatility.

"Warsh is likely to signal that recent inflation data reinforce expectations from the September meeting that further tightening will likely be needed over time," the economist concludes. "However, skipping October allows officials more time to assess trends in the data."

You can follow updates and commentary about this week's event on our October Fed meeting live blog.

Should you buy ANT stock?

Anthropic has a ticker symbol, and if everything goes according to plan, ANT will start trading on the Nasdaq next month. One analyst who covers the IPO market says it'll be the first major generative AI pure play to come to market.

So, should you buy ANT stock?

According to Kiplinger's Tom Taulli, "Investors will need to weigh Anthropic's explosive growth against its massive infrastructure spending, fierce competition, safety risk and lofty valuation before deciding whether to buy the IPO."

Listen to what the hyperscalers say

Alphabet (GOOGL, -1.1%) and fellow Mag 7 members Amazon (AMZN, +0.4%) and Microsoft (MSFT, +1.5%) will report top- and bottom-line results amid rising concern about whether we're in an AI bubble rather than an AI boom.

Stifel analysts say markets will watch consumption trends, as well as free cash flow and capex, with emphasis on Azure for Microsoft, Google Cloud Platform for Alphabet and Amazon Web Services for Amazon.

Stifel suggests Azure will top a consensus forecast for 46% to 48% year-over-year revenue growth, "driven by incremental efficiencies, ramping new data center capacity and a growing OAI (Azure OpenAI) acceleration."

The analysts note that GOOGL is on a streak of four consecutive quarters of accelerating revenue growth, supported by spiking cloud business. For its part, AMZN's sequential revenue acceleration streak is at five quarters and counting.

As Stifel notes, Amazon management has already said it won't have enough capacity in 2026 or 2027 and "demand we already have for 2028 is striking."

Meta Platforms (META, -1.9%) and Tesla (TSLA, +5.2%) posted their most recent results last week.

Apple (AAPL, -1.1%) is scheduled to report after the closing bell next Monday, November 2. Though management hasn't yet confirmed the date, Nvidia (NVDA, +2.4%) is expected to host its earnings event after the closing bell on November 18.

Dow Drops 652 Points as Oil, Treasury Yields Rise: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 20:09:23 +0000

Stocks closed lower Friday as geopolitical uncertainty ramped up and Treasury yields and oil prices climbed. Market participants also looked ahead to next week's jam-packed earnings and economic calendars, which feature quarterly results from several mega caps, as well as the October Fed meeting.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.2% at 52,215, the broader S&P 500 was 0.5% lower at 7,623, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was off 0.2% at 25,955. The Dow managed to hold on for a weekly win, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were lower week over week.

Treasury yields resumed their climb on Friday. The yield on the 2-year (+5.1 basis points at 4.686%), 10-year (+4.8 bps, 5.001%) and 30-year (+4.2 bps, 5.329%) Treasuries were all higher at the close.

Oil prices rose, too, after Iran said it is prepared to attack should the U.S. and Israel resume strikes against Tehran. Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed 3.8% to $103.27 per barrel, and are now up 14% for the month to date.

Despite higher yields and lofty energy prices, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged when its October meeting concludes next Wednesday afternoon.

"Recent inflation readings have been on the warm side — especially at the producer level — but a wave of Fed speakers suggesting there was no rush to raise rates has provided a strong counterpoint," says BMO Chief Economist Douglas Porter, who adds that a "cooldown in the AI sector and milder job growth" have taken the heat off the central bank.

Still, he expects the Fed to raise interest rates in December and March.

American Express sinks on layoff news

In single-stock news, American Express (AXP) dropped 3.7%, making it the worst Dow Jones stock today. This came after the credit card giant said it is cutting 5% of its workforce to make it "leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI," as Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC.

AXP had nearly 77,000 employees at the end of 2025, which suggests roughly 3,850 jobs will be eliminated. The company said it took a $336 million restructuring charge in Q3 as a result.

Still, American Express reported third-quarter earnings of $4.68 per share, up 13% year over year and more than analysts expected. Revenue of $20.1 billion also exceeded estimates. Additionally, AXP raised the low end of its full-year earnings-per-share guidance.

Wall Street remains upbeat toward the blue chip stock, too. Of the 30 analysts covering AXP who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 10 say it's a Strong Buy, five have it at Buy and 15 rate it at Hold. This works out to a consensus Buy recommendation.

Bloom Energy sinks on cash flow concerns

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Bloom Energy (BE) slumped 11.2% after the manufacturer of fuel cells, which are used to power data centers, reported its third-quarter results.

While BE reported higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue and raised its full-year guidance, its free cash flow and operating cash flow were both negative.

"Bloom Energy is spending a lot of money striving to boost its fuel cell production fivefold, so some naysayers are worried about its cash burn," says Louis Navellier, InvestorPlace analyst and host of the Navellier Market Buzz. "I want you to know that companies like Bloom Energy have such massive order backlogs, so I disagree with criticisms of Bloom Energy's ramp-up."

Next week is a big one for earnings, too, with Alphabet (GOOGL, -1.2%), Caterpillar (CAT, -2.4%) and Amazon (AMZN, -1.0%) among those reporting.

Nasdaq Sinks 694 Points as Meta Stock Slumps: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 20:08:18 +0000

Stocks closed mostly lower Thursday as poorly received Magnificent 7 earnings and concerns about AI spending sparked a sell-off across the tech sector. Ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting, market participants are also worrying about how rising oil prices will impact inflation and interest rates.

At the close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 2.6% at 26,008 and the broader S&P 500 was 1.2% lower at 7,663, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked 0.02% higher to 52,867.

Oil prices climbed after President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the U.S. is not currently negotiating with Iran to end the war in the Middle East. Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 3% to $100.06 per barrel, and are now up nearly 11% month to date.

Meta sinks on free cash flow worries

Meta Platforms (META) was one of the biggest drags on the Nasdaq Thursday, with the Facebook parent sliding 7% after earnings, marking its worst day since July.

Meta's third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion beat Wall Street's estimate, as did its fourth-quarter revenue forecast. But earnings of $3.83 per share fell short, and free cash flow turned negative as spending on its AI initiatives ramped up.

The company raised the low end of its full-year capex, now expecting to spend between $135 billion and $145 billion, compared to its previous outlook of $130 billion to $145 billion.

"In our view, Meta is entering a capex harvest cycle, with three years of investment in frontier AI models beginning to translate into both stronger near-term advertising performance and accelerating adoption of AI products," says UBS Global Research analyst Stephen Ju. "We believe Meta can further improve ad targeting and content recommendations through optimized versions of its Muse model, creating upside to our 2027 and 2028 revenue forecasts."

Meta also said its board of directors approved the establishment of non-voting Class C shares, which will be publicly traded and distributed to those who own its Class A common stock and Class B super-voting shares.

The Class C shares will begin trading in January 2027, and the price of the Class A shares will "reflect the effect of a two-for-one stock split," says Meta.

Part of the reason Meta is creating the new Class C shares, the company explains, is to preserve CEO Mark Zuckerberg's voting control and ensure he remains in California to lead the company, both of which were at risk pending passage of California's proposed wealth tax in November. It will also help fund the company's AI expansion plans.

Tesla falls after earnings

Tesla (TSLA) was another Magnificent 7 stock that slumped after its late-Wednesday turn on the earnings calendar, with the electric vehicle (EV) maker shedding 3.1%.

The company reported third-quarter earnings of 48 cents per share on revenue of $28 billion, which was higher than analysts expected, but lower than the year prior.

TSLA also said operating expenses jumped 39% in Q3, which dragged on margins. Additionally, the company lowered its full-year capex forecast to $20 billion from $25 billion.

"With regard to a potential merger with SpaceX (SPCX, -9.1%), I think I said everything that should be said yesterday, tap-dancing through a minefield there," noted CEO Elon Musk on Tesla's earnings call. "And yes, that's it. "

Procter & Gamble has its best day in six years after earnings

Procter & Gamble (PG) found itself on the positive side of the ledger after earnings, rising 5.6% — the Dow Jones stock's best day since March 26, 2020, when it rose 6.4%, according to Morningstar.

The consumer products giant reported higher-than-expected fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings and revenue, while volume growth jumped 2.4% year over year.

"We are getting the balance between pricing and product improvements, package improvements, claims, communication and retail execution right," Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten said on the earnings call. "But it's also a very fragile balance that we want to make sure we don't compromise on, so we will price, and we will price with innovation, not jeopardizing the top-line momentum."

Stocks Shoot for the Stars on AI Optimism: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:09:37 +0000

All three main equity indexes were lifted by general optimism about the AI revolution on Wednesday, with incoming data showing an actual return on investment for one of its major players. Whether that trend persists is the controlling question for markets, with more earnings and guidance from the new economy's leaders on the immediate horizon.

By the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 1.1% at 26,702, the broad-based S&P 500 had added 0.6% to 7,757, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by 0.7% at 52,856.

Price action in the bond market was relatively muted, with the 2-year Treasury yield up 2.3 basis points to 4.81%. Yields on the 10-year (+0.6, 5.123%) and the 30-year (-1.2 bps, 5.413%) Treasuries drifted mostly sideways.

"The recent volatility in the AI trade may have rattled the market," observes Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Portfolio Manager Daniel Skelly, "but it's arguably a healthy development, especially given a backdrop of solid growth and strong earnings."

Skelly acknowledges that concern about spending is "merited given the boom-bust nature of some previous US innovation episodes." At the same time, he concludes, "The long-term AI capex cycle remains intact and should continue to favor large players with strong balance sheets."

Why a SpaceX-Tesla merger is only a matter of time

SpaceX (SPCX, +7.8%) announced its presence on the earnings calendar with authority after the closing bell on Tuesday, including a big bottom-line beat driven by rapid growth for its Super Intelligence and Starlink segments.

But the bigger news might be what CEO Elon Musk said about the biggest potential M&A transaction in stock market history, a long-rumored tie-up between SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA, +3.4%).

According to Musk, the boards of both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to talk about a merger between the two companies.

"I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies," Musk said during a conference call to discuss SpaceX results. "There's a lot to be gained from cooperating on developing superintelligence software."

Nobody knows anything, especially about the future. But even a limited data set indicates the probability the SPCX and TSLA boards see the situation the same way their CEO sees it is a lot closer to 100% than it is to 0%.

What that deal means for AT&T

AT&T (T, -6.5%) also reported expectations-beating top- and bottom-line results for its third quarter. Management raised its full-year earnings guidance, and AT&T is accelerating its stock buyback program, too.

Revenue was up 5.3% year over year to $32.3 billion, vs a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate of $31.7 billion. Earnings per share came in at 65 cents vs estimates of 60 cents. AT&T said 2026 EPS will be $2.40, up from a range of $2.25 to $2.35 offered in July.

"The accelerated growth we delivered this quarter shows our structural advantages to lead the next era of connectivity," CEO John Stankey said in a statement. "We are accelerating the pace of our planned share repurchases this year to approximately $10 billion, reflecting our confidence in our market position."

But the blue-chip dividend stock still fell sharply on Wednesday. AT&T reported 379,000 new postpaid subscribers, missing a consensus forecast for 379,300. That's also down from 432,000 new adds in the second quarter.

Postpaid subscribers generate long-term recurring revenue. Deterioration here is an indicator of competitive pressures from existing market participants such as Verizon Communications (VZ, -2.2%) and T-Mobile US (TMUS, -2.5%).

Despite what Stankey said about its structural advantages and its position in this emerging era of connectivity, markets are also pricing the potential impact on the prevailing market-share pie of new service providers such as SpaceX.

T (down 4.7% through October 20 vs -0.7% for the S&P 500), VZ (-2.3%) and TMUS (-7.9%) have all suffered since October 8, when SpaceX accelerated its plans to launch a consumer wireless telecom business with an $8 billion spectrum purchase that will allow Starlink to compete with the incumbents.

Meta's latest muse

Tesla and fellow Magnificent 7 stock Meta Platforms (META, +0.5%) are reporting third-quarter financial and operating results after the closing bell. Independent tech analyst Luke Lango is particularly bullish on the latter.

"Meta heads into earnings as a frontier AI contender, not just an ad company, and the market hasn't fully priced that shift. The core business is humming, and we expect revenue to clear the $63.3 billion consensus by $1 billion or more on growth north of 20%, a pace few mega caps can touch."

According to Lango, Meta's brand-new Muse is the real story after the AI agent "topped 10 million downloads in about six weeks, a launch pace only a dozen apps have ever hit."

The analyst cites SpaceX's "blowout" earnings as evidence that agents and the computing power to support them "are already making real money." As Lango sees it, this totally reframes the capex debate. "When compute is this scarce and this valuable," he writes, "a bigger spending plan isn't recklessness, it's a land grab."

Lango is looking for Mark Zuckerberg's outfit to post strong ad numbers and "hard" Muse metrics. "At roughly 20 times next year's earnings," the analyst concludes, "Meta is one of the cheapest ways to own the AI agent era."

Dow Gains 529 Points on 3M Data Center Deal: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 20:12:09 +0000

Stocks finished mostly higher Tuesday as long-term Treasury yields retreated and oil prices eased back. A round of well-received earnings reports helped offset disappointing housing data, with more corporate reports due out after tonight's close — including results from mega caps Netflix (NFLX, -1.7%) and SpaceX (SPCX, -0.1%).

At the end of Tuesday's session, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1% at 52,495, the broader S&P 500 was 0.3% higher at 7,712, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was marginally lower at 26,424.

Yields on the 10-year (-2.1 basis points to 5.115%) and 30-year (-5 bps to 5.423%) Treasury notes helped lift the main equity benchmarks, as did falling oil prices. Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures shed 0.9% to $102.75 per barrel, though they remain nearly 14% higher month to date.

3M jumps on Amazon data center deal

3M (MMM) was the best Dow Jones stock on Tuesday, rising 5.8% for its best day since July, after the industrial conglomerate's beat-and-raise quarter.

In Q3, the company said earnings grew 14.2% year over year to $2.50 per share — more than Wall Street expected — while revenue was up 4.2% to $6.6 billion, slightly below analysts' estimates. 3M also expects full-year earnings per share of $9.10 to $9.15, up from its previous forecast of $8.80 to $8.95.

While earnings were impressive, Wall Street also cheered a separate announcement from 3M regarding "an expanded strategic commercial relationship with Amazon (AMZN, +0.07%) to deploy and scale 3M's optical connectivity and other Data Center related products."

According to a regulatory filing (pdf), the deal gives Amazon the option to purchase 3.2 million MMM shares over the next seven years, contingent upon several milestones, including $6 billion in sales of 3M's optical connectivity and other data center-related products.

Ally Financial hikes its dividend by 17%

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Ally Financial (ALLY) rose 1.0% after the top online bank reported third-quarter earnings of $1.34 per share, up 16% year over year, on revenue of $2.3 billion (+9% YoY). The results surpassed Wall Street's expectations.

Separately, the financial firm said its board of directors approved a 17% increase to its quarterly dividend. This marks the first time since late 2021 that Ally Financial hiked its payout.

Braze soars 52% on Salesforce buyout

In non-earnings news, Braze (BRZE) shares shot up 51.7% Tuesday on news that Salesforce (CRM, -0.01%) will buy the customer engagement platform in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $5.66 billion.

Salesforce says the transaction is expected to close in fiscal 2028, and upon completion, "Braze's real-time engagement and AI decisioning capabilities are expected to complement all four layers of Salesforce's architecture — Data 360, Customer 360, Agentforce, and SIForce."

Earlier this month, BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani double-upgraded Salesforce to Buy from Underperform (the equivalent of Sell).

"Our prior concern centered on AI-driven disintermediation," Liani wrote in a note about the blue chip stock. "However, conversations with CIOs and other market participants suggest that large enterprises (more than small-to-medium-sized businesses) are unlikely to replace platforms that house their business logic, data, workflows and compliance frameworks."

And AI, he adds, "should deepen dependence on these platforms." He believes that Salesforce has a credible AI strategy and is poised for strong free cash flow generation.

Housing starts, pending home sales fall short

In economic news, data from the Census Bureau showed building permits slipped 0.2% from August to September to a seasonally adjusted 1.4 million. Housing starts, meanwhile, plunged 5.2% month over month in September to 1.2 million.

"The affordability challenges hurting transaction momentum have builders significantly slowing their construction pace, as this morning's September housing starts data posted the second-worst number since the pandemic recession in 2020," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

Building permits, he adds, were "less dim," with construction companies focused "on apartment rentals rather than single-family projects."

Separate data from the National Association of Realtors showed that pending home sales slumped 7.3% from August to September, and were down 11.3% year over year. Torres points to "elevated mortgage rates and lofty valuations," which are offsetting "the positive impacts of buoyant stock market performance, healthy hiring and subdued unemployment."

Nasdaq Bounces Back as AI Trade Freshens Up: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 20:11:03 +0000

Chip stocks caught bids for the first time in 10 trading sessions on Monday, though the main equity indexes were mixed as Treasury yields resumed their climb. It's relatively quiet as far as incoming economic data this week. But markets have plenty of fresh information to consider, with two of the Magnificent 7 stocks set to report third-quarter operating and financial numbers.

At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 1.1% at 26,430, and the broad-based S&P 500 had added 0.4% to 7,690. But the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 0.07% at 51,966.

Consumer discretionary stocks and tech stocks posted outsized gains amid a relatively narrow rally, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, +1.6%) posted a positive intraday return for the first time since October 5.

Nvidia (NVDA, +1.4%) was well in the green, while fellow Magnificent 7 stocks Meta Platforms (META, -0.6%) and Tesla (TSLA, +3.8%) prepare to offer the market the first look at the trend-setting group's recent results after the closing bell on Wednesday.

"Despite the pullback in the AI trade, the S&P 500 ended last week only 2% below its all-time high," E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin observes. "With a light economic calendar this week, traders should be more focused on earnings, but as has been the case for the past few weeks, oil prices and Treasury yields will likely play a major role in market sentiment."

The 2-year Treasury yield was up 3.6 basis points to 4.772%, while yields on the 10-year (+4.4 bps, 5.142%) and the 30-year (+3.9 bps, 5.476%) also popped again on Monday. The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract, meanwhile, declined by 0.7% to $98.38 per barrel from $101.41 on Friday.

Like Larkin, Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates would rather focus on earnings: "I am expecting 33% average third-quarter earnings growth for the S&P 500. It is literally impossible to be bearish in the midst of such stunning earnings announcements, so please enjoy the ride."

