Mid-Morning Look: September 18, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Friday, September 18, 2026

U.S. stock markets are slipping early, but mixed on the week, managing to overcome a confluence of negative headlines and fears including fears over a slowdown in AI development after AI CEO warnings, the Federal Reserve’s first rate increase in three years, higher Treasury yields (impacting mortgage rates and borrowing costs) and sky-high diesel and oil prices. Crypto got hit this week as well after the failure of the Clarity Act vote in the Senate and a rate hike should have punctured crypto’s recent rally. However, coming into triple witching option expiration today, stocks are on track for weekly advances and crypto has even bounced with Bitcoin higher today! Today’s $7 Trillion quad-witching is the 2nd biggest ever worth noting. In central bank news, the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate 25 bps to 1.25% on Friday, matching all economists surveyed as the move was the fastest pace of tightening in over 30 years. But the hawkish message failed to rally the Yen. Instead, the currency weakened 1.2% as investors seized on dissent from two policymakers who argued the BOJ should remain patient in raising borrowing costs. Oil prices bounce after falling 2 straight days. All eleven S&P sectors are currently lower on the day with materials, communications and utilities the biggest decliners.

• Metals & Mining: steel producers were pressured early after both NUE, STLD issued quarterly guidance below views. guidance: NUE said it expects Q3 earnings of $5.55-$5.65 per share, below the $5.99 consensus but above $5.04 in Q2, with higher Steel selling prices and stable volumes expected to benefit its Steel mills and Steel products segments, partly offset by higher costs and weaker raw Materials results. STLD guided Q3 EPS $5.34-$5.38, below the $5.60 consensus but above $3.69 in Q2, as significantly higher Steel profitability from metal margin expansion and record shipments is expected to be partly offset by weaker metals recycling results due to lower spreads and shipments.
• Crypto sector: Bitcoin and Ethereum prices rebound along with crypto linked stocks such as HOOD, COIN, MSTR, BLSH, CRCL as the price of Bitcoin rallied, with investors shrugging off the Fed’s rate hike and the collapse of the Clarity Act. The group got a bounce Thursday after the SEC rolled out a five-year exemption to allow cos to trade blockchain-based or tokenized stocks and other securities. Bitcoin has rallied despite two potential setbacks this week. The Clarity Act, a key crypto bill, fell in the Senate on Tuesday. The following day, the Fed raised rates for the first time in more than three years.

• DSP +17%; shares jumped after saying it and a stockholder decided to withdraw 8.5 mln share offering due to current market conditions, per an SEC filing.
• ETSY +1%; was upgraded to Buy at BTIG with a $90 target saying shares have pulled back enough since the firm’s previous downgrade in July to create a significantly better risk reward for investors.
• SNDK +4%; the Nasdaq slipping early but semiconductors (SOX) outperformed with notable bounces for likes of MU, AVGO, MU and others
• STUB +5%; was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup saying recent FY26 Adj. EBITDA guidance implies greater Adj. EBITDA in 2H26 versus 1H26; and says based on robust app downloads in Q326, believes StubHub will report Q326 Adj. EBITDA above expectations.
• TSN +1%; was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan saying emerging headwinds in chicken from rising feed costs are well understood and could be partially offset by industry production cuts. Meanwhile, beef earnings could finally be on the upswing.

• NFLX -5%; was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo and cut tgt to $57 from $80 saying the company’s engagement trends look worrying and believes Netflix’s originals content slate is weaker in the second half of 2026 versus prior periods.
• NUE -4%; along with weakness in STLD after both steel producers guided Q3 EPS outlooks below consensus views last night and hitting the industrial metals space.
• PANW -4%; as cyber security stocks seeing pullback after run in shares (ZS, CRWD, FTNT); also hacking story earlier (Independent Security researchers used Anthropic’s Claude to hack into OpenAI, via an employee’s ChatGPT account, according to The Wall Street Journal.)
• TFX -1%; on track to decline for an 11^th straight trading day; tests 200dma support $124.
• XENE -25%; after the company temporarily pauses new patient enrollment in clinical studies for its drug on major and bipolar depression saying side effects of drug included confusion, speech difficulties, motor coordination issues and a “very small number” of cases classified under “psychosis”.