Mid-Morning Look: September 11, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Friday, September 11, 2026

Stocks bounce on last trading day of the week, but still on track for weekly losses. Despite the consumer price index (CPI) inflation report still firmly above the Fed’s 2% inflation rate, and above the prior month readings, Wall Street is higher as the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq look to snap their 4 day losing streaks as oil takes a breather and Treasury yields slip, but both remain firmly higher on the week into next week’s FOMC meeting. Fed fund futures are now predicting a near 90% chance the FOMC raises rates at next week’s two-day meeting following the PPI/CPI data points the last two days. The CPI report followed Thursday’s slightly hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index reading that did little to reassure investors. Gold prices firmed over 1%, rebounding from recent losses and finding a short-term floor despite strong U.S. inflation data lifting expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike next week. The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4% last month after edging up 0.1% in July. In the 12 months through August, consumer inflation advanced 3.4% after rising by the same margin in July. Oil prices fell on Friday, but remained on course for a weekly gain. Tech got a better earnings result from Oracle (ORCL) overnight, giving a bounce to the Ai trade in a week that has been dominated by AI gloom/doom reports and tighter gov’t restrictions. There was no shortage of Middle East headlines overnight as Axios reported Saudi Crown Prince MBS called Pres Trump twice on Thursday urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis amid Red Sea threat; Trump declined with US officials stressed the admin has no plans to intervene directly against the Houthis for now. The WSJ had reported Iran has resumed producing ballistic missiles in underground facilities using stockpiled components; mainly assembling the new missiles in more limited quantities than before the war.

• University of Michigan surveys of consumers sentiment prelim Sept slipped to 47.8 (vs. consensus 51.0) and vs final Aug 51.7; the current conditions index prelim Sept 50.9 (consensus 51.3) vs final Aug 51.9 and the expectations index prelim Sept 45.8 (consensus 50.5) vs final Aug 51.5.
• University of Michigan surveys of consumers 1-year inflation outlook prelim Sept 4.6% vs final Aug 4.0%. University of Michigan surveys of consumers 5-year inflation outlook prelim Sept 3.4% vs final Aug 3.3%.

• Memory sector got a boost early from ORCL results (MU, SNDK, SKHY, WDC), as Oracle reported that sales from its cloud infrastructure segment, which rents out AI servers over the internet, rose 121% in the fiscal first quarter to $7.4 billion. Oracle’s cloud infrastructure unit also represents the majority of the company’s $664 billion backlog. Cloud infrastructure for AI uses both NAND and DRAM memory architectures to deliver ultra-high performance. Out of the two memory types, DRAM provides the high-speed working memory while NAND flash offers the dense, non-volatile long-term data storage. Shares were volatile as ORCL shares pulled back off highs and memory fell alongside.
• Airline sector: Barclays lowered targets in the airlines group saying energy prices are again sending ests lower despite continued yield gains. However, higher revenue should be the focus for long-term investors as this sets up for structurally higher margin potential if energy markets return to prewar level. Cut tgts on ALK to $52 from $65, ALGT to $115 from $145, AAL to $14 from $19, DAL to $95 from $105, ULCC to $5 from $7, JBLU to $5 from $7, LUV to $58 from $65 and UAL to $160 from $175.

• CDE +2%; as precious metals gold/silver miners rebound with the price of both rebounding.
• GME +4%; president, CEO, and chairman Ryan Cohen acquired 1M shares of Class A common stock on the open market for around $20.38M, boosting his direct ownership to 39.3M shares.
• KR +4%; posted Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $1.09 which beats by $0.04 and revs rose 2.1% y/y to $34.6B, also topping consensus while identical sales increased 0.1% y/y; backs FY26 adjusted EPS view $5.10-$5.30 (est. $5.20) but lowers FY26 identical sales w/o fuel growth to 0.2%-0.8% from 1%-2%.
• ORCL +1%; as Q1 revenue increased by 30% y/y, with cloud growth revenue rising by 62% to $11.6B, driven by a 121% surge in infrastructure revenue, which reached $7.4B. Oracle also signed >$30B of Ai contracts across a diverse set of customers, and management maintained their $90-95B CAPEX expectation. Q1 remaining performance obligations (RPO) jumped $209B to $664B

• EXEL -2%; after the FDA extended the review of its experimental colorectal cancer drug combination by three months, as the regulator will now make its decision by March 3, 2027. Exelixis submitted updated safety and efficacy data, which classified as a major amendment.
• OKLO -5%; terminates prior equity distribution agreement with sales agents on Sept 10, 2026, while enters equity distribution agreement with ten sales agents on Sept 11 saying they may offer Class A common stock with aggregate gross proceeds up to $1B.
• RH -1%; posted Q2 revenues up 2.6% to $922.2M; GAAP net Income rose 16.36% to $60.2M; Gross margin widened 2.7 percentage points to 48.2%, RH posted sales ahead and management narrowing FY26 sales guidance; anticipates a material ramp in sales in 2H from its new RH Estates line.
• SMR -8%; was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS and cut its price target to $6 from $10 as competitors move toward construction while NuScale’s estimated 5+ year build timeline and lack of firm customer commitments present meaningful challenges.
• ZUMZ -15%; shares tumbled after posting a wider Q2 loss and weaker-than-expected sales (EPS loss -$0.17 was missed by $0.03, while revenue fell 2.5% y/y to $208.96M); Q2 comparable sales declined -2.1% and the net loss widened to $2.7M from $1M a year earlier.