Why AMZN is a "Top Pick"

Amazon (AMZN, +5.0%) was No. 1 among the 30 Dow Jones stocks on Monday after Morgan Stanley named it a "Top Pick" based on a favorable risk-reward profile, as well as five catalysts for as much as 40% upside from its closing price on Friday.

According to analyst Brian Nowak, Amazon Web Services will continue to deliver outsize top-line growth on its way to $1 trillion in revenue. AWS growth will, in turn, support earnings power. Its Bedrock service is well-placed to drive generative AI across the economy and is "a potential multiple expander."

Amazon also enjoys competitive advantages when it comes to agentic AI. And the e-commerce giant is emerging as a physical AI winner, too, with efficient adoption of robotics at its fulfillment centers.

Nowak reiterated his Overweight (Buy) rating and raised his 12-month target price from $335 to $350, noting a three-to-one risk-reward ratio based on a downside "bear skew" to $220.

The analyst also cites the bigger top line for AWS, as well as Amazon's "ability to operate as a 'rule of 90' company," which means the sum of its annual revenue growth rate and its profit margin is equal to or greater than 90%.

INTC gets an upgrade

Intel (INTC, +2.4%) traded up to $142.35 intraday and closed at $139.63 on June 30. The semiconductor stock closed at $89.85 on Friday, almost 40% from its recent highs.

That was enough for J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur to upgrade the chipmaker to Neutral (Hold) from Underperform (Sell). The analyst maintained his 12-month target price of $85, as the risk-reward for INTC now "is much more balanced."

Sur notes concerns about the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending, but he says "increasing agentic AI workloads (CPU intensive) and a very tight supply chain for leading edge silicon should drive continued positive" earnings revisions when management reports third-quarter results on October 29 and through 2027.

According to S&P Global, 15 Wall Street analysts have Buy ratings on INTC, vs 33 who rate the AI stock a Hold, and now just one who says it's a Sell. The average 12-month target price is $118.05.

Nasdaq Buckles on Fear This Boom Is an AI Bubble: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:14:11 +0000

The main equity indexes slumped again on Friday, as semiconductor stocks sold off for a ninth straight trading session. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh shed only a little light on the central bank's upcoming decision on interest rates at an event in Asia. But he did heap a lot of praise on the potential upside for the broader economy from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Still, CoreWeave (CRWV, -11.9%) remains a focal point, as investors, traders and speculators fixate on capex spending and whether what we're seeing instead is an AI bubble.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, -3.4%) extended its two-week losing streak, as Nvidia (NVDA, -1.4%) rallied into the green around noon but slumped after midday. Tech stocks, as well as AI stocks, generally dragged on the main equity indexes.

By the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, reversing early gains supported by rotation into energy and risk-off sectors such as consumer staples stocks, was down 0.3% to 52,002. Papa Dow held on for a 0.7% gain this week.

The broader S&P 500 slid 1.1% to 7,659, extending its weekly loss to 1.9%. And the Nasdaq Composite shed 2.1% to 26,140, as the tech-heavy index fell 4.5% from where it was last Friday.

The 2-year Treasury yield was down 3.0 basis points to 4.721%, as the short-term proxy for monetary policy traded in a wide range. Yields on the 10-year (+0.2 bps, 5.089%) and the 30-year (+0.7 bps, 5.435%) also moved up and down a lot on Friday.

'One Night in Bangkok' featuring Fed head Kevin Warsh

Warsh said little about the target range for the federal funds rate during an overnight "fireside chat" at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group annual meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

While he was talking, though, equity index futures bounced to session highs, bond yields backed off a little more and the probability the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will keep its policy rate unchanged at its late October meeting ticked up to 85.1% from 72.3% on Thursday.

That's according to CME FedWatch, which tracks price action in the 30-day fed funds futures market.

"We removed a dose of accommodation about a month ago," Warsh said, referring to the 25-basis-point cut at the September Fed meeting. "I don't prejudge meetings. I don't believe in saying now what I might do at the meetings we have in the balance of the year."

Warsh also called AI "probably the most consequential change to the U.S. and the global economy in my lifetime. If you're a central banker and you're in the business of trying to ensure stable prices and full employment, you've got to recognize this as a shock."

Indeed, according to the Fed chair, AI will "fundamentally change the conduct of monetary policy."

With the official "blackout period" around its next policy decision starting tomorrow, that's the last we'll hear from the Fed until the conclusion of the next FOMC meeting on Wednesday, October 28.

Netflix needs a hit

Netflix (NFLX, -2.9%) announced its biggest layoffs since 2022 earlier this week, but naming a new chief content officer is probably a more important potential long-term catalyst for the communication services stock.

With NFLX down more than 15% year to date through Thursday, management is scheduled to report third-quarter results after the closing bell on Tuesday.

The stock has stagnated because of stale content that's left it struggling for engagement in an extremely competitive environment.

Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos said in an internal memo that Netflix will be "disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources" and focus on "high impact areas to improve our service."

For investors, that probably means a credible plan from the new management team to recapture eyeballs.

Flying car stock falls 2%

It's not the percentage part. It's the fact that the Magnificent 7 stock was down at all on the day Tesla (TSLA, -2.1%) introduced its Roadster, arguably the world's first flying car.

Say what you will about CEO Elon Musk and the grandiosity of his SpaceX (SPCX, -1.7%) project. This is the world's first flying car, people. "The Jetsons!" Right?

Well, actually, it's one thing to build a mind-blowing flying car, but another to introduce it when investors and traders, even speculators and policymakers, are focused on exploding capex and hyperscaler impact on the bond market.

Indeed, as Fed Chair Warsh acknowledged today, AI will boost central banks' ability to analyze data. It will also change the real economy, improve productivity and wealth.

At the same time, he cautioned, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Stocks Churn Up Even as Tech Gets Chipped: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:14:06 +0000

Price action in the fixed-income market suggested bonds are in the process of finding a bottom, even as incoming data indicated inflation remains a problem. At the same time, during yet another difficult day for technology, the three main stock indexes rallied for modest gains on Wednesday.

By the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 1.1% to 52,177, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.3% at 7,744, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had rallied for a 0.08% gain to 26,713.

"As horrific as the PPI was," Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates says, "believe it or not, Treasury yields actually declined on the perception that this may be the peak in the poor inflation news."

Indeed, the 2-year Treasury yield was down 4.5 basis points to 4.757%, while the 10-year (-9.9 bps, 5.091%) and the 30-year (-9.3 bps, 5.431%) pulled back even further.

As Navellier notes, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM, -1,7%) reported 51% top-line growth and 59% bottom-line growth for its third quarter. Management also raised its full-year guidance.

Still, Nvidia (NVDA, -1.8%) was down again, as was the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, -1.0%) — the exchange-traded fund's eighth straight loss.

"A lot of market pundits think that stocks are priced for perfection," Navellier writes, "but I remain confident that when the third-quarter announcement season winds down, the S&P 500's earnings will be up at least 33%."

The Fed has 'work to do'

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said before the opening bell that the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 1.3% in September, more than double a FactSet-compiled consensus forecast for 0.5% month-over-month acceleration. PPI was up to 6.3% from 5.6% compared to September 2025.

"PPI inflation was higher than expected in September as energy prices surged and food prices rose," Fifth Third Commercial Bank Chief U.S. Economist Bill Adams observes. "Core inflation exceeded forecasts, too."

A red-hot September CPI report and today's PPI data "show no sign of inflation moving back to the Fed's target," Adams concludes, "leaving the central bank with 'more work to do,' to borrow Chair Warsh's phrase from his Jackson Hole speech in August."

Nike tops the Dow

Nike (NKE, +5.3%) is now the smallest of the Dow Jones stocks, and it's the worst performer of the 30 so far this year. But that didn't stop the sneaker company from leading the index on Thursday.

NKE was down 78.2% from an all-time closing high of $161.91 on November 5, 2021, to $35.30 at the end of regular trading on Wednesday, presenting what looks like a bargain to many investors, traders and speculators.

Indeed, the iconic athleisure brand has bounced off an intraday low of $31.97, plumbed on October 2 in the aftermath of a less-than-stellar fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings report.

Perhaps what was once the consummate consumer discretionary stock will find its way to lists of the best value stocks to buy, perhaps not.

Wall Street remains skeptical about Nike's turnaround, with 10 analysts rating the stock a Buy, 25 calling it a Hold and seven saying it's a Sell. The average 12-month target price is $37.88, upside of 1.9% from NKE's closing price on Thursday.

Why we need to talk about CoreWeave

CoreWeave (CRWV, +5.9%), which completed one of the biggest IPOs of 2025 on the back of its AI cloud platform, has become the focal point for broad market concern about the health of the current industrial revolution.

CRWV has fallen about 64% from its June 20, 2025, all-time high, as questions about returns on the capex fueling the boom have mounted amid rising debt, spiking bond yields and growing perception of the risks of an AI bubble.

But Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick reiterated his Buy rating and his $150 12-month target price for the tech stock on Thursday and said recent price action presents an opportunity.

"A confluence of factors appear to have led to a sharp selloff in CoreWeave's public equity and debt over the past week," Zelnick writes. "There's no doubt CoreWeave's future is tied to the success of AI and demand for the underlying compute infrastructure supporting it, and thus its shares should reflect changes in sentiment here."

CRWV gapped down at Thursday's open, but rallied through the session to post a solid gain. "A strong customer base, established record of execution, backlog conversion and leading infrastructure performance is all supportive of their issuer profile relative to neocloud peers," Zelnick concludes.

Nasdaq Nosedives as AI Boosts Consumer Prices: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 20:11:28 +0000

Treasury yields surged and equity indexes sank after the government said consumer prices rose last month at a faster clip than Wall Street forecast. Technology and other sectors closely connected to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution reflected today's sharp risk-off turn, as healthcare, consumer staples and energy stocks caught bids.

The 2-year Treasury yield (+1.5 bps, 4.808%) spiked more than 10 basis points within minutes of the release of a red-hot September CPI report, but eased back through Wednesday's trading session. "On balance," Barclays economist Pooja Sriram writes, "this morning's inflation data are unlikely to provide much comfort to policymakers."

Sriram says risks economists "have flagged for some time, including energy pass-through into core prices, resilient consumer spending, and AI-related price pressures" are becoming bigger factors in the price stability equation.

As the economist concludes, "Although favorable base effects should mechanically lower annual inflation rates next year, the recent run of prints casts doubt on how much progress is being made on underlying inflation."

The 10-year Treasury yield (-2.7 bps, 5.19%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (-4.6 bps, 5.517%) were lower at the end of a volatile session in the bond market. CME FedWatch now shows a 34.9% probability of a 25-bps rate hike at the conclusion of the October 27-28 Federal Reserve meeting, up from 22.1% on Tuesday.

Investors, traders and speculators will turn their attention to the release of September's Producer Price Index (PPI) and retail sales data before Thursday's opening bell for the next clues on interest rates and monetary policy.

ASML sends a risk-off signal

By the closing bell, the Nasdaq Composite had taken a 1.9% tumble to 26,692, the tech-heavy index anchored by a seventh straight losing session for chipmakers on a mixed earnings calendar showing from one of the industry's overseas stalwarts.

The broad-based S&P 500 was down 1.1% to 7,719, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 0.09% to 51,622, as other groups boosted by the AI buildout reflected the macro mood.

Netherlands-based ASML (ASML, -3.9%) reported a 47% increase in third-quarter revenue and 127% earnings growth, just missing on the top but easily beating on the bottom line. Management raised fourth-quarter sales guidance, too.

ASML also said it would struggle to meet demand for its chips in 2027 and 2028, indicating a healthy order backlog that should signal good things for semiconductor stocks.

Alas, Nvidia (NVDA, -3.2%) was among the worst Dow Jones stocks on Wednesday, joined by Caterpillar (CAT, -3.1%). The industrial stock is among those names, beyond tech and communication services stocks, benefiting from AI-driven demand.

Amid broader curiosity about the trajectory of the federal funds rate, markets seem wary of any and all kinds of open questions, even (perhaps especially) as they relate to growth expectations.

“Uncertainties around ASML's ability to ship DUV [deep ultraviolet lithography] tools to China remains a hot topic with investors," BofA Securities analyst Didier Scemama wrote ahead of ASML's report. "However, we think this is likely largely baked in the stock."

Scemama reiterated his Buy rating and his $2,915 12-month price target on ASML's American Depositary Receipt (ADR), which closed at $1,650 on Wednesday.

Bank of America pays up

Bank of America (BAC, -4.7%), because of a potential positive impact on net interest margin, is among the best stocks to buy for rising interest rates this fall.

The big bank also looks like a big bargain after BAC suffered its worst post-earnings share-price decline since the early aftermath of the global financial crisis more than a decade and a half ago.

As Jefferies analyst David Chiaverini notes, the Treasury Department announced a $1.2 billion fine on Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering rules previously identified in a December 2024 consent order.

The fine resulted in a 17-cent-per-share hit to BAC's bottom line. But Chiaverini, who has a Buy rating on BAC and considers the financial stock a "Franchise Pick," now sees upside from here of about 36% based on his 12-month target price of $70.

"While the charge is a meaningful one-time hit," the analyst observes, "we believe remediation costs are largely embedded in the current expense base. The key debate is how long the consent order could be in place and the extent to which it could impede operations, if at all."

Stocks Struggle Ahead of September CPI Report: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:08:50 +0000

Stocks closed lower Tuesday as market participants took in a lackluster start to earnings season and looked ahead to Wednesday's key inflation update. A steep sell-off in several semiconductor stocks didn't help, with reports that China's CXMT is making progress on its memory chip designs putting pressure on this corner of the market.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% at 51,670 and the broader S&P 500 was 0.02% lower at 7,805. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, shed 0.2% to 27,204 as mega-cap memory stocks, including SK Hynix (SKHY, -3.2%) and Micron Technology (MU, -3.6%), slumped.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) was the worst Dow Jones stock today, falling 5.7% after the drugmaker reported earnings. JNJ beat top- and bottom-line estimates for its third quarter, but sales in its medical devices division fell short of Wall Street's expectations due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

There are "countries that still value and actually want premium healthcare systems, think Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia," J&J Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk told CNBC. "They pride themselves on having solid healthcare, very good healthcare. But their budgets now are being resourced and allocated towards defense."

JPMorgan reports a double miss

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, -0.9%) reported second-quarter earnings of $5.75 per share, up 13.4% year over year but below analysts' estimates. JPM's revenue of $50.2 billion also fell short of expectations.

"JPMorgan had a rare miss against expectations," says David Wagner, head of equity and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. "Dimon called it another quarter of strong results, but gave few clues on the shortfall, which was partly securities losses, and he said the bank cut back on share repurchases in the quarter. The franchise still looks healthy, but the quality of the quarter was a step below what investors have come to expect."

Among the other big banks reporting, Wells Fargo (WFC, -3.1%) fell short on revenue, while Goldman Sachs (GS, -0.2%) and Citigroup (C, -5.6%) beat on both the top and bottom lines.

Bumble goes private in $1.3 billion deal

Bumble (BMBL) surged 56.6% today and is up 134% this week on news the dating app will be taken private by Ithaca Holdings in an all-cash deal valued at $1.3 billion.

The female-founded platform, which prioritized user safety, went public in 2021 and closed its first day with a market cap of $7.7 billion. It has been a downhill slide since then, with BMBL stock's current market value closer to $783 million.

"Bumble was founded on a simple belief: meaningful relationships are essential to a healthy, happy life. Today, that belief feels more important than ever," said Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble's founder and CEO, in the press release. "In Ithaca, we have found a partner who shares our vision, believes in our women-first mission, and is committed to investing in Bumble's future."

Inflation data is on deck

Earnings will remain in focus on Wednesday, with Bank of America (BAC, -1.1%) and Morgan Stanley (MS, -1.8%) among those reporting. But most of Wall Street's attention will be on the release of the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.

"The September CPI could determine whether the Fed's next hike is imminent, or simply still ahead," explain UBS Global Research economists. "An upside surprise, particularly in the core, could revive the October debate, both moving market pricing and influencing the decision itself," while a print closer to forecasts "would leave the Committee with room to wait."

According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are currently pricing in a 78% probability that the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates unchanged when it meets later this month. Odds for a December rate hike are at 70%.

Stocks Churn Ahead of CPI, Earnings Season: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:11:41 +0000

Stocks closed mixed in Monday's quiet session. While the equity market was open, the bond market was closed for the Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day holidays. No earnings and economic reports were scheduled for release today, though the action picks up starting tomorrow.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4% at 51,850, as Salesforce (CRM) climbed 2.1% on a double upgrade from BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani.

Liani lifted his rating on the Dow Jones stock to Buy from Underperform, the equivalent of Sell, and raised his price target to $285 from $160. Salesforce, which is down 12% year to date, hasn't traded near $285 since May 2025.

"Our prior concern centered on AI-driven disintermediation," writes Liani in a note to clients. "However, conversations with CIOs and other market participants suggest that large enterprises (more than small-to-medium-sized businesses) are unlikely to replace platforms that house their business logic, data, workflows and compliance frameworks."

And AI, Liani adds, "should deepen dependence on these platforms." He believes that Salesforce has a credible AI strategy and is poised for strong free cash flow generation.

The bull market celebrates its fourth anniversary

The broader S&P 500 (-0.06% at 7,807) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (-0.4% at 27,245), meanwhile, finished slightly lower Monday.

The Dow is roughly 4.5% below its record high from early August, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are perched not far from the all-time peaks they notched last week.

Today marked the fourth anniversary of the current bull market. The S&P 500 has gained roughly 118% on a price return basis, "surpassing the historical average of ~90% and ranking as the third-strongest bull market since 1945. Along the way, it has produced 124 record highs, more than double the average (~50) of the seven prior bull markets that lasted at least four years," says Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam.

Adam adds that volatility has remained below average over the past four years, while earnings growth, rather than multiple expansion, has fueled the bull market's returns.

And history suggests there's more room to run. According to Adam, the average bull market lasts about five and a half years, with the fifth year averaging roughly 15% annually and finishing positive 90% of the time.

This week's inflation data could spark volatility

And while today's price action was relatively muted, "this week's inflation data could be a near-term volatility trigger," says Chris Larkin, managing director of Trading and Investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley.

First up is the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which will be released Wednesday morning. Headline inflation was "uncomfortably high" in August, writes David Payne, staff economist and reporter for The Kiplinger Letter, in the Kiplinger inflation outlook. The pickup was caused by higher gas and fuel oil prices, shelter costs and airfares, he explains.

And with energy costs likely to stay elevated as the situation in the Middle East remains unresolved, Payne believes the annual CPI rate will end the year at 4%, while core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, will be at 2.7%.

As for September, BofA Securities economists expect headline inflation to be higher than in August thanks to higher gas prices, while core inflation could moderate as tariff-related pressures ease. However, the group warns that core CPI could accelerate if airfares keep rising. If this happens, the Fed could be encouraged to raise interest rates in October for a second straight meeting.

Earnings season gets rolling this week

Larkin believes the new earnings season, which gets rolling this week, "may play a bigger role in shaping the market's momentum into year-end, since it may signal how strong those tailwinds really are."

Third-quarter earnings season is expected to be strong. FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters says current projections are for a 30% year-over-year S&P 500 earnings growth rate. If this is the actual earnings rate, it will mark the third straight quarter of year-over-year earnings growth, he adds.

This week's earnings calendar features a handful of blue chip and financial stocks. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, +0.9%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, +0.4%) kick things off bright and early Tuesday morning.

Stocks Climb a Wall of Worry Ahead of Earnings: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 20:11:11 +0000

Stocks continued to climb a wall of worry Friday, with market participants undeterred by rising Treasury yields and higher oil prices. A dreary reading on consumer sentiment didn't change today's positive trajectory, either, with Wall Street hopeful for another strong corporate earnings season.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8% at 51,654, the broader S&P 500 was 0.6% higher at 7,811, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.6% to 27,366. All three equity benchmarks closed higher on the week, too.

Friday's positive finish came even as yields on the 2-year (+3.3 basis points to 4.793%) and 10-year (+1.1 basis points to 5.244%) Treasuries resumed their march higher.

Oil prices gained, too, with front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbing 0.4% to settle at $91.85 per barrel. Rising energy costs are expected to keep price pressures elevated. We'll get the latest inflation updates next week, starting with Wednesday morning's release of the September Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The wall of worry is "getting taller," says Bob Edwards, chief investment officer at Edwards Asset Management, but "investors may be focusing too heavily on rising bond yields and geopolitical uncertainty while overlooking the extraordinary strength of corporate earnings."

Earnings season gets rolling next week with several blue chip and financial stocks set to report. "Third-quarter S&P 500 earnings growth year-over-year is expected to approach 30%," notes Edwards, "and the start of earnings season in the coming days will act as a much-needed reminder for just how good the earnings picture is."

Consumer sentiment keeps sliding

Consumer sentiment continued to decline in October. The University of Michigan's preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index fell 3.7% month over month to 46.3 — its second-lowest reading on record.

"Frustration over cost-of-living continues to mount, as consumers across the political spectrum believe that the trajectory of the economy has weakened since the beginning of the year," says Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.

This could also affect the midterm elections, says Jim Baird, chief investment officer with Plante Moran Financial Advisors. "Consumers across the political spectrum are frustrated with rising prices and a sense of treading water financially," Baird explains. "It may not be readily apparent in headline GDP data, but it's likely to be very apparent as voters cast their ballots in the coming weeks."

SpaceX's wireless plans sink telecom stocks

In single-stock news, AT&T (T, -9.8%), T-Mobile US (TMUS, -13.3%) and Verizon Communications (VZ, -8.8%) were three of the biggest decliners Friday after SpaceX (SPCX, +1.3%) on Thursday said it is buying a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio.

The purchase puts Elon Musk's space exploration and artificial intelligence (AI) company one step closer to its Starlink Mobile segment becoming "a major mobile carrier in the U.S."

UBS Global Research analyst John Hodulik says "this is the most tangible step SpaceX has taken to date to build out the stack required to offer a proper Mobile network." However, he believes today's telecom sell-off is "a knee-jerk reaction" given the potential for what is likely to be a lengthy buildout.

While telecom stocks suffered on the SpaceX news, wireless tower providers including American Tower (AMT, +9.3%) and Crown Castle (CCI, +15.6%), soared.

Delta posts a rare earnings miss on higher fuel costs

Delta Air Lines (DAL) closed marginally higher Friday, after the air carrier reported earnings of $1.72 per share, up 0.6% year over year and below analysts' estimate of $1.76. This marked Delta's first bottom-line miss since Q3 2024 and was due to fuel costs coming in $500 million more than expected.

The company also cut its full-year forecast to reflect higher fuel costs.

Still, demand remains high, with Delta reporting year-over-year revenue growth of 21% to $20.2 billion, more than analysts expected.

And Wall Street remains overwhelmingly bullish toward the blue chip stock. Of the 25 analysts covering DAL who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 24 say it's a Buy or Strong Buy vs one that has it at Sell. Plus, the average price target of $101.48 represents implied upside of 24% to current levels.

OpenAI Revenue Woes Weigh on Tech Stocks: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:10:20 +0000

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed lower for a second straight day Thursday as market participants worried about lofty Treasury yields and spiking oil prices. A sell-off across the technology sector didn't help, with several mega-cap names falling on OpenAI's worrisome revenue update.

At the close, the broader S&P 500 was off 0.5% at 7,765, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was 1.3% lower at 27,193. Despite back-to-back losses, the two benchmarks remain near the record highs they hit earlier this week.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.1% gain to 51,231 on strength in Chevron (CVX, +3.2%) and Home Depot (HD, +3.4%).

Treasury yields eased back Thursday, but remain near their highest levels in years. The yield on the 2-year Treasury fell 1.1 basis points to 4.753% and the yield on the 10-year Treasury declined 5 basis points to 5.227%. The 30-year Treasury yield hit a fresh 24-year peak in intraday trading, but closed down 5.9 basis points at 5.602%.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures, meanwhile, climbed to 3.6% to $91.49 per barrel after several media reports suggested the Trump administration was considering large-scale military operations against Iran. An early afternoon Truth Social post from President Donald Trump said the U.S. will not attack Iran ahead of the midterm elections, which brought futures off their intraday highs.

Oil prices are down more than 13% from their mid-September peak near $105, but are up roughly 1% so far in October.

OpenAI's $20 billion revenue shortfall weighs on tech stocks

Tech stocks slumped Thursday after a report in the Financial Times indicated that OpenAI's annualized revenue was $50 billion — $20 billion below what was previously reported.

According to the article, the metric "is the most important indicator of overall demand for AI," and helps support massive infrastructure spending. While the $50 billion figure reported by FT still represents impressive growth from 2025, the discrepancy was enough to spook investors who are worried about an AI spending slowdown.

The news also caused several mega-cap AI stocks to sell off, with Nvidia (NVDA, -2.9%), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, -3.9%) and Micron Technology (MU, -4.8%) all closing lower.

Chipotle soars on Starbucks takeover chatter

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) was one of the best S&P 500 stocks Thursday, gaining 6.2%, after a separate Financial Times report said Starbucks (SBUX, -0.4%) is considering buying the $42 billion burrito chain.

While D.A. Davidson analyst Matt Curtis says the odds of a megadeal between the two parties are "relatively low," it would combine two of the country's largest restaurant chains.

Starbucks is the second-largest public restaurant chain by sales in the U.S., while Chipotle is the seventh-largest. It would also reunite Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol with his former employer. Niccol served as chief executive at Chipotle from 2018 through 2024.

PepsiCo gains after earnings

Over on the earnings calendar, PepsiCo (PEP) climbed 3.7% after the soda pop and snack maker reported its fiscal third-quarter results.

For the three months ending September 5, Pepsi said earnings rose 2% year over year to $2.34 per share, while revenue was up 5.6% to $25.3 billion.

However, the company lowered its full-year earnings-per-share forecast, now expecting bottom-line growth of 2.5% to 3.5% vs the 5% to 7% it previously guided for.

Stocks Fall as Treasury Yields Hit New Highs: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:10:27 +0000

Stocks opened lower Wednesday as the long-term Treasury yields hit their highest levels in 24 years. A successful auction of 10-year notes helped yields ease back from their intraday highs, but it wasn't enough to send the main equity benchmarks into positive territory.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell slightly after this afternoon's bond action, but still closed up 1.5 basis points at 5.286%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury also pulled back from its early morning peak, but gained 3.0 basis points to 5.671%.

As for stocks, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 51,179, the broader S&P 500 shed 0.2% to 7,801, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave back 0.2% to 27,538.

Rising Treasury yields were in focus at the Federal Reserve's September meeting. "Changes in inflation compensation accounted for most of the net increase in shorter-maturity Treasury yields, while changes in real rates contributed to most of the net increase in longer-maturity Treasury yields," stated the minutes from the most recent Fed meeting, where the central bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2023.

Still, most committee members believe that financial conditions remain "supportive of economic growth."

The minutes also revealed that "most participants assessed that another increase in the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate by year end."

The odds for an October rate hike have dropped over the past month thanks to encouraging inflation data and a weak September jobs report. According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are pricing in an 83% chance the Fed will keep the fed funds rate unchanged when it meets later this month — up from 54% a month ago. However, the probability of a December rate hike has jumped to 69% from 36%.

Webull sinks 19% on China risk

In single-stock news, Webull (BULL) sank 19.1% after a congressional committee flagged the online trading platform as a national security risk.

A report compiled by the House Select Committee on China said Webull is "tied in structural ways to the People's Republic of China," and that there is "a profound gap" in how the company markets itself as "an American company" and how it is controlled.

A Webull spokesperson said the report contains "significant inaccuracies and unsupported conclusions," and that it is prepared to "address any questions directly and with the same transparency we bring to the SEC, FINRA, and regulators worldwide."

Siebert Financial analyst Brian Vieten paused his Buy rating and price target on the fintech. "The potential regulatory and operational implications of these findings create a level of uncertainty that we cannot reasonably incorporate into our estimates or valuation at this time," Vieten says, adding that he's reviewing the committee's findings and waiting for more information from Webull.

Caterpillar, Deere drop on FTC inquiry

Caterpillar (CAT) and Deere (DE) also closed lower Wednesday after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Agriculture launched a public inquiry into issues impacting agricultural equipment manufacturing and distribution practices.

"The joint request for information is a part of the FTC's ongoing work to preserve competition in the agricultural sector," according to a press release. The regulator is attempting to address complaints and anticompetitive concerns about barriers farmers face when buying and maintaining farm equipment.

CAT slumped 5.8%, making it the worst Dow Jones stock Wednesday. DE shares fell 3.8%.

S&P 500 Joins Nasdaq in All-Time-High Territory: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 20:14:39 +0000

The S&P 500 reached its first new all-time high since August, and the Nasdaq Composite hit a fresh peak for the second straight trading session, as selling pressure in the global bond market eased amid up-and-down intraday price action. With another earnings season on the horizon, investors, traders and speculators remain focused on the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI).

At the closing bell, the broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.6% to 7,819, a new all-time closing high, as the index extended its winning streak to four. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also posted a new high, rising 0.5% to 27,599. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, added 0.5% to 51,521. Papa Dow is still about 6% below its own new high.

"The fourth quarter is seasonally the strongest quarter, and November is the second strongest month," Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates observes. Navellier also notes "that since 2027 is the third year of a Presidential election, which is the best-performing year for the S&P 500 during the Presidential election cycle, investor optimism is rising."

Navellier expects that "all the bickering about data centers and high energy prices will diminish" after midterm elections next month.

Indeed, as Kiplinger's Anne Kates-Smith writes, "If history is a guide, you can expect a power shift in Congress. But history also shows that whether your party is victorious or not, your portfolio is likely to survive the midterms unscathed—and maybe a little ahead."

With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz improving in the face of rising attacks by Iran, the front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was higher by 0.4% to $89.80 per barrel. WTI closed above $100 as recently as September 18.

The 2-year Treasury yield was down 3.3 basis points to 4.798%, while the 10-year Treasury yield (-2.7 bps, 5.284%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (-0.5 bps, 5.659%) also pulled back from recent highs.

The $6 trillion stock

Maybe you're old enough to remember "The Six Million Dollar Man," maybe you're not. But the fact that Nvidia (NVDA, +0.1%) is on the verge of a $6 trillion market cap is at least as monumental as that TV show used to seem.

Even if only a naive segment of the audience was awed by what we imagined about bionics back then, if you're reading this, you're probably paying some attention to AI and robotics right now.

Indeed, that's what Nvidia refers to as "physical AI." The company says its research here "is driving the future of intelligent automation, enabling robots to handle complex tasks and safely collaborate with humans."

Meanwhile, renewed AI boom optimism lifted the Magnificent 7 stocks to a combined value of more than $25 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

In fact, Amazon (AMZN, +2.0%) and Microsoft (MSFT, +0.8%) outperformed Nvidia today, as markets continue to reprice their AI infrastructure initiatives.

Alphabet (GOOGL, +0.4%) and Apple (AAPL, +0.2%) were higher, too, though Meta Platforms (META, -0.4%) posted a modest loss.

Tesla's (TSLA, +0.5%) gain helped Elon Musk remain the world's first trillion-dollar man in net worth terms.

CEG gets another nuclear-level Mag 7 boost

Constellation Energy (CEG, +12.3%) was among the top-performing S&P 500 stocks after management of the electric company announced a new long-term deal with Google that includes a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The commitment from Alphabet's search subsidiary will support upgrades sufficient to add 890 megawatts of capacity at 11 Constellation-owned nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Constellation is also using Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise to establish an "AI for energy" blueprint focused on accelerating delivery, optimizing efficiency and protecting infrastructure.

Alphabet will buy another 2,700 MW from Constellation's broader power fleet over a 15-year period, and the companies aren't done making clean energy deals.

The utility stock was down 23.9% year to date through Monday, as markets waited for more news about power-hungry hyperscalers and their appetite for its nuclear capabilities.

In 2024, Constellation agreed to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania with support from a 20-year PPA with Microsoft. Last year, it reached a 20-year PPA with Meta.

Nasdaq Hits New Highs on AI Boom Optimism: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 20:14:29 +0000

The Nasdaq Composite notched a new all-time high during a broad-based rally on Monday, as markets focused on upside for the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Amid another uptick for yields across the Treasury spectrum, investors, traders and speculators are placing more weight on the potential for AI to increase efficiencies over the long term, even as it drives up costs in the short term.

The 2-year Treasury yield ticked down 0.4 basis points to 4.821%, while the 10-year Treasury yield (3.2 bps, 5.309%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (3.4 bps, 5.664%) reached new 52-week highs again, as a global bond market sell-off continues.

Still, at the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 1.1% to 27,477, a new all-time closing high. The broad-based S&P 500 had added 0.7% at 7,773, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% to 51,267.

"There is no doubt that the U.S. remains an oasis and is the engine behind global GDP growth," Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates writes. As Navellier explains, "FactSet is estimating that the S&P 500’s third-quarter earnings are forecast to rise 29.5%."

We are indeed in historic territory, as analysts at the Well Fargo Investment Institute note. "Consensus for 2027 capex for the eight-largest cloud computing companies is now approximately $1.3 trillion," they write. "This would represent approximately 3.7% of our nominal gross domestic product forecast for next year, putting this investment cycle on par with some of the largest in U.S. history."

Comparable cycles include the railroads from 1879 to 1890, which accounted for more than 4% of GDP, electric power in 1929, oil and gas in 1980 and the dot-com boom in 2000.

Services surveys say the economy is still expanding

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) printed at 54.9% in September, down from a reading of 55.4% in August and below a consensus forecast of 55.1%.

But, as William Blair economist Richard de Chazal says, it's the 27th consecutive month the index has been above the 50% expansion-contraction line. And, in the aftermath of a cooler-than-expected September jobs report, the survey confirms that "services sector employment, which accounts for the bulk of economic activity, remains on firm footing."

As Chazal notes, the employment index returned to expansion for the first time in three months. Still, although crude oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is recovering, fuel shipments are still well below prewar levels, and diesel, gasoline and petroleum products helped push the prices index to its highest level since July 2022.

"The bigger pressure remains on costs," Chazal writes. "For the Fed, the report suggests inflation remains the main concern. Friday's jobs data lowered the odds of a hike at the October meeting, but with demand holding firm and input costs still climbing, another hike remains likely."

INTC hit by Elon's TerraFab strategy

Nvidia (NVDA, +2.1%) hit another new all-time high and was among the top two Dow Jones stock on Monday, helped by optimism about the AI trade, as well as the impact of announcing the biggest stock buyback in market history last week.

But fellow semiconductor stock Intel (INTC, -2.6%) was down after Elon Musk confirmed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM, +2.8%) is talking with his TeraFab chipmaking project about its facilities in Texas.

"Just discussions, but something may come of it," the CEO of SpaceX (SPCX, +7.6%) and Tesla (TSLA, +2.2% responded on X to reports of the TeraFab-TSMC talks.

Intel has an existing deal with TeraFab. Musk clarified in a follow-up post that TSMC could work with rather than replace Intel at his chipmaking plant.

Intel also has a partnership with Alphabet (GOOGL, +0.9%) to support Google's AI cloud infrastructure, and the chipmaker also received $5 billion from Nvidia as part of a project to co-develop custom chips.

CBRS looks a little better today

Cerebras Systems (CBRS, +9.1%) has had a tough go of it since the tech stock completed its initial public offering (IPO) in May, generating a loss of more than 4% vs a gain of more than 10% for the S&P 500.

But the AI infrastructure firm also got a boost from a post on X. "Cerebras is a close partner," Open AI CEO Sam Altman said late Friday, "and we have a deep engagement pushing on the frontiers of speed."

OpenAI is Cerebras' biggest customer by revenue backlog. In January, the companies signed a $10 billion deal to provide ChatGPT with 750 megawatts of computing power through 2028.

At the same time, research firm SemiAnalysis reported that OpenAI is using Nvidia's hardware rather than Cerebras's to support "Ultrafast" mode for its latest model.

Nasdaq Adds 319 Points as Rate-Hike Odds Ebb: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:08:39 +0000

Stocks surged on Friday after a cooler-than-expected September jobs report eased pressure on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to raise interest rates at its meeting later this month. Oil prices retreated amid a global effort to support crude supply. But bond yields pushed up again following an initial pullback on the employment news, and the main equity indexes slipped from intraday highs.

The 2-year Treasury yield fell from 4.787% on Thursday to 4.693% right after the release of the nonfarm payrolls report, but it was already rising before the opening bell and ended the session up 5.0 basis points at 4.837%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the U.S. added 29,000 new jobs last month, well below a consensus forecast of 93,000, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%.

The 10-year Treasury yield (+4.5 bps, 5.279%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+2.5 bps, 5.628%) followed similar trajectories.

"Payrolls growth disappointed in September," Fifth Third Commercial Bank Chief Economist Bill Adams writes. "With downward revisions to July and August, the acceleration of job growth that seemed visible in the August jobs report has been revised away."

Still, the economist observes, the mediocre September jobs report isn’t bad enough to shift the Fed's focus from inflation.

"Their next decision in late October is live," according to Adams, "and will probably be swayed by the September CPI and PPI reports, geopolitical developments, and prices at the pump between now and then."

According to CME FedWatch, price action in the federal funds futures market indicates a 22.7% probability the Fed hikes rate by 25 basis points at the October Fed meeting, down from 64.2% a week ago.

Meanwhile, the front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was down 1.5% at $91.45 per barrel.

In an effort to mitigate disruptions to the global supply chain, the G7 and the International Energy Agency will coordinate the release of up to 100 million barrels of emergency crude oil and diesel fuel over the next four months.

HPE gets an AI bounce

By the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was holding a 1.2% gain at 27,190, the broad-based S&P 500 had risen 0.7% to 7,722, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by 0.5% at 51,176.

Artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionary Nvidia (NVDA) hit a new all-time high, and its market cap climbed closer to $6 trillion, following the $150 billion stock buyback increase management announced on Monday.

It's the biggest stock buyback ever, and Nvidia plans to buy a total of $235 billion of its own shares through fiscal 2028.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) was up 4.5% on management's report that third-quarter deliveries topped Wall Street's forecast, though rival Rivian (RIVN) was down 3.1% because it didn't beat its delivery forecast by enough to satisfy analysts.

Old-school Silicon Valley legacy outfit Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE, +7.4%) was one of the best-performing S&P 500 stocks and also closed at an all-time high on Friday.

Management of the tech stock forecast solid revenue growth for its networking segment because of demand for AI infrastructure. The segment includes "data-center networking, routing, and campus & branch" and serves enterprise and service provider customers such as hyperscalers, as well as "neocloud" platforms that support AI computers.

Has Nike lost its swoosh?

Nike (NKE) was the worst-performing Dow Jones stock on Friday following management's report on fiscal 2027 first-quarter results after the closing bell on Thursday.

Revenue was slightly below Wall Street's forecast, and earnings were in line with the consensus estimate. But management's forecast for full-year earnings of $1.15 to $1.35 per share fell well shy of the $1.67 analysts wanted to see.

And guidance for a high-single-digit decline in percentage terms for revenue was a lot bigger than Wall Street expected. As UBS analyst Jay Sole writes in a post-report note, "The pivotal Nike question remains 'Is all the 'bad news’ now priced in?'"

Sole cites NKE's steep pullback, but the analyst says he still doesn't see a good entry point. One potential upside catalyst is Nike's analyst day in November and whether management can convince Wall Street its downward earnings revision cycle has ended.

"The main downside risk," he adds, "is the rebound takes much longer than the market anticipates and therefore the downward earnings revision cycle may not be over."

Sole reiterated his Neutral (Hold) rating, but he cut his 12-month target price for the iconic consumer discretionary stock to $34 from $42.

Stocks Gain as Treasury Yields Fluctuate: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:11:59 +0000

Stocks opened higher Thursday thanks to a solid round of corporate earnings. But just as the market giveth, the market taketh away, and by mid-morning, all three main benchmarks were in the red as Treasury yields once again hit their highest levels in decades.

The 10-year Treasury yield hit an intraday high of 5.344% today — its loftiest level since 2002 — before closing down 5.9 basis points at 5.234%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury also notched its highest intraday peak in 24 years, 5.693%, but finished 3.6 basis points lower at 5.603%.

The main equity benchmarks fluctuated alongside Treasury yields. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, for instance, opened 0.4% higher but was down 0.7% by mid-morning. At the close, the 30-stock index was up 0.04% at 50,926.

The broader S&P 500 (+0.2% at 7,666) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (+0.04% at 26,871) experienced similar price action, though both closed in positive territory.

There are several reasons bond yields are spiking right now, explains Kiplinger contributor Kyle Woodley in his feature on what's happening in the bond market right now. A supply and demand imbalance, for one, as well as expectations for more Federal Reserve rate hikes and "worries about high energy prices keeping inflation elevated."

This morning's data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed that while economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded for the ninth straight month, the prices index jumped 6.8 percentage points from August to September.

While the ISM report showed that manufacturing continued to expand, "inflation remained the dominant story here," says Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, and "the sharp rebound in input price pressures and persistent supply constraints will likely keep the Fed on edge."

According to CME Group FedWatch, odds for an October rate hike have dropped to 26% from 69% one week ago, but futures traders are currently pricing in a 62% probability of a quarter-percentage-point increase to the federal funds rate in December.

Micron delivers another impressive earnings beat

Corporate earnings were also in focus Thursday, with Micron Technology (MU, +3.0%) arguably the most anticipated company reporting.

The semiconductor stock has had a sizzling run on the price charts, quadrupling for the year to date, on snowballing demand for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are critical for artificial intelligence (AI).

In its fiscal fourth quarter, Micron said earnings per share jumped to $33.42 from $3.03 the year prior, while revenue grew nearly fivefold to $54.2 billion. It also expects strong top- and bottom-line growth in fiscal 2027.

Micron's earnings report reinforces "our constructive view on memory's role in AI and increasing supply-side discipline supporting a durable cycle," says BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya. "As HBM pricing agreements renew and strategic customer agreements (SCAs) expand, management now sees visibility into quarter-over-quarter sales/gross margin expansion every quarter in FY27 from FQ1."

Arya calls MU a "top AI pick" and reiterated a Buy rating and $1,550 price target, representing implied upside of 41% to current levels.

Accenture soars 16% for its best day ever

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Accenture (ACN) jumped 15.8% — its best day ever — after the global consulting company reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results.

ACN also said new bookings — a measure of future revenue — rose 4% year over year, and it reached a record high of 141 quarterly clients with bookings of $100 million or more. Additionally, its board of directors approved a 5% hike to its quarterly dividend.

"Given the downbeat stock performance, there was a lot to be enthusiastic about in the FQ4 results and next year's guidance," says Susquehanna analyst James Friedman.

The analyst raised his price target on the tech stock to $210 from $153, noting the company has "the right assets and strategy." However, he maintained a Neutral (Hold) rating, saying he needs to see "a clearer path with the AI ecosystem."

S&P 500 Outperforms in Historically Weak Month: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 20:15:37 +0000

Stocks were choppy Wednesday as market participants considered what the latest inflation data means for rate hikes. Wall Street also looked ahead to this Friday's key jobs report, which is expected to show a steady labor market — another important factor in the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy moves.

Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index — the Fed's preferred measure of inflation — rose 0.2% from July to August and was up 3.4% over the year prior.

Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was up 0.2% month over month and 3.0% year over year.

The inflation data came in better than economists expected, though the monthly increases accelerated from July and the lower year-over-year figures were a result of the BEA's adjustment to how it calculates several components.

"Even after major methodological revisions, PCE inflation is still running hot however you cut it," says Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group.

Varghese also points to the BEA's final revision to second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP), which showed the economy grew at a 2.2% pace vs the previous estimate of 1.5%.

"The economy is running hot, policy remains easy, and the Fed's challenge is figuring out how much restraint is needed," Varghese says. "That's a tailwind for stocks as we move into Q4."

Stocks showed resilience in September, and Q4 could be strong

Seasonality is another potential tailwind for stocks heading into the final quarter of 2026.

On Wednesday, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.9% at 50,906, bringing its September decline to 4.0%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% today to finish at 28,861, and added 2% on the month.

And the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% to 7,651, ending the month down 0.2%. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has averaged a September loss of 1.1%, according to Yardeni Research.

September has historically been a negative month for stocks, so the fact that the equities market weathered the storm "against the backdrop of a Fed hike and soaring long-end interest rates is emblematic of the insatiable demand for shares of U.S. companies," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

"The headwind now switches to a tailwind, with the month before and the five following the midterm election being the best six-month stretch on the four-year election calendar, averaging a 14% gain during midterm years, double the 7% during all years," explains Mark Hackett, chief market strategist for Nationwide.

September jobs report is on deck

Wall Street will now turn its attention to this Friday's release of the September jobs report, which is expected to show the U.S. added 84,000 jobs, down from the 162,000 increase in the August jobs report but still a healthy number.

Ahead of this highly anticipated economic report, ADP data showed private payrolls rose by 90,000 in September, well above economists' forecast of 68,000.

"The combination of reports has strengthened investor confidence that the U.S .central bank may become less hawkish, and it has lifted optimism about the cycle's ability to manage much loftier interest rates by remaining resilient and avoiding a slowdown," explains Torres.

According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are now pricing in a 65% probability the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged in October — up from 49% one day ago. Odds are still favoring a quarter-percentage-point hike in December.

Moderna stock sinks on new Sell rating

In single-stock news, Moderna (MRNA) shares slumped 5.4% after Citi slapped the red-hot drugmaker with a new Sell rating. Shares are up nearly sevenfold since mid-August on optimism around the company's new mRNA skin cancer treatment, intismeran, that's being jointly developed with Merck (MRK, -2.6%).

But Citi analyst Geoff Meacham thinks MRNA has run too far, too fast, and downgraded the healthcare stock following its "outsized run."

While Meacham admits that intismeran "could become a market-leading therapy in melanoma," he believes "the re-rating now reflects successful expansion in many tumor types and unrealistic implied sales."

Most analysts are on the sidelines when it comes to Moderna stock. Of the 23 who are following MRNA tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, five say it's a Buy or Strong Buy, 15 have it at Hold and three call it a Sell or Strong Sell. This works out to a consensus Hold rating.

BofA says these are its top five chip stock picks for Q4

Semiconductor stocks as a group were up slightly on the final day of September, but the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) ended the month up 11.2%.

And BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya expects additional gains through the end of the year and into the start of 2027. "Historically, CQ4 (and CQ1) have been the two best seasonal quarters to own chip stocks, with 300-500 basis points of median outperformance vs SPX from 2010-25," he explains.

His top five chip stock picks for the fourth quarter are:

Nvidia (NVDA, +0.5), with stock buybacks and multiple GPU Technology Conferences serving as near-term catalysts.
Intel (INTC, +3.7%), which Arya believes will benefit from agentic CPU strength and foundry wins.
Marvell Technology (MRVL, +0.4%), which could get a boost from its October 6 Analyst Day.
Micron Technology (MU, +0.0%), with buybacks beginning on December 9.
Lam Research (LRCX, +1.4%), which could get a boost from demand for memory and logic chips.

Stocks Grind Lower Under Interest Rate Pressure: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 20:09:09 +0000

The main equity indexes were down again on Tuesday, as oil prices pulled back but bond yields continued to reflect concerns about energy costs and inflationary pressures, as well as economic growth and government debt. At the same time, investors, traders and speculators can look forward to a seasonally strong period for the stock market.

At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had slipped 0.09% to 26,797, the S&P 500 was down 0.8% at 7,683, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.7% to 51,481.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was down 3.7% to $89.21 per barrel. Front-month Brent crude oil futures, the global benchmark, dipped 1.9% to $95.95.

But the 30-year Treasury yield was up for a sixth straight trading session, rising 2.5 basis points to 5.587% and crossing above 5.61% for the first time since 2002. Both the 2-year Treasury yield (-3.5 bps, 4.889%) and the 10-year Treasury yield (+0.9 bps, 5.251%) also reached new 52-week highs before pulling back on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined for a third straight month to its lowest level since April 2014. A print of 81.9 for September was well below a consensus forecast for an increase to 89.0 from a revised 88.6 in August.

"Concerns about sustained inflation, high gas prices, and job scarcity likely contributed to the overall decline," Barclays economist Pooja Sriram concludes.

It's not all doom-and-gloom, though. "The fourth quarter is seasonally strong," Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates observes, "and the third year of a presidential election cycle is also the strongest year in the four-year presidential term."

At the same time, Navellier acknowledges, "Investors might be asking, aren't higher interest rates and Fed key rate hikes going to derail the stock market?" It depends, of course: "The answer is no for growth stocks, which have beaten value stocks for 12 consecutive years."

From a broader level, Navellier explains that relatively strong GDP growth in the U.S. sets it apart from other markets where interest rates are also rising, such as Japan, the UK and France.

"Their underlying government debt might only be fixed with more money printing," Navellier says, amid a "staggering" $365 trillion in global government debt.

FICO falls another 27%

With the durability of its software business in question for many months, Fair Isaac (FICO) had already lost more than half of its market cap from the end of 2025 through the closing bell on Monday.

FICO extended its decline by another 26.6% and was the worst performing S&P 500 stock on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Housing Director Bill Pulte formalized a plan to bring competition to the government-sponsored mortgage market.

"We are Simplifying Mortgage Pricing following feedback from lenders and consumers," Pulte wrote on X. "Instead of two separate pricing grids, which makes zero sense, Fannie and Freddie are hereby moving to ONE PRICING GRID with VantageScore joining the existing FICO Classic pricing grid."

Pulte posted earlier in September that since 2020 "FICO has increased the price per a person's credit score by 1,800%. FICO has enjoyed a monopoly. No more."

Indeed, price action for what S&P Global considers a tech stock reflects threats from the federal government, as well as competitive pressure on its software business from artificial intelligence (AI).

Anthropic is talking about huge numbers

The prospectus for its upcoming IPO shows Anthropic plans to spend $518 billion to build out its AI infrastructure in coming years, as Reuters reported after the closing bell on Monday.

Anthropic recorded a net loss of $42 billion and an operating loss of $8 billion in 2025, as revenue expanded by 12 times to almost $4.6 billion. The company had approximately $20.3 billion in cash as of December 31.

Anthropic used 48 pages of its 261-page prospectus to describe its operations, and another 80 to explain risk factors, such as "existential risks to humanity" represented by AI.

Though Anthropic continues to release model updates, CEO Dario Amodei has appealed to other AI developers to exercise a little more caution as they deploy new capabilities.

Reuters reports that an IPO for the AI lab is not expected to happen until after the November midterm elections. The prospectus confirms Anthropic will seek a $2 trillion IPO valuation.

Stocks Fall on Fog of War and Fear of AI: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:10:05 +0000

Stocks opened lower and stayed down on Monday after renewed hope for peace in the Middle East was extinguished when President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Iran that would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil closed off its intraday highs after Saudi Arabia said it reopened a crucial pipeline. But bond yields surged again, as markets continue to focus on inflation and interest rates, on top of attacks by OpenAI models.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was up 0.8% to $93.16 per barrel after Trump said the proposal from the Islamic Republic "would not be acceptable." According to Trump, "They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they're losing so badly."

The 2-year Treasury yield, a proxy for the direction of monetary policy, surged 6.7 basis points to 4.931%, hitting a 52-week high in the process. The 10-year Treasury yield (+5.3 bps, 5.234%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+4.9 bps, 5.551%) climbed to fresh 52-week highs again on Monday.

"Stocks are still seeking a path out of their latest consolidation," E*Trade from Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin says of recent price action, with all three main equity indexes hovering just below all-time highs, despite geopolitical uncertainty. "Tech strength has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for bulls lately, but the broader market hasn't been able to gain much traction because of rising yields and oil prices."

At the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% to 51,481. Papa Dow ended a three-week losing streak on Friday, but the index remains on track for its worst September since 2022. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.8% to 7,683, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.9% to 26,820.

As Larkin concludes, "With the Fed focused on the inflation side of its mandate, unless this week's labor market data is a major surprise, it will likely play second fiddle to interest rates and energy."

Nvidia announces the biggest stock buyback ever

In addition to announcing a $150 billion expansion to its stock buyback plan, Nvidia (NVDA, +1.7%) introduced new software designed to protect against rogue artificial intelligence (AI) agents.

As Nvidia noted in its press release, "This marks the largest share repurchase authorization increase in history." The increase raises the total on Nvidia's existing repurchase authorization to $235 billion.

Nvidia said it expects to complete its existing stock buyback plan through its fiscal year 2028, which begins on February 1, 2027, and ends on January 31, 2028. CEO Jensen Huang said "a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing" supports the move.

"Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders," the leader of the AI revolution explained in a statement. "This authorization reflects our confidence in the long-term opportunity ahead."

Before the buyback announcement, Nvidia rolled out new tools to strengthen AI security. According to Nvidia, its Open Agent Safety Platform provides "full-stack governance and control" across software and hardware that run AI agents.

"AI's extraordinary potential for society will only be realized if we solve AI safety," Huang said.

"From what we know," Nvidia Vice President of Enterprise AI Justin Boitano said of a recent attack by an OpenAI model on Hugging Face, "this new security platform could have stopped the breach."

Indeed, other semiconductor stocks such as Intel (INTC, -5.7%), Marvell Technology (MRVL, -3.8%) and Qualcomm (QCOM, -7.2%) sold off on Monday in the aftermath of a report that an OpenAI agent used "brute force" techniques to access a website operated by the United Nations.

Bloom Energy (BE, -9.0%), which provides on-site power generation for AI data centers, was the worst-performing S&P 500 stock on Monday.

MongoDB CEO takes job with Meta Platforms

Until Monday morning, MongoDB (MDB, -18.5%) was getting ready to host an "investor day" teleconference on Tuesday for an in-depth look at its long-term strategy to exploit opportunities in the AI boom.

Now, the tech stock is looking for a new CEO, too, after Chirantan Desai stepped down, effective immediately, to take a senior role at Meta Platforms (META, -4.8%).

MongoDB named Dev Ittycheria as interim president and CEO, also effective immediately. Ittycheria was president and CEO of MongoDB from 2014 to 2025, as the company grew its annual revenue from about $35 million to more than $2.3 billion.

MongoDB said it "remains confident in the outlook for the business" and reaffirmed fiscal third-quarter full-year 2027 guidance management shared on September 1.

Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that Desai will join Meta as chief enterprise platform officer and will lead the next pillar in his empire, reporting directly to the CEO.

According to Zuckerberg, Meta Enterprise Platform will "help businesses use AI to grow and transform in new ways as well."

Dow Rises 478 Points Under Rate Pressure: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 20:11:15 +0000

Oil prices fell on a report that Iran has proposed a plan to end the war in the Middle East, and the main equity indexes finished the last day of the last full trading week of September with solid gains. But rising bond yields remain a broad concern heading into October.

According to The New York Times, Iran's "seven-day plan to cease hostilities" would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and revive negotiations over its nuclear program.

President Donald Trump also said he talked about the war with President Xi Jinping during this week's U.S.-China summit. "I think we're going to do great," the president predicted.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was down 2.5% to $92.29 per barrel. Brent crude oil futures, the global benchmark, declined by 2.8% to $97.43.

The 2-year Treasury yield, a proxy for the direction of monetary policy, ticked down by 4.8 basis points to 4.847%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (-0.6 bps, 5.156%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+2.3 bps, 5.485%) reached fresh 52-week highs on Friday.

At the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.9% for the day and 0.3% for the week to 51,828. Papa Dow put an end to a three-week losing streak.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.5% on Friday and 1.2% for the five days to 7,743, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.5% and 2.1%, respectively, to 27,068.

Inflation expectations are up, sentiment is down

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index declined to 48.1 in September from 51.7 in August, according to revised survey results released on Friday. The revised number was up from a preliminary 47.8. But, as Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu notes, it's the lowest print for the index since May, and sentiment is down from 55.1 a year ago.

"Views of current and year-ahead expected personal finances both weakened about 10% this month," Hsu writes, "with concerns over high prices continuing to climb."

Indeed, year-ahead inflation expectations rose from 4.0% in August to 4.6% in September, the highest level since June.

"The current reading substantially exceeds the 3.4% seen in February before the Iran conflict began," Hsu observes, "along with all 2024 readings."

Long-term inflation expectations rose to 3.4% after three straight months at 3.3%.

Akamai makes an Anthropic deal

Akamai Technologies (AKAM, +3.2%) is on our list of 33 stocks that could rally 33% or more because its cloud-based platform is well-positioned for the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-out.

A new seven-year, $11.6 billion deal to provide computing power to AI model leader Anthropic underscores that premise, and the tech stock soared after the deal was announced. The contract includes an option to add another $9 billion and push the total deal value to more than $20 billion should Anthropic require more "compute."

According to Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci, the base annual recurring revenue figure is more than five times Akamai's 2025 cloud infrastructure revenue ($314 million) and 40% of its total revenue ($4.2 billion).

DiFucci reiterated his Buy rating on AKAM and raised his 12-month target price from $190 to $225.

Will MGM bet on PPLI?

According to The Wall Street Journal, MGM Resorts (MGM, -3.3%) is talking about a bid to buy People (PPLI, +11.3%). As the WSJ notes, it's "an unusual turn of events that comes just after People withdrew its own bid to buy the casino and resort company."

MGM declined by 11% on Thursday, the S&P 500 stock giving back all of the paper gains (and then some) it had seen since People's $48.30 per share offer was made public on June 1.

PPLI, with a market cap of $2.7 billion as of September 24, holds a 27% stake in MGM, which was valued at $8.5 billion through Thursday.

People's MGM stake on its own is worth $2.5 billion, "suggesting to many on Wall Street," as the WSJ observes, "that the market isn't recognizing potential value in People's seemingly disparate holdings."

Stocks Struggle Against Inflation and Rate Risks: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 20:12:15 +0000

All three main equity indexes opened lower amid a continuing sell-off in the bond market, though renewed hope for peace in the Middle East inspired a modest late-session rally. Still, with interest rates rising and upward pressures on inflation persisting, investors, traders and speculators are confronted with real choices about risk right now.

By the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had climbed off its intraday lows for a 0.01% gain to 26,939. But the broad-based S&P 500 was still lower by 0.02% at 7,704, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3% to 51,350.

In the aftermath of the Federal Reserve's first rate hike in three years following the September Fed meeting, New York Fed President John Williams indicated today another 25 basis point increase to the target range for the federal funds rate this year is coming.

"It's likely that another rate hike may be appropriate by the end of the year. That seems to me a reasonable way of thinking about it," Williams said at the London Macro Policy Forum before the opening bell.

The Labor Department (PDF) said before the regular trading session started that weekly jobless claims declined from 198,000 to 197,000, suggesting stability in the labor market.

"The economy is accelerating sharply," Siebert Financial Chief Investment Officer Mark Malek observes, citing S&P Global's Flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) print of 58.4 and multiyear highs for manufacturing and services. "The bond market treated the strong data as an inflation and rate risk."

Yesterday, the 10-year Treasury yield (+9.2 bps, 5.206%) broke above 5.1% for the first time since 2007, and today, the 30-year Treasury yield (+8.7 bps, 5.489%) hit its highest level since 2004.

"Higher yields are changing the valuation equation for stocks," Malek notes. "Stocks are offering almost no earnings-yield advantage over Treasuries. With an S&P 500 earnings yield around 5.15% and the 10-year near 5.10%, investors are being compensated very little for taking equity risk."

As Malek concludes, "The biggest market risk right now may not be weak growth but excessive heat. Strong economic activity is welcome, but it makes the Fed's inflation problem considerably harder." The bottom line for the CIO: "Businesses are cooking. Households are sweating."

According to Freddie Mac, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage this week was 7.03%, up from 6.95% last week and 6.3% a year ago. It's the first time the average has been above 7% since January 2025.

ORCL falls on data center issues

Oracle (ORCL) fell as much as 7.7% after management of the tech stock invoked a clause in the construction contract to protect the company from cost overruns for a data center project in New Mexico. ORCL is now down 27.7% year to date.

Work on the $165 billion, 2.45-gigawatt Project Jupiter is proceeding amid significant regulatory, legal and logistical setbacks. A force majeure clause is a provision that temporarily relieves parties to a contract from performance obligations, including payment, due to extraordinary circumstances.

They're usually applied in situations such as earthquakes, fires, floods, or other "acts of God," but can also include "epidemics," "pandemics," "quarantines" or "governmental actions." Contract drafters also use catch-all provisions such as "events beyond the reasonable control of the parties."

According to Bloomberg, "Rather than trying to walk away as the site's main tenant, Oracle is attempting to put off payments should the data center dubbed Project Jupiter get derailed and fail to come online in 2028 as planned."

A spokesperson for Oracle said the project "remains on our planned schedule." A spokesperson for Blue Owl Capital (OWL, -3.7%), the parent of the project's developer, said the notice "does not change the financial commitments to this multiyear project" and that the parties are "fully aligned on Project Jupiter."

Construction of Project Jupiter is supported by an $18 billion loan syndicated among 20 or so banks, including SoftBank. Last year, OpenAI signed a $400 million contract with Oracle to support development of the New Mexico campus, as well as four other U.S. data centers.

MGM will stay public

MGM Resorts (MGM, -11.0%) was the worst-performing S&P 500 stock on Thursday after People (PPLI, -0.1%) withdrew an offer to buy the casino operator.

"There are lots of ingredients that go into a proposal of this kind on its way to completion,” People Chairman Barry Diller said in a press release. "We didn't feel the mix was coming together in the way we had hoped and have decided not to pursue taking the company private at this time."

People holds approximately 26.1% of MGM, and Diller sits on its board. On June 1, People offered $48.30 per share for the 73.9% of MGM it doesn't already own.

According to David Faber of CNBC, Diller's main concern is the significant debt load completing the deal would have created for People.

MGM traded sideways for the first half of the year, then spiked on June 1 with the offer from PPLI. The stock was down more than 25% since the offer date through September 23, suggesting the market doubted the deal's completion.

Stocks Drop as Treasury Yields, Rate-Hike Odds Rise: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:10:23 +0000

Stocks closed lower Wednesday as Treasury yields spiked on hot inflation data. This, along with hawkish commentary from one Federal Reserve official, lifted odds for an October rate hike, with futures traders now expecting the federal funds rate to be 50 basis points higher than its current range by year's end.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% at 51,511 and the S&P 500 was 0.8% lower at 7,706. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which closed at a record high on Tuesday, slumped 1.1% to 26,936.

Stocks took a hit as Treasury yields jumped on data from S&P Global that shows rising price pressures. The 2-year Treasury yield jumped 11.8 basis points to 4.885%, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury spiked 13.7 basis points to 5.104%, its highest level since July 2007. The 30-year Treasury yield was 8.9 basis points higher at 5.391%.

S&P Global's Flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for September showed business activity expanded at its fastest pace in five years. But "severe supply chain issues" are creating massive backlogs, which gives companies pricing power, says Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. And higher energy costs "will add further to the upward pressure on selling prices and inflation in the coming months."

The PMI data follows the September Fed meeting, where the central bank hiked interest rates for the first time in three years on concerns that inflation remains elevated.

And more rate hikes could be coming down the pike. Earlier today, Fed Governor Michael Barr — a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) — said at an event in Chicago that "further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion."

At last check, CME Group FedWatch placed the odds of an October rate hike at 66%, up from 55% one day ago. The probability that the Fed will hike again in December is currently at 53%.

McDonald's suffers worst day in 2025 on inflation worries

High inflation and flat foot traffic is weighing on restaurant industry growth, said McDonald's (MCD) CEO Chris Kempczinski at the burger chain's 2026 Investor Day. And in an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street," Kempczinski warned that he's "not expecting things to change."

In the second quarter, McDonald's reported mid-single-digit growth for both its top and bottom lines, while U.S. same-store sales edged up 0.8%.

Shares are now down 12% since those results were released in early August, including today's 4.8% drop, the Dow Jones stock's worst single-day performance since April 4, 2025. But analysts think this creates an attractive risk/reward setup.

"We believe that the current share price inadequately reflects an attractive dividend and management's efforts to improve efficiency and increase the store count," says Argus Research analyst John Staszak, who has a Buy rating on the blue chip stock.

Paychex sinks on slower growth

Paychex (PAYX) also had its worst day in over a year, with the industrial stock's 8.8% loss today putting it at the bottom of the S&P 500.

The company, which provides HR, payroll and benefits services for small and medium-sized businesses, said Wednesday that fiscal 2027 first-quarter earnings rose 10% year over year to $1.34 per share, while revenue was up 6% to $1.6 billion.

The results beat Wall Street estimates but marked a slowdown from the previous quarter, when Paychex said earnings per share rose 11% from the year prior and revenue grew 17%.

The company expects fiscal Q2 revenue growth to be even slower, up 4% year over year. Chief Financial Officer Robert Lewis Schrader says this is a result of a difficult comparison to the previous year and two one-off items recognized in Q2 of fiscal 2026.

Nasdaq Notches Another New High: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:07:24 +0000

Stocks took a breather Tuesday following Monday's big rally. Market participants kept a close eye on the United Nations General Assembly, hopeful for signs of a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran, even after President Donald Trump, in his address to the U.N. earlier, threatened to "annihilate the Islamic Republic."

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% at 51,863 and the broader S&P 500 was fractionally lower at 7,764. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.5% at 27,244 — a new record closing high — as several artificial intelligence (AI) stocks continued to climb.

"The simple arithmetic at the moment is that the markets are being driven by one big tailwind and two big headwinds," says Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

Market sentiment is being supported by strong corporate fundamentals — particularly "extraordinary profits" from tech companies, Rodda explains, but there's "uncertainty stemming from geopolitical risks and higher oil prices, and inflation and interest rate uncertainty — with the former partially contributing to the latter."

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell for a fifth straight day Tuesday after Saudi Arabia said it is close to reopening a critical oil pipeline after it was damaged in a drone attack. Still, oil prices remain nearly 11% higher for the month to date.

President Trump is also scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., this week.

Wall Street is "looking for news on any agreements that may reduce tariffs or improve access to critical minerals," says Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. "Any positive developments on that front could lift equities, particularly those in technology, industrial and consumer stocks. The flipside is that a breakdown in talks could revive trade-war concerns and market volatility."

Sandisk soars on new Buy rating

In single-stock news, Sandisk (SNDK) jumped 6.8% after Rosenblatt Securities analyst Kevin Cassidy initiated coverage on the flash storage specialist with a Buy rating and $2,400 price target. This represents implied upside of 27% for a stock that's already up 700% for the year to date.

"New AI compute platforms are creating an opportunity to reposition NAND flash from a commodity storage medium to a more system-critical component of AI infrastructure," the analyst says.

And a shortage of memory chips has Wall Street expecting average selling prices to ramp up in the near term. This, says Cassidy, puts Sandisk in a strong position to capitalize on the opportunity.

Wall Street is overwhelmingly bullish toward the tech stock. Of the 25 analysts covering SNDK who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 21 say it's a Buy or Strong Buy, three have it at Hold and one rates it a Sell. This works out to a high-conviction consensus Buy recommendation.

Will Berkshire buy Lennar?

Over in the consumer discretionary sector, Lennar (LEN) popped 6.4% after a regulatory filing (PDF) revealed Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, +0.3%) bought another 2.6 million Class A shares late last week, bringing its stake in the homebuilder to 23.7 million shares. Berkshire also owns more than 500,000 Class B shares.

Berkshire now owns a little over 10% of Lennar, leading some to speculate if Warren Buffett's holding company is preparing to acquire the homebuilder. Berkshire currently owns homebuilders Taylor Morrison and Clayton Homes.

It's a tough environment for homebuilders right now as high mortgage rates — the 30-year rate recently hit a 14-month peak above 7% — weigh on sales. In July, for instance, new home sales were down 10.5% from June. And existing home sales were 2% lower from July to August.

In June, Berkshire CEO Greg Abel said the holding company maintains "a long-term belief in the strength of America’s housing market and its underlying fundamentals, which we see as enduring over time."

Shares of LEN were down 23% for the year to date through Monday's close.

Nasdaq Jumps 599 Points to Hit a New High: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:12:38 +0000

Stocks started the week on a positive note as oil prices continued to slide on hopes that the U.S. and Iran will agree to end hostilities at this week's United Nations General Assembly. Several mega-cap tech stocks also posted big gains, fueling upside for the broader market Monday.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% at 52,048 and the broader S&P 500 was 1.5% higher at 7,764. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 2.3% to 27,122 — a new record closing high.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures slumped 4.5% to $95.78 per barrel and are now down nearly 10% from their September 15 peak near $106.

This comes after President Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he would "probably" be open to meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at this week's U.N. meeting in New York.

"The news raised optimism that a possible truce could incrementally restore traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz," explains José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

President Trump is also scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., this week.

Meta's Muse lifts Intel, AMD, Arm stocks

Technology was one of the best-performing S&P 500 sectors Monday, second only to communication services stocks. Chipmakers, in particular, saw big gains.

Intel (INTC), for one, jumped 12.1%, extending a rally that started last week on reports the company is in talks with SK Hynix (SKHY, +0.7%) to make chips in the United States.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained 10.0%, briefly topping a $1 trillion market cap for the first time and bringing its daily win streak to five, while Arm Holdings (ARM) surged 17.2% to its highest close since mid-July.

According to Barron's, the rally in all three semiconductor stocks appears to be linked to the initial success of Meta Platforms' (META) artificial intelligence (AI) agent Muse, which could lift demand for the chipmakers' central processing units (CPUs).

"Muse is Meta's most consequential consumer product since the launch of Glasses in 2023, and an important revenue driver over time, in our view," says Truist Securities analyst Youssef Squali. "It is the centerpiece of CEO [Mark] Zuckerberg's quest to democratize 'personal superintelligence' and the clearest attempt yet to build a non-ad revenue stream to complement its ad juggernaut and show ROI against its large CapEx."

META, meanwhile, jumped 11.4% Monday, marking the Magnificent 7 stock's best day since April 9, 2025.

Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery make merger headway

Elsewhere, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) rose 10.8% on reports that Paramount Skydance (PSKY, -2.9%) spent the weekend in discussions with several states that have sued to block its acquisition of WBD on antitrust concerns.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the parties are exploring a number of concessions, including a $1.5 billion investment in domestic production from Paramount and the sale of several cable channels.

Paramount agreed in February to buy Warner Bros. for $110.9 billion, including debt.

Stocks Rally for Mixed Close to Volatile Week: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:15:37 +0000

All the equity indexes were lower, and all the sectors were in the red around midday, almost as if they were dipping their caps to honor perhaps the greatest investor of all time after Warren Buffett took another step back from Berkshire Hathaway.

But it was more to do with higher oil prices and bond yields, again the main factors for markets in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve's first rate hike since 2023, as stocks ended the week on a downbeat note.

By the closing bell, tech stocks and industrial stocks had turned green, as had consumer discretionary and financials. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite turned positive late in the session and was up 0.4% at 26,522.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.2% on Friday to 7,650, but the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2% at 51,682. Papa Dow has now closed lower for three consecutive weeks.

All three benchmarks were up on Thursday after digesting a 25-basis-point increase to the federal funds rate following the September Fed meeting.

"Nothing has changed on the fundamental side to lead investors to think that oil prices will decline in a significant way or that yields will tumble over the intermediate term," observed Miller Tabak Chief Market Strategist Matt Maley.

Indeed, the front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract opened at $101.96 and traded as high as $98.01 before ending the session down 1.6% at $95.68 per barrel.

But the 10-year Treasury yield climbed 5.9 basis points, crossing above 5% again and settling at 5.006%. The 2-year Treasury yield (+7.0 bps, 4.760%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+3.7 bps, 5.333%) were higher, too.

With the impact of inflation and rising interest rates on the minds of investors, traders, speculators and consumers heading into another weekend, CME FedWatch shows a 55.4% probability of another 25 bps increase to the fed funds rate following the October 28-29 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

NFLX has more downside

Netflix (NFLX, -4.7%) was among the worst-performing S&P 500 stocks on Friday after Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall cut his rating on the streaming giant to Underweight (Sell) from Equal Weight (Hold).

Cahall also cut his 12-month target price for NFLX, which split on a 10-for-1 basis last November, from $80 to $57. The analyst's new target suggests the stock could fall 25% from its closing price on Wednesday.

“Engagement trends look worrying to us," Cahall wrote. "Netflix has lacked big original series, and it’s showing." The analyst says "breakout hits [are] a must for the stock to work again," citing recent success for "more hit-driven" Walt Disney (DIS, -2.6%) on the content creation front.

Cahall suggests Netflix management faces a "messy" set of choices, including boosting capex to create its own content or using its balance sheet for more mergers-and-acquisitions activity after losing a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD, -1.6%) to Paramount Skydance (PSKY, -3.9%).

The Oracle of Omaha is now the Chairman Emeritus

Buffett is stepping down from his role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, +0.1%). The biggest financial stock in the sector and one of the most important broad market bellwethers rallied off its intraday lows to close with a solid gain on Friday.

In a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders (PDF) on Friday morning, Buffett said "the timing is right" to complete a leadership transition that began when Greg Abel became CEO in January.

Buffett, still the largest Berkshire shareholder with holdings worth about $145 billion, will stay with the company he bought in 1965 as chairman emeritus and remain a member of the board of directors.

Abel was designated CEO successor in 2021 and first joined Buffett and Charlie Munger on the stage at a Berkshire annual meeting in 2022.

The chairman emeritus said Abel "has been making the decisions that matter for some time now, and I have not had to think twice about any of them."

Howard Buffett, who's been a director for 33 years, will succeed his father as chairman. "Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet," Buffett wrote.

Stocks Soar as Fed Uncertainty Fades: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:11:35 +0000

Stocks jumped out of the gate Thursday, bouncing back from Wednesday's Fed-induced decline. Falling oil prices and retreating Treasury yields lifted sentiment. Gains in several mega-cap tech stocks also boosted the equity market.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 51,778, the broader S&P 500 was 1.1% higher at 7,637, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7% to 26,418.

All three benchmarks closed lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate for the first time since 2023.

"The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long," said Chair Kevin Warsh in his press conference following the September Fed meeting. And Wednesday's quarter-percentage-point rate hike "will support a timelier return to the Committee's 2 percent [inflation] goal."

"Now that we are past this rate hike, stocks can move on, as uncertainty has faded," explains Bob Edwards, chief investment officer at Edwards Asset Management. "Stocks have the clarity needed from the Federal Reserve to resume their rally as the market's wall of worry continues."

The decision also helped Treasury yields pull back from recent highs. The yield on the 2-year Treasury fell 5.4 basis points today to 4.673% and the 10-year Treasury yield declined 6.8 basis points to 4.936%.

"The bond market's biggest moves are likely now in the rearview mirror," says Edwards, "and there is now a good opportunity for investors after this big move to lock in these elevated yields."

Oil prices also moved lower Thursday, with front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipping 0.5% to $101.91 per barrel.

Nvidia leads tech stocks higher; Ciena sees strong revenue growth

Technology was the best-performing S&P 500 sector today, boosted by Nvidia's (NVDA) 2.5% gain. Shares dropped to start the week after the heads of several artificial intelligence (AI) firms warned of the technology's safety risks and suggested putting guardrails in place.

But the industry's explosive growth is showing no signs of slowing down. Earlier today, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in the U.K. that he expects the company's chip sales to double next year on demand for all things AI.

Meanwhile, Ciena (CIEN, +1.1%), which makes high-speed networking equipment, said Wednesday that it expects revenue to grow roughly 30% each year over the next three years.

"Ciena's rapidly expanding AI networking opportunity has led to surging orders and backlog, new markets, and new customers," says Argus Research analyst Jim Kelleher.

While investment growth could weigh on margins in the near term, Kelleher believes CIEN's revenue will grow at a faster pace than peers over the long term.

He has a Buy rating on the high-growth tech stock and a $550 price target, representing implied upside of 60% to current levels. That's a massive return potential, but, as Kiplinger contributor Dan Burrows reminds us, "Committing capital based on a single data point is not an investment process."

Generac tops the S&P 500 on new Amazon deal

Several industrial stocks also headed higher Thursday. Caterpillar (CAT) closed near the top of the Dow with its 2.0% gain, while Deere (DE) jumped 2.4%.

And Generac (GNRC) was the best S&P 500 stock today, rising 18.3% after the company inked a long-term supply deal with Amazon (AMZN, +2.1%).

Under the terms of the agreement, Generac will deliver up to $8 billion in backup generators to Amazon data centers through 2033. It also gives Amazon the right to buy up to 1.7 million GNRC shares at $201 apiece in multiple tranches, contingent on generator purchases.

"In our view, this is a significant positive for GNRC, a company that only announced the intent to enter the large data center market in 2025," says UBS Global Research analyst Jon Windham. "If fully vested and exercised, the warrant shares represent at least 2.57% of GNRC's fully diluted share count."

Dow Falls 631 Points After Fed Hikes Rates: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 20:12:05 +0000

The main stock indexes turned lower after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. Following the central bank's first rate hike in three years, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said that a unanimous decision underscores the FOMC's commitment to price stability.

In another brief statement, the FOMC said economic expansion is solid, but uncertainty is elevated due in part to geopolitical developments. At the same time, domestic spending is resilient, productivity is strong and capex is robust.

During his post-meeting press conference, Warsh said that conditions consistent with full employment give the Fed plenty of room to focus on price stability. As the FOMC stated, "Inflation remains elevated."

As Warsh reiterated after sidestepping a question about President Donald Trump's potential reaction to a rate hike, "I said we will deliver stable prices. Today's decision is consistent with that."

The target range for the federal funds rate is now 3.75% to 4.00%. The FOMC's quarterly Summary of Economic Projections (PDF) shows members expect to make one more rate hike this year.

At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had slipped 0.01% to 25,978, the broad-based S&P 500 was down 0.5% at 7,551, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 1.2% to 51,461.

"Historically," LPL Financial Chief Technical Strategist Adam Turnquist observes, "following a rate hike that ended a pause of six months or longer, the S&P 500 gained an average of 5.5% over the subsequent 12 months."

That's happened 12 times since 1972. The average maximum drawdown during that period was 9.4%.

"Although the future path of monetary policy remains uncertain," Turnquist concludes, "history suggests that a transition from a prolonged pause to renewed tightening has not necessarily derailed equity markets."

Follow along with all the latest news and updates on our September Fed meeting live blog.

Crude retreats, yields are volatile, retail sales rise

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract declined by 3.7% to $101.94 per barrel on Wednesday amid reports of easing pressures on supply from the Middle East and a smaller-than-expected U.S. crude inventory drawdown.

After retreating early, yields across the maturity spectrum surged late and ended mixed. The 2-year Treasury yield was up 7.1 basis points to 4.734%, hitting another new 52-week high. The 10-year Treasury yield (2.0 bps, 5.016% ) also resumed its ascent, but the 30-year Treasury yield ticked down to 5.356% from 5.363% on Tuesday.

Ahead of the opening bell, the Census Bureau said that retail sales were up 1.2% in August after a revised 0.5% decline in July, exceeding a consensus forecast of 0.7%. Core retail sales expanded by 1.4%, the fastest pace since September 2024.

"Although this report is very positive for economic growth," writes Raymond James Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán, Ph.D, "it may raise further eyebrows for those conducting monetary policy, as the strength in consumption could put further pressure on inflation going forward."

OpenAI wants to be a trillion-dollar company

According to the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is talking to potential investors about a new capital-raising round that would value the ChatGPT maker at more than $1.2 trillion.

OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion. Investors in that round included Amazon (AMZN, -1.0%), Nvidia (NVDA, +0.8%) and SoftBank, who combined to contribute $110 billion.

Management said OpenAI surpassed 1 billion active users since its previous funding round. Second-quarter revenue grew to $6.7 billion from $5.7 billion in the first quarter, though operating margin compressed.

(Image credit: Imen Ben Youssef / Hans Lucas / AFP)

Meanwhile, CEO Sam Altman told Fortune that OpenAI will delay its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

"Given everything happening with safety," Altman explained, "right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that."

JBHT cuts guidance because of higher fuel costs

J.B. Hunt (JBHT, -13.3%) was the worst-performing S&P 500 stock on Wednesday after Chief Financial Officer Brad Delco said higher diesel fuel costs will drive a sharp sequential decline in the trucking company's third-quarter earnings.

As Al Root of Barron's notes, J.B. Hunt doesn't usually offer top- and bottom-line guidance.

"We want to be transparent with investors and give an update that, in light of these costs that are sort of hitting us, we are expecting our Q2 to Q3 earnings to actually drop 5% to 10%. Sorry to give you a range," Delco said in a presentation at a Morgan Stanley (MS, -1.8%) conference.

The CFO of the industrial stock cited "a little bit of a mismatch, based upon the delay part of pricing, that we see in intermodal relative to the costs we're feeling now." Delco added that J.B. Hunt is seeing "some of the most radical and abnormal swings in fuel prices" ever.

According to AAA, the national average diesel price hit its highest level on record today at $6.3103. That's up 70.5% from $3.7008 a year ago.

Dow Loses 328 Points While Waiting for the Fed: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:09:56 +0000

Crude oil prices and Treasury yields kept climbing on Tuesday, as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met to talk about inflation and interest rates. All three main equity indexes opened in the red and trended lower through the trading session.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract added another 4.5%, trading as high as $106.75 per barrel before hitting $105.84 at the closing bell.

According to Bloomberg, attacks by an Iran-backed militant group on a land-based pipeline have shut down Saudi Arabia's attempt to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

The 10-year Treasury yield declined from an intraday peak of 5.041%, its highest level since 2007, but was still up 4.1 basis points to 5.002%.

The 2-year Treasury yield hit another 52-week high and was up 3.7 basis points to 4.671%. The 30-year Treasury yield (+3.9 bps, 5.367%) was also higher heading into Wednesday's FOMC decision.

Based on data tracked by CME FedWatch, federal funds rate futures prices reflect a 94.5% probability of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday afternoon. That's up from 93.5% on Monday.

Follow along with all the latest news and updates on our September Fed meeting live blog.

The CEO and the president

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6% at 52,092, the broad-based S&P 500 had shed 0.5% to 7,585, and the Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.8% at 25,981.

Nvidia (NVDA, +0.6%) was one of 10 Dow Jones stocks in positive territory after CEO Jensen Huang co-signed President Donald Trump's efforts to ease artificial intelligence (AI) anxiety.

The president and the CEO participated in a live telephone conversation during an event for the All-In podcast, with Trump describing recent expressions of concern about the speed of the AI deployment as a "hoax" and Huang adding "everybody wins in the AI race in America."

"The AI doomsday selloff due to warnings that AI could kill humans is ridiculous," Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates writes. "The order backlogs for the data centers will not stop, since these backlogs now extend well into 2032."

Chevron (CVX, +2.6%) paced the Dow, as the energy stock continues to outperform the broader market so far this year amid the widening war in the Middle East.

Goldman Sachs (GS, -1.2%) was a big drag on Papa Dow, the financial stock suffering in the aftermath of comments by Bank of America (BAC, +0.03%) CEO Brian Moynihan about third-quarter trading and investment banking activity.

Markets may be a little more cautious about Goldman Sachs ahead of management's presentation at an industry conference on Wednesday.

SWKS and QRVO surge

Skyworks Solutions (SWKS, +13.6%) posted a double-digit gain a day after posting a double-digit loss, as the semiconductor stock rallied during a mixed session for AI-related names following Monday's steep sell-off.

SKWS is the smallest holding in the 26-stock VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, +0.1%), the biggest semiconductor ETF. Skyworks makes radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal semiconductors that process continuous physical signals like sound, light and radio waves as opposed to digital ones and zeros. It's also a major supplier for Apple (AAPL, -0.5%).

Last Thursday, CEO Philip Brace said he was "very confident" Skyworks' acquisition of fellow chipmaker and Apple supplier Qorvo (QRVO, +9.3%) would close this year. Skyworks and Qorvo agreed last October to combine their respective chipmaking operations in a transaction that valued the prospective enterprise at approximately $22 billion.

"I really think this is a transformative deal for both the company and the industry," Brace said, noting that the combined entity has "super attractive" opportunities to grow through sales to aerospace and defense contractors.

AXON sinks on notes offering

Axon Enterprise (AXON, -9.8%) was among the worst-performing S&P 500 stocks on Tuesday after management announced a $1 billion offering of 0% senior convertible notes.

The surveillance technology provider will use a portion of the proceeds from the offering to cover the costs of covered call transactions it will enter in order to reduce potential dilution on existing shareholders.

Axon says the remainder of its proceeds will be used for general purposes, such as acquisitions and other efforts to grow the business.

AXON has had an up-and-down 2026, generating a loss of almost 14% through Monday. Wall Street remains bullish, with 18 analysts rating the industrial stock a Buy and three rating it a Hold, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Stocks Slip on AI Safety Worries, Rising Oil Prices: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 20:08:39 +0000

Stocks fell Monday as fears that artificial intelligence has advanced too far, too fast escalated. Wall Street also kept a close eye on oil prices, which continued to climb ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting and are now up nearly 20% this month.

Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay that cautions against the risks of AI, including allowing the technology to advance rapidly without guardrails in place. He specifically noted concerns over AI's ability to improve upon itself, as well as its capacity to conduct cybersecurity attacks without being instructed to do so.

"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote. "Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain."

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, founder of xAI, which is now owned by SpaceX (SPCX, -2.0%), echoed Amodei's call to slow the pace of AI development.

While not everyone agrees — President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the "only control … AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ) PRESIDENT" — the warnings from the tech CEOs weighed on several AI-related stocks today, including chipmakers Intel (INTC, -5.6%) and Nvidia (NVDA, -3.4%).

But these AI safety warnings had a positive impact on a number of cybersecurity stocks, with CrowdStrike (CRWD, +13.9%) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW, +13.1%) among those closing higher.

As for the main indexes, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 52,421, the broader S&P 500 shed 0.5% to 7,619, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.6% to 26,186.

Oil keeps climbing, 10-year Treasury yield hits 5%

Sentiment also took a hit today as oil prices kept climbing. Following news that Saudi Arabia closed a key pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz after Iraqi drones damaged it, front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 1.3% to $101.39 per barrel.

Treasury yields were higher to start the week, too. The 2-year Treasury yield notched a two-year high in intraday trading before closing up 1.4 basis points at 4.658%. And the 10-year Treasury yield topped 5% for the first time since 2023, but finished the day just below here at 4.99%.

Rising oil prices and Treasury yields also lifted expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike rates at this week's policy meeting. According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are now pricing in a 93% chance the federal funds rate will be 25 basis points (0.25%) higher when the central bank concludes its September policy meeting Wednesday afternoon, up from 59% one week ago.

Follow along with all the latest news and updates on our September Fed meeting live blog.

Bank of America gets blasted on a Q3 revenue warning

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Bank of America (BAC) slid 5.1% after CEO Brian Moynihan said at the Barclays Annual Global Financial Services Conference that he expects the big bank's investment banking fees to be down more than 10% in the third quarter.

Moynihan also believes trading revenue will be flat year over year. This follows a strong second quarter for BAC, which saw investment banking fees jump 50% from the year prior and trading revenue soar 33%.

"If you look [at] this quarter, what we're seeing is the market generally in investment banking is down 10% or so in the Dealogic fees type of things," Moynihan explained. "We're not as well positioned in some of the businesses that … had more activity. So we'll be down probably a bit more than that."

Bank of America made headlines in August when regulatory filings revealed Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold more than 30 million BAC shares in Q2. Still, the financial stock, which Buffett has owned since 2017, remains the fifth-largest holding in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.

GE Aerospace gets hit with a rare downgrade

GE Aerospace (GE) also closed lower Monday, shedding 1.9% after Melius Research analyst Scott Mikus downgraded the industrial stock to Hold from Buy.

While GE's aftermarket (parts and supplies) business has thrived in recent years as Boeing (BA, -0.09%) and Airbus (EADSY, -2.2%) made fewer new jets, aircraft retirements are expected to rise, says Mikus. And this will weigh on GE's top line.

"Great times don't last forever," Mikus adds.

A downgrade is relatively rare for top-rated GE. Of the 22 analysts following the stock who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 19 say it's a Buy or Strong Buy, two have it at Hold and just one says Sell. This works out to a consensus Strong Buy recommendation.

Dow Soars 509 Points as Oil Prices Retreat: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:06:31 +0000

Stocks jumped out of the gate Friday as market participants brushed off the latest inflation data — and rising odds of a rate hike next week. Falling oil prices helped lift stocks, as did bargain hunters who emerged after four straight losses for the main indexes.

Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said headline inflation rose 0.4% from July to August, faster than the 0.1% increase the month prior but in line with economists' forecasts. The August CPI was up 3.4% year over year, the same as July and matching estimates.

Higher gas prices were a major factor in the monthly inflation increase, with the index for gasoline rising 3.9% in August. Year over year, gas prices were up 27.4%.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, came in at 0.3% on a monthly basis in August, up from 0.2% in July. Year over year, core inflation was up 2.4%, slower than the 2.5% from the previous month and in line with economists' estimates.

"For the Fed, it might have been possible to read the August CPI report as glass half full if nothing else were in the news," says Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank. But a surge in energy costs in September "will probably tip the scale to a hike at next week's meeting."

While front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 2.7% today to $99.68 per barrel, they are up more than 16% for the month to date. And the average price for a gallon of diesel topped $6 for the first time Friday.

This, combined with the August CPI report, sent rate-hike odds soaring today. CME Group FedWatch shows futures traders are pricing in an 86% probability the Fed will hike the federal funds rate by 25 basis points next week, up from 71% one day ago.

The main indexes, meanwhile, snapped a four-day losing streak. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.0% to 52,573, the broader S&P 500 gained 0.9% to 7,656, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.0% to 26,333.

RBC sees new highs ahead for red-hot Dell

Dell Technologies (DELL) was one of the biggest gainers on Friday, surging 12% after RBC Capital Markets analyst David Paige initiated coverage on the PC maker with an Outperform (Buy) rating and a $640 price target. The target price represents implied upside of nearly 13% to Dell's record intraday high of $567.75, which it hit today.

"With no signs of slowing, we believe DELL continues to be well positioned to benefit from a multi-year AI infrastructure spending cycle," says Paige. And its "best-in-class supply chain represents a competitive moat that differentiates the company during periods of supply disruption, as customers increasingly turn to Dell for a 'calming hand' during periods of supply volatility/constraints."

Dell easily beat fiscal 2027 second-quarter estimates earlier this month and ramped up its full-year forecast. It now expects fiscal 2027 revenue of $192 billion vs its previous guidance of $167 billion at the midpoint, due in part to price hikes.

DELL is up 350% year to date, making it one of the best S&P 500 stocks of 2026 so far.

Cisco is the best Dow stock today

Elsewhere in the tech space, Cisco Systems (CSCO) jumped 4.4%, making it the best Dow Jones stock on Friday. This is just more of the same for CSCO, which is up 45% for the year to date — the biggest return of any member of the 30-stock index.

Earlier today, a Reuters report indicated that the United Arab Emirates is revising plans to build an artificial intelligence data center in partnership with several American tech companies, including Cisco, due to the ongoing war in Iran.

Oracle (ORCL), which is also part of the partnership, saw its shares fall 1.7% today despite the tech giant reporting impressive earnings Thursday evening.

For its fiscal 2027 first quarter, Oracle said both earnings per share and revenue were up 30% year over year, while total cloud revenue surged 62%. It also gave in-line guidance for its fiscal 2027 second quarter and a better-than-expected full-year forecast.

The AI stock rallied more than 8% from September 1 through September 10, so today's pullback could be profit-taking.

Stocks Drop as Treasury Yields Hit New Highs: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 20:10:04 +0000

Stocks struggled Thursday as the latest inflation update and surging oil prices sent Treasury yields soaring ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting, where the central bank is expected to raise interest rates. However, those expectations could change with tomorrow morning's release of the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.

Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures what businesses pay suppliers for goods, rose 0.4% from July to August, and was 5.4% higher year over year — faster than what was seen the month prior but in line with economists' forecasts.

Core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% month over month — a slight deceleration from July's upwardly revised 0.3% increase — but accelerated year over year, rising 4.6% vs 4.2% the previous month.

"August's hot PPI was largely as expected, lifted by rising energy prices as the Iran war disrupts global supplies," explains Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank. He adds that core inflation looked sticky too.

"The surge in energy prices since the turn of the month creates new upside risk for inflation that is not captured by the August PPI report," Adams says. Indeed, national diesel prices hit a record high of $5.9773 today, while front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures jumped 6.7% to $102.48 per barrel. WTI oil has now risen for eight straight days, marking its longest winning streak since 2023, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

"The September Fed decision looked finely balanced," says Adams, and "September's surge in energy prices will likely tip the balance towards a hike," though "a big surprise from the August CPI report's release tomorrow or a last-minute deal with Iran could still influence the decision."

At last check, CME Group FedWatch shows futures traders pricing in a 71% probability the Fed will raise the federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point next Wednesday, up from 61% one day ago.

Stocks drop as Treasury yields spike

Sticky inflation and higher oil prices sent Treasury yields soaring Thursday. The 2-year Treasury yield closed at its highest point since mid-2024, up 15.2 basis points to 4.579%. The 10-year Treasury yield hit its loftiest level since 2023, rising 12.3 basis points to 4.963%.

As for equities, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.6% to 52,064, the broader S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 7,591, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.7% to 26,081.

Despite closing lower for a fourth straight day, gains in several mega-cap stocks, including Apple (AAPL, +3.6%), Alphabet (GOOGL, +0.6%) and SpaceX (SPCX, +0.4%) helped limit today's losses for the main equity indexes.

AeroVironment climbs after earnings, Oracle slips ahead of its results

AeroVironment (AVAV) closed higher Thursday, rising 4.5% after the drone maker reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results.

This was "the cleanest prints" for AVAV in recent quarters, says Stifel analyst Jonathan Siegmann, who has a Buy rating on the defense stock. "AVAV is finally showing substantial, quality backlog build in its key defense-tech franchises — directed energy, counter-drone, and unmanned systems."

Next up on the earnings calendar is Oracle (ORCL), which reports after tonight's close. The tech stock fell 5.2% ahead of the release of its fiscal first-quarter print, which is expected to show an 18% year-over-year rise in earnings on 28% revenue growth.

Mizuho Americas analyst Siti Panigrahi expects the cloud computing infrastructure company to exceed estimates, and he'll be watching for updates on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), revenue performance obligation momentum, capital expenditures funding clarity, margins and free cash flow.

Argan drops despite 40% dividend hike

Argan (AGX) was another notable mover Thursday, falling 1.4% despite the energy and industrial infrastructure builder hiking its quarterly dividend by 40% to 70 cents per share. This works out to an annual payout of $2.80 and a dividend yield of 0.7% based on today's close.

"This is an exciting time for our Company as our industry experiences unprecedented demand for new dispatchable power generation to support the significant load growth driven by data centers, domestic manufacturing, and the broader electrification of the economy," said Argan CEO David Watson while explaining the company's fourth straight annual dividend hike.

Even with today's decline, the industrial stock is up nearly 29% for the year to date on a total return basis (price change plus dividends), more than doubling the S&P 500's 12.5% gain.

Markets Rocked as Crude Oil Knocks on $100: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:12:49 +0000

A global benchmark for crude oil topped $100 per barrel for the first time since late July, Treasury yields rose to new highs and the main equity indexes declined for a third straight trading session on Wednesday. Amid little sign of peace in the Middle East anytime soon, markets are bracing for incoming inflation data a week before the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting.

At the closing bell, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% at 52,380, the broad-based S&P 500 had fallen 0.5% to 7,636, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.6% at 26,253.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was up 3.9% to $96.65 per barrel. The front-month Brent Crude oil futures contract was up 3.6% to $101.45. The global benchmark last closed above the psychologically significant $100 level on July 23.

Both the 2-year Treasury yield (+2.9 bps, 4.427%) and the 10-year Treasury yield (+3.7 bps, 4.841%) reached fresh 52-week highs, while the 30-year Treasury yield rose 2.8 basis points to 5.292%.

For investors, traders and speculators, it could be as simple as cooler-than-expected incoming inflation data easing some upward pressure on interest rates and giving the world's most important central bank room to hold the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75% next week.

Indeed, it could be that simple for a Fed chair still looking for the right way to communicate with markets, even after he doubled down on his primary commitment to price stability in his recent keynote speech at Jackson Hole.

With the economic calendar in tight focus, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release August Producer Price Index (PPI) data before tomorrow's opening bell. The main event, the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, lands before the opening bell on Friday.

"A hot CPI print would all but seal a September hike and underpin a firmer dollar," Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. strategist Elias Haddad says. "A cooler reading would strengthen the case for a hold and leave the dollar vulnerable to a dovish Fed repricing."

Why CASY was down 14%

Casey's General Store (CASY, -14.2%), added to the index in April, was the worst-performing S&P 500 stock on Wednesday, even though the company beat Wall Street's fiscal 2027 first-quarter expectations and reiterated full-year guidance.

From its headquarters in Iowa, Casey's operates more than 2,900 locations in 19 states in the Midwest and the South. It's the third-largest convenience store retailer and the fifth-largest pizza chain in the U.S.

"We believe the reaction is overblown and driven largely by short-term trading dynamics on broader rotations outside of the consumer space," William Blair analysts Phillip Blee and Olivia Witte write. "We believe the drop provides a compelling entry point, especially for long-term-oriented investors, as the fundamental strengths of the model and its ability to compound earnings growth over the next decade remain intact."

Blee and Witte reiterated their Outperform (Buy) rating and their $660 12-month target price for the consumer staples stock. Their target suggests upside of about 5% from CASY's closing price on Wednesday.

UBS analyst Mark Carden reiterated his Neutral (Hold) rating, as well as his $925 12-month target price. That's more than 47% from here for CASY.

"We think CASY's 1Q results showed that it executed effectively against an uneven macro, but it may not have been enough amid investor expectations," Carden observes. The analyst cites 3.2% same-store sales growth vs a Wall Street forecast of 3.8% as a potential factor in today's price action.

Carden also notes that the first-quarter figure represents 30 basis points of acceleration compared to the fourth quarter.

Apple doesn't move much

Apple (AAPL, -0.3%) was neither the best nor the worst of the 30 Dow Jones stocks on Wednesday. It was up and down, and it finished only slightly lower.

One of the 10 best tech stocks of all time hit its intraday low soon after new CEO John Ternus took the stage to deliver brief opening remarks and introduce new versions of its leading device. It peaked into positive territory, then danced around the breakeven line into the closing bell.

"We're going to continue changing the world in ways we can't even imagine today," Ternus said before turning to his vision of the iPhone's place in a world increasingly defined by proliferating artificial intelligence (AI).

"If you were designing the ideal version of this hub from scratch, how would you do it?" Ternus posed rhetorically. "Well, first, you would want something that is always with you, deeply personal and able to bring intelligence to the moments when it matters most."

Then Ternus introduced the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, as well as the foldable iPhone Duo, meeting market expectations.

"We made massive advancements in the most important areas: intelligence, performance, battery and camera," the CEO said.

Dow Falls 628 Points as Rate Pressures Rise: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:12:23 +0000

An escalating trade war in North America, on top of more shooting in the Middle East, made for another risk-off trading session on Wall Street, as investors, traders and speculators returned from a three-day weekend. After a mixed open, the main stock indexes extended their collective losing streak to two, with markets focused on incoming inflation data before next week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

The economic calendar is abbreviated, but it already feels like a long wait until the release of the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) report before the opening bell on Friday. And that's only after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals August Producer Price Index (PPI) data on Thursday.

"With geopolitical tensions and oil prices on the rise, the markets may find it difficult to focus on much beyond the inflation discussion," E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin observes.

Indeed, the front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract was up 2.4% to $93.65 per barrel on reports of fresh war-related damage to energy infrastructure around the Strait of Hormuz. The global benchmark, Brent Crude oil futures, traded as high as $99.45, approaching the psychologically significant $100 barrier.

The 2-year Treasury yield was up 1.7 basis points to 4.396% vs 4.379% on Friday, while the 10-year Treasury yield (+1.0 bps, 4.794%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+0.5 bps, 5.251%) also ticked higher.

Following a blowout August jobs report, odds of a rate hike next week remain near 60%. According to CME Group FedWatch, the federal funds rate futures market is pricing in a 60.4% probability the FOMC boosts its primary benchmark by 25 basis points, up from 59.4% on Friday and 44.4% a month ago.

"Unlike the stock market's reaction to the jobs report, good economic news this week — that is, cooler inflation — should be treated as good," Larkin concludes. "Anything that reduces concerns about possible Fed rate hikes will likely get a warm reception."

Intel looks particularly chipper

Utility stocks were tops among the 11 sectors defined by S&P Global Market Intelligence, while energy stocks and real estate were in the green, too. Tech stocks in general were lower on Tuesday, but semiconductor stocks surged.

And Intel (INTC, +9.1%) was the main mover from a price-action perspective, even after Qualcomm (QCOM, +3.2%) said it inked a deal to supply Amazon (AMZN, -0.6%) with custom AI chips for the e-commerce and cloud computing giant's data centers.

For its part, Intel announced a 10% price increase designed to support its profit margins. That move prompted Northland Securities analyst Gus Richard to upgrade INTC to Outperform (Buy) from Market Perform (Hold).

Richard cited "material progress" in the chipmaker's turnaround program, as well as the pricing power revealed in its price hike amid a CPU shortage.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +5.9%) and Marvell Technology (MRVL, +0.8%) also posted notable gains.

At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3% at 26,421, the broad-based S&P 500 had slipped 0.6% to 7,673, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 1.2% at 52,786.

AMGN's worst day since October 2000

Amgen (AMGN, -10.1%) suffered its steepest one-day sell-off in almost 26 years and was the worst-performing Dow Jones stock on Tuesday after Novartis (NVS, -13.9%) reported the failure of an experimental cardiovascular treatment, pelacarsen, to meet phase 3 trial expectations.

Investors, traders and speculators are selling AMGN because the negative result for Novartis' pelacarsen suggests a similar outcome for Amgen's heart disease drug, olpasiran.

At the same time, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Siegerman cited AMGN's year-to-date outperformance vs the S&P 500 as a primary reason for downgrading the healthcare stock to Market Perform (Hold).

"Commercial execution is now the base case with shares up +34%," Siegerman writes, noting gains of more than 13% for the broad index and the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index.

Amgen "continues to face significant LOE [loss of exclusivity] headwinds with more work needed for us to get comfortable with the company's longer-term trajectory." Siegerman maintained his $450 12-month target price for AMGN, upside of more than 14% from its closing price on Tuesday.

According to Dow Jones Market Data, Amgen declined by 13.4% on October 27, 2000.

Stocks Pull Back Ahead of Labor Day: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 20:09:52 +0000

Stocks closed out the week on a down note after the August jobs report increased rate-hike expectations and boosted Treasury yields. This makes the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) the most important event we're watching next week, with the inflation data landing just ahead of the September Fed meeting.

Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. added 162,000 jobs in August, easily exceeding economists' estimates of 58,000. The unemployment rate, which is derived from a separate survey, remained at 4.1%, as expected.

Additionally, job growth for June (+11,000 to +31,000) and July (+44,000 to +21,000) was upwardly revised, resulting in a combined 55,000 more jobs than previously reported.

The good-news-is-bad-news jobs report sent expectations for a September rate hike higher. According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are now pricing in a 58% chance the central bank will increase the federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point when its next meeting concludes on September 16, up from 49% one day ago.

Treasury yields resumed their march higher, too. The 2-year Treasury yield rose 4.3 basis points to 4.377% — a new 52-week peak — and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed 2.2 basis points to 4.784%.

As for equities, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 53,414, the broader S&P 500 shed 0.4% to 7,718, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave back 0.3% to 26,506.

As a reminder, Monday is a stock market holiday, with both equity and bond trading closed for Labor Day.

The big data point comes next week

"The August payroll release quelled any lingering labor fears, putting next week's inflation data firmly in the driver's seat for the Federal Open Market Committee's rate decision later this month," says Jeff Schulze, head investment strategist at Franklin Templeton Institute.

First up on next week's economic calendar is Thursday morning's release of the Producer Price Index (PPI). This will be followed by the August CPI, which is due out Friday morning.

Deutsche Bank economists expect PPI to be 0.2% higher from July to August and up 3.3% year over year. Headline CPI, meanwhile, should get a boost from rising energy prices, the economists say, which has them calling for 0.4% and 3.4% monthly and yearly increases, respectively.

Lululemon has its worst day in a year after earnings

In single-stock news, Lululemon Athletica (LULU) plunged 17.4% — its worst day in a year — after the athletic apparel retailer reported earnings.

For its fiscal second quarter, LULU said earnings fell 33.5% year over year to $2.06 per share, while revenue slumped 4% to $2.4 billion. Comparable sales were down 9%.

Lululemon also said it expects its top and bottom lines to contract in its fiscal third quarter, and it lowered its full-year outlook.

"We know there is much more work to be done," acknowledged interim co-CEO and Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank on the earnings call. "We're excited our incoming CEO, Heidi O'Neill, joins us next week. And we expect she will take a deep dive into the business, evaluating our strategy and current action plans."

In the near term, Frank added, the company remains " focused on execution."

Today's post-earnings plunge is just more of the same for the consumer discretionary stock, which is now down nearly 50% for the year to date. But UBS Global Research analyst Jay Sole warns against buying the dip on struggling LULU.

"We don't believe a pullback represents a good buying opportunity," Sole says. "The main reason is we see big earnings-per-share downside over the near term and also see little upside risk."

Guidewire sinks 20% on weak guidance

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Guidewire Software (GWRE) sank 20%, one of its biggest one-day losses on record, after the cloud-based insurance platform unveiled its fiscal fourth-quarter results.

While the company reported higher-than-expected top- and bottom-line results, its fiscal 2027 first-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street's estimates.

Analysts don't seem too worried. "Guidewire reported a strong close to its fiscal year with all key metrics ahead of expectations, a record 26 cloud deals in the fourth quarter, and accelerating customer adoption of the company’s early agentic offerings," says William Blair analyst Dylan Becker, who has an Outperform (Buy) rating on the tech stock.

Becker adds that GWRE "remains uniquely positioned as the trusted system of record for the P&C economy, supported by increasing momentum across carrier tiers, product offerings, and cloud migration activity," all of which will drive long-term growth for the company.

Dow Jumps 624 Points as Treasury Yields Pull Back: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:10:48 +0000

Stocks jumped out of the gate Thursday and kept climbing into the close as market participants cheered easing Treasury yields and pulled back their rate-hike bets.

Strong gains for several mega-cap stocks also kept the wind at the market's back, with Tesla (TSLA) soaring ahead of its Cybercab event and Nvidia (NVDA) jumping on its $13 billion purchase of Hugging Face.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2% at 53,686, the broader S&P 500 was 1.1% higher at 7,747, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.4% to 26,584.

Helping boost stocks was commentary from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who said during a moderated discussion that while inflation is "meaningfully above" the central bank's 2% target, he is "seeing some signs of disinflation."

If this trend continues, Waller said he "would be inclined to hold the target for the federal funds rate at its current setting." He added, however, that if the trend does not continue, "a small adjustment" to interest rates may be necessary.

The relatively dovish take was enough to send yields on the 2-year Treasury (-4.6 basis points to 4.34%) and 10-year Treasury (-2.2 basis points to 4.772%) lower.

The odds of a September rate hike dropped too. According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are now pricing in a 50% probability that the Fed will hike rates by a quarter-percentage point later this month, down from 63% one day ago.

Tesla, Nvidia pop; Broadcom drops

Tesla was one of several mega-cap stocks that closed higher Thursday, with shares climbing 5.4% ahead of the electric vehicle maker's Cybercab event in Austin, Texas, where it will debut its two-seater robotaxi.

Nvidia, meanwhile, rose 1.8% after the artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker confirmed it will buy open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion — its second-largest acquisition ever.

"For Nvidia, the acquisition will provide a direct view into which models, architectures and development tools are gaining traction," wrote Kiplinger contributor Tom Taulli last week when rumors of the deal first surfaced. "Those insights could help NVDA optimize its chips, libraries and cloud services for emerging workloads."

But not all mega caps gained ground today. Broadcom (AVGO), for one, slumped 2.7% after the chipmaker reported its fiscal third-quarter results. While AVGO beat on the top and bottom lines, it forecast fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $34.8 billion, below the $35.03 billion analysts are expecting.

Snowflake soars nearly 17% after earnings

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Snowflake (SNOW) surged 16.6% after the cloud-based data platform blew past Wall Street's earnings-per-share and revenue estimates for its fiscal 2027 second quarter.

"Demand for SNOW's new AI products — CoCo and Snowflake CoWork — was robust" and "guidance was impressive," says Mizuho Americas analyst Gregg Moskowitz. "We continue to believe healthy consumption activity, along with secular trends driving enterprises to modernize their data estates, set up SNOW for sustained momentum."

Moskowitz adds that the company has several positive catalysts "that will be additive to growth," including new AI products and improving go-to-market technology. He calls SNOW "a top pick."

Snowflake's post-earnings pop lifted several software stocks on Thursday, including Salesforce (CRM, +2.9%) and ServiceNow (NOW, +6.5%).

Campbell's slashes its dividend

Campbell's (CPB), meanwhile, slumped 7% after the packaged foods company reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $2.14 billion, below analysts' estimates, as consumers shop for lower-priced items.

And while earnings per share were in line with Wall Street's expectations, the company said it expects revenue and earnings to be down in fiscal 2027.

Campbell's CEO Mick Beekhuizen called the results "unacceptable" and said the company is "taking decisive action to improve it." Part of this includes a 36% cut to its quarterly dividend, which will help reduce debt on its balance sheet.

The choice to cut the dividend was "difficult," Beekhuizen said, but also "a necessary decision that we needed to take."

The consumer staples stock is now down more than 20% for the year to date.

Stocks Close Higher as Treasury Yields Stabilize: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:07:39 +0000

Stocks closed higher Wednesday, though gains were contained as Treasury yields held near recent highs. Market participants also weighed weak private payrolls data, which arrived ahead of this Friday's all-important August jobs report.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 53,061, the broader S&P 500 was 0.5% higher at 7,666, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% to 26,217.

Easing Treasury yields provided some relief on Wall Street today. The yield on the 2-year Treasury hit its highest level since mid-2024 in intraday trading, but ended the session down 2.3 basis points at 4.371%. Likewise, the 10-year Treasury yield topped out at a nearly three-year peak before settling down 1.6 basis points at 4.78%.

"Today's weaker-than-anticipated ADP employment report, paired with market-friendly commentary from New York Fed President John Williams and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is halting bond pain and driving bargain hunters into equities," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.

The ADP report showed the U.S. added 38,000 private payrolls, below the 46,000 economists expected and the lowest level since January. This, says Torres, signals "an increasingly fragile labor market that may prevent the U.S. monetary policy authority from hiking rates more than once."

Meanwhile, New York Fed President John Williams, who, because of his position, is a permanent voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), told CNBC that the central bank just needs to "wait and see" on interest rates.

While the regional Fed president said that inflation data have "been encouraging," he added that "there's no clear signs right now whether monetary policy currently is sufficient to make sure we bring inflation back to target."

According to CME Group FedWatch, futures traders are currently pricing in a 62% chance the Fed will raise the federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point when its September policy meeting wraps up two weeks from today — up from 37% one week ago.

Credo Technology plunges 20% after beat-and-raise quarter

In single-stock news, Credo Technology Group (CRDO) plunged 20% — the tech stock's worst day since January 2025 — after the high-speed digital connectivity and semiconductor solutions specialist reported earnings.

For its fiscal 2027 first quarter, CRDO reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue. It also raised its full-year revenue growth outlook.

But Wall Street may have been looking for a more substantial fiscal Q2 revenue forecast, with Credo guiding for $525 million to $535 million — only matching analysts' estimates at the midpoint.

Still, William Blair analyst Sebastien Naji says the fiscal Q1 print was "clean," and he expects "a strong inflection through the second half as the company ramps up toward its more than $600 million optical revenue target while benefiting from expanding AEC [Active Electrical Cable] engagements and the transition to 100G/200G per lane solutions."

Phillips Edison hikes its monthly dividend payout

Phillips Edison & Company (PECO), which operates grocery-anchored shopping centers, rose 0.8% today after the real estate investment trust (REIT) raised its monthly dividend payout by 6.2% to 11.5 cents per share. This works out to an annualized rate of $1.38 per share.

PECO has been a reliable dividend grower, having increased its annual payout in each of the past six years. This latest hike also marks its third consecutive increase of over 5%.

Why is dividend growth important?

"Shares in companies that raise their payouts like clockwork decade after decade can produce superior total returns (price change plus dividends) over the long run, even if they sport apparently ho-hum yields to begin with," explains Kiplinger contributor Dan Burrows in his feature on the best dividend stocks for dependable growth. "That's partly because regular dividend increases lift the yield on an investor's original cost basis. Stick around long enough, and the modest yield you received on your initial investment can hit double digits one day."

Dow Falls 419 Points as Bond Yields Rise: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:16:57 +0000

Escalation in the Middle East made for higher crude oil prices and interest rates but lower levels for the main equity indexes again Tuesday. Indeed, the worst month for the stock market started on a note consistent with historical seasonality data, as well as recent geopolitical developments.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract rose another 5.7% to $90.64 per barrel after a private maritime security firm, Marisks, reported attacks on two tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and the U.S. launched new strikes against Iran on Tuesday.

More war on top of more government spending on top of more borrowed capex for the AI boom means more inflation everywhere, at least according to expectations reflected in global bond yields.

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond broke above 3% for the first time since 1996, for example, and the 30-year U.K. government bond yield hit its highest level since 1998.

Meanwhile, the yield on the 2-year Treasury hit a new 52-week intraday high of 4.400% and closed up 4.8 basis points to 4.398%. The 10-year Treasury yield (+3.4 bps, 4.792%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+1.7 bps, 5.266%) were up again, too.

A month ago, the probability of a rate hike at the conclusion of the September 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting was 67.0%. A week ago, according to CME FedWatch, it was 39.6%.

Today, with upward pressure on prices rising again, the odds of a 25-basis-point increase in the federal funds rate are back up to 68.2%.

It's "risk off" right now

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8% at 52,766, the broad-based S&P 500 had shed 0.7% to 7,631, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was lower by 1.03% at 26,099.

Energy stocks, including Chevron (CVX, +2.4%) with its new deal to exploit Venezuelan oil reserves, led to the upside.

Consumer staples stocks, including Procter & Gamble (PG, +0.8%), and healthcare names such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH, +1.8%) also benefited from a rotation into traditional "risk-off" sectors. Utility stocks were up, too.

Apple (AAPL, +2.6%) was the best-performing Dow Jones stock during its first trading session under new leadership.

If new CEO John Ternus does what old CEO Tim Cook did in terms of market cap multiplication, AAPL will be worth well north of $60 trillion by the time he steps aside in a decade and a half or so. Apple's market cap at today's close was $4.75 trillion.

PANW gives back some of its big gain

Palo Alto Networks (PANW, -5.2%), a cybersecurity stock with an AI twist good enough to send it more than 100% higher since early May, retraced some of that move ahead of its turn on the earnings calendar after today's close.

Wall Street expects PANW management to report earnings of 98 cents per share, up from 95 cents a year ago, on revenue growth of more than 33% to $3.35 billion.

Stifel analyst Adam Borg reiterated his Buy rating on the tech stock and raised his 12-month target price from $330 to $415 in a mid-August earnings preview.

Borg noted that PANW was a "crowded long" with "a rich multiple and elevated expectations."

At the same time, citing recent vendor checks that continue to support its "strong positioning," the analyst believes "any near-term weakness, should there be any, gets bought."

Did Novartis get a meaningful lift?

Novartis (NVS, +6.0%), a large-cap stock whose American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), had barely outperformed the S&P 500 year to date through Monday.

But the Switzerland-based drugmaker got a big boost Tuesday after management announced positive Phase III trial results for a pill to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).

According to Novartis, "Remibrutinib, a highly selective and potent oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, demonstrated superiority versus teriflunomide in reducing annualized relapse rate (ARR) and inflammatory brain lesions with a favorable safety profile."

That's good news for people with MS and those who care about them. We'll see whether the potential blockbuster drug sways Wall Street analysts.

Five rate NVS a Buy, but four say it's a Hold and three say it's a Sell. That's good for a consensus "Hold" rating, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Stocks Lose Again as US-Iran War Heats Up: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 20:12:17 +0000

All three main equity indexes opened lower and stayed in the red through the last trading session of August amid a re-escalation of war in the Middle East. Crude oil spiked and the 10-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since January 2025 after the U.S. attacked Iran for the first time in a month, and the Islamic Republic responded by striking its neighbors Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.744% from 4.722% on Friday, reaching a 19-month intraday high of 4.768%. The 30-year Treasury yield (+4.1 bps, 5.249%) was up, too, but the 2-year Treasury yield (-0.1 bps, 4.339%) ticked lower. The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract added 3.0% to $85.92 per barrel.

"With traders tracking geopolitical volatility as well as potential seasonal volatility," E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley Managing Director Chris Larkin writes, "it will be interesting to see which market impulse from last week might carry over to this week — the S&P 500's net gain, or its Friday weakness following comments from Kevin Warsh."

The Fed chair reiterated his commitment to price stability during his keynote speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, saying the central bank would "have work to do" should inflation not move toward its 2% target "clearly and at sufficient speed."

In addition to weighing the impact of escalating war in the Middle East, the Fed will take account of the August jobs report on Friday. "Unexpectedly strong labor-market data this week might be taken as bad news by the market, since it could reinforce expectations for a rate hike," Larkin observes.

CME FedWatch shows a 66.1% probability of a 25-basis-point increase to the federal funds rate at the conclusion of the September 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, up from 57.0% on Friday.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7% at 53,185, but the blue-chip index ended the month with a gain of 1.3%. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3, but it was up 2.6% for August at 7,686. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the day lower by 0.1% and the month higher by 3.9% at 26,370.

Another legendary Apple CEO steps aside

Apple (AAPL, -0.9%) wasn't among the handful of Dow Jones stocks posting gains today. But the iPhone maker is up about 2,740% over the trailing 15 years to August 24, 2011, the day Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs as CEO of the iconic technology company.

Cook is stepping down from that role effective tomorrow but will remain as executive chairman.

"If there was one picture to define Tim Cook’s legacy, it would be a stock chart during his tenure," Freedom Capital Markets Chief Market Strategist Jay Woods writes. "Started at the bottom left and ended at the top right. A long-term uptrend with higher peaks and lower valleys along the way."

In addition to the total return, Woods notes that AAPL executed 7-for-1 and 4-for-1 stock splits, was added to the Dow, was the biggest stock in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, -0.2%) equity portfolio and was, indeed, the biggest company in the world by market cap for a long stretch under Cook's leadership.

Succeeding Cook (and Jobs) is John Ternus. "At 50, Ternus is roughly the same age Cook was when he replaced Jobs," Woods observes, "but his engineering and product background offers Apple something different as it searches for its next big innovation and plays catch-up in AI. Cook proved you could successfully replace a legend, now Ternus gets the unenviable task."

California wildfire law doesn't protect EIX, PCG

Edison International (EIX, -22.9%) and PG&E (PCG, -20.0%) were the two worst S&P 500 stocks on Monday after the California State Assembly passed an amendment to wildfire legislation that doesn't include liability protection for utilities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted to limit what utilities had to pay to insurance companies, some survivors, local governments and businesses claiming damages from wildfires caused by their electricity infrastructure.

According to CalMatters, the governor and leaders of California's legislature agreed on a final bill that leaves out all of Newsom's proposals. Newsom had been concerned about the impact of rising costs on investor confidence in the utility stocks.

Stocks Turn Down as Warsh Talks Up Rates: Stock Market Today

David Dittman — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:11:11 +0000

The main equity indexes reacted well at first to Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium keynote speech on Friday. Treasury yields and odds of a rate hike in September rose, too. Stock market momentum waned as another low-volume late-summer trading session wore on, and all three indexes turned lower heading into the weekend.

At the closing bell, the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.5% at 26,402, but the tech-heavy index was up 0.8% for the week. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3% on Friday but added 0.5% for the week to 7,711. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.02% on Friday, but Papa Dow rose 0.5% over the five days to 53,560.

Are markets pricing in a higher target range for the federal funds rate following the next Fed meeting, less than a month from now? Are investors, traders and speculators digesting Thursday's mini-boom for technology and getting ready for a return to normal trading activity after Labor Day?

Who's to say with any real authority why any one buyer or seller made that decision, let alone all of them in aggregate.

At the same time: "We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed," Warsh said shortly after Friday's opening bell. "Otherwise, we have work to do."

And, today, that means higher interest rates.

The 2-year Treasury yield was up 13 basis points to 4.352% from 4.232% on Thursday. The 10-year Treasury yield (+5.2 bps, 4.724%) and the 30-year Treasury yield (+1.8 bps, 5.209%) were higher, too.

CME FedWatch now shows a 57.5% probability of a 25-basis-point rate hike at the conclusion of the September 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, up from 35.4% on Thursday.

"Warsh's speech at Jackson Hole went further than we had anticipated in signaling that he is willing to hike rates if underlying inflation is not moving toward 2% 'clearly and at sufficient speed,'" Barclays Chief U.S. Economist Marc Giannoni writes. "We are changing our Fed call, now expecting a 25-basis-point hike in September and another one in December."

MRVL sinks 10%

Marvell Technology (MRVL, -10.3%) was the closing act for Nvidia (NVDA, -4.6%) on this week's earnings calendar, and it didn't go particularly well for the semiconductor stock from a pure price-action perspective.

Marvell beat Wall Street expectations for its fiscal second quarter revenue (+36.5% year over year) and earnings per share (+40.3% YoY). But the beat just wasn't big enough in the wake of MRVL's more than 100% share-price surge since Nvidia's $2 billion investment in the company in late March.

Still, Morgan Stanley analyst Joe Moore, citing a good quarter and outlook "largely in line with prior management expectations," reiterated his Equal Weight (Hold) rating, yet raised his 12-month target price for the AI stock from $224 to $246.

The analyst notes that Marvell now sees 2027 data center growth of 60%, up from 50%, which should drive 10% upside for earnings.

"While we wish that positive long term commentary left more room for short term beats and raises," Moore writes, "we generally agree with the long term optimism." He cites Marvell's work to diversify its growth drivers, beyond custom chips.

Moore concludes that "with AI strong across the board it's a target-rich environment," but he'd "be tactically long for the investor day if the stock sells off."

NVDA, meanwhile, was the worst Dow Jones stock on Friday, a day after posting its biggest intraday gain in more than a year.

You can catch up with this week's developments around the AI revolutionary on our Nvidia earnings blog.

There will be no $50B deal for PYPL

It was a bad day for Marvell, but PayPal Holdings (PYPL, -12.7%) was the worst S&P 500 stock on Friday after Bloomberg reported that private equity firm Advent International and privately held fintech Stripe have abandoned their joint attempt to buy the payments processing pioneer co-founded by Elon Musk.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with negotiations, said on August 14 that PayPal saw a $60.50 per share offer as "insufficient, but that the parties were talking about a higher price."

Takeover talk has been churning since February, and PayPal's expectations-beating second-quarter earnings helped the financial stock extend a 60%-plus rally off a mid-February 52-week low.

As Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani notes, the buyout bid "had been a source of support for PYPL." According to Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev, it's all about PayPal's fundamentals now.

Of course, as Bloomberg concludes, Advent and Stripe could come back with another bid "if the situation changes."

Nasdaq Jumps 411 Points as Nvidia Stock Soars: Stock Market Today

karee.venema@futurenet.com (Karee Venema) — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:10:26 +0000

Stocks closed higher Thursday as market participants cheered Nvidia's (NVDA) blowout earnings report. Wall Street also monitored the start of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, where Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is set to deliver his keynote speech tomorrow morning.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% at 53,569, the S&P 500 was 0.7% higher at 7,730, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had gained 1.6% to 26,541.

The equity market got a major lift from Nvidia, which jumped 8.7% — its biggest one-day percentage gain since April 9, 2025 — after the artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether reported earnings late Wednesday.

For its fiscal 2027 second quarter, NVDA said earnings and revenue more than doubled year over year. It also gave strong guidance for its fiscal 2027 third quarter and said it expects revenue to grow 70% in fiscal 2028.

"It is the case that we've never forecasted or never guided to a year in advance," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the earnings call. "And even though our demand is much greater than 70%, our supply allows us to confidently deliver 70%." Huang added that Nvidia has "a huge year coming up next year, and it's going to be pretty extraordinary."

"This is a very strong balance sheet with a clear vision of growth, and they are putting up numbers consistently to support that," says Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management.

While Mulberry notes that some of this is already priced into the AI stock, he expects Nvidia "to innovate, and with their scale, it will be difficult to unseat them any time soon."

For the full rundown on all things Nvidia, check out our earnings blog.

Salesforce soars 23% after earnings

NVDA's post-earnings pop wasn't enough to make it the best Dow Jones stock Thursday. That honor went to Salesforce (CRM), which surged 22.6% — its second-best day ever, behind only August 26, 2020, when the tech stock jumped 26% in a single session.

After Wednesday's close, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider reported higher-than-expected fiscal 2027 second-quarter earnings and revenue. The company also raised its full-year revenue forecast, now expecting top-line growth of 11% to 12% vs its previous outlook of 10% to 11%.

"We just delivered one of our best quarters ever, outperforming across every key metric,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in the earnings release. "AI is delivering value across every layer of our platform. We're seeing incredible demand for our AI and data products, with ARR [annual recurring revenue] about to cross $4 billion."

A separate announcement detailed an expanded partnership between Salesforce and Anthropic. Specifically, the two firms have launched Claudeforce, a plugin that connects Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot into Salesforce's software products companies use.

The impressive earnings results and integration of Claude "reinforce Salesforce's positioning in the agentic AI landscape, support the reacceleration narrative, and should ease bear case concerns around AI disruption risk," says Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz, who reiterated an Outperform (Buy) rating on the blue chip stock and raised his price target to $275 from $250.

Nordson raises its dividend by 15%, its 63rd straight hike

Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Nordson (NDSN, -1.1%) reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue and raised its full-year outlook.

The company, which creates products and systems to apply, spray and measure fluids such as adhesives and paints at the industrial level, also hiked its quarterly dividend by 15%.

NDSN has long been one of the best dividend growth stocks to own, and was added to the Dividend Aristocrats in early 2023. This latest increase marks the 63rd straight year the company has boosted its payout.

What to watch for at Jackson Hole

The week's not over yet, and tomorrow's keynote speech by Fed Chair Warsh at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium could create some market volatility.

It's difficult to predict the tone Warsh will take in his speech, says Brandon Zureick, chief economist and senior managing director at Johnson Investment Counsel. "Since taking office, he has favored a more restrained communications approach and has moved away from explicit forward guidance."

Expectations are for the Fed chair to reiterate his commitment to bringing inflation back down to the central bank's 2% target, but stop short of giving specific guidance on interest rates.

But Zureick notes that several other Federal Reserve officials are speaking at Jackson Hole, and today, "Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack both delivered hawkish assessments of monetary policy."

The economist believes that their remarks "underscore the risk that Warsh's address may lean more heavily toward restoring price stability than investors currently expect."

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