Morning Preview: September 23, 2026

Early Look

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

U.S. futures are flat overnight, getting a small sentiment boost as oil prices extend recent declines, with Brent falling below $100 per barrel despite more tough talk from both the U.S. and Iran. Notwithstanding the crude oil price pullback in recent days, the US political pain is intensifying as midterm election races ramp up. At the same time, U.S. stock markets are once again knocking on the door of all-time highs as the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) posted a record close, but failed to eclipse the June 3^rd all-time highs. The PHLX semiconductor index (SOX) has surged over 14% the last 5 trading days since the Fed rate cut and the QQQ’s have spiked from lows of $700 to above $747 on Tuesday during this same stretch in what has been a remarkable rise in technology stocks. The S&P 500 index (SPX) is also around 1% from its all-time bests as Wall Street turns back to AI growth trade. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi are set to meet this week and are likely to discuss AI safety amid fears over increasingly capable autonomous models. U.S. and Chinese officials have floated an AI dialogue for national security-related incidents. Export controls on advanced Nvidia chips and claims of AI “distillation” remain major sticking points. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index remained closed for holiday for a third day as part of “Silver Week” and reopens tomorrow, the Shanghai Index fell -15 points to 3,936, and the Hang Seng Index dropped -253 points to 24,834. In Europe, the German DAX is down -105 points to 25,473, while the FTSE 100 is up 5 points to 10,715.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -185.14 points, or 0.36%, to 51,863.69
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 122.18 points, or 0.45%, to 27,244.28
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 14.56 points, or 0.51% to 2,889.92

• 9:45 AM ET S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, Sept-flash
• 9:45 AM ET S&P Global Services PMI, Sept-flash
• 9:45 AM ET S&P Global Composite PMI, Sept-flash
• 10:30 AM ET                Weekly EIA Inventory Data
• 1:00 PM ET US Treasury to sell $70B in 5-year notes

• Earnings After the Close: FUL NEOV SFIX

• Bank America Global Healthcare Conference 2026, 9/22-9/23, in New York
• Benchmark Nuclear Summit, 9/23, in Knoxville, TN
• Bernstein 3rd Annual Healthcare Forum, 9/23-9/24, in New York, NY
• DA Davidson 25th Annual Diversified Industrials & Services Conference, 9/23-9/26, in Nashville, TN
• Deutsche Bank Private Software & AI Summit, 9/23 in New York
• Jefferies AI Summit, 9/22-9/23, in San Francisco, CA
• Sidoti Smallcap Conference, 9/23-9/24 (virtual)
• TD Cowen 3rd Annual Energy Conference, 9/23-9/25, in Austin, TX
• Truist Healthcare Technology & Digital Health West Coast Bus Tour, 9/23-9/24, in San Francisco, CA

• Michael Burry said he increased short positions in Micron (MU), Nebius (NBIS), the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), and Palantir (PLTR), describing the additions as being made “in some size.” He also added to QXO (QXO), Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW), Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM), Birkenstock (BIRK), and MercadoLibre (MELI), calling the latter five full positions.

• Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) said it had agreed to acquire a 50% stake in Caribbean resorts operator Sandals Resorts International for $3 billion, expanding the cruise company’s presence in land-based vacation experiences.
• Six Flags Entertainment (FUN) shares rose modestly ahead after The Wall Street Journal reported last night that activist investor Jana Partners was pushing the theme-park company towards a sale.

• Spire Global (SPIR) awarded $33.2M NOAA contract for Satellite weather data to enhance weather forecasting; says contract potential total value of $66M if all options exercised.
• Voyager Technologies (VOYG) announces intention to offer $350M convertible Senior notes due 2032 and expects to grant option to purchase up to $52.50M additional notes.
• Worthington Enterprises (WOR) Q1 adj. EPS $0.82 vs. est. $0.75; sales $343.9Mm vs. est. $331.3Mm; adj. EBITDA $74.0Mm vs est $69.57Mm; trade & Specialty Solutions net sales rose 8.3% to $128.8M, while Building Performance Solutions sales increased 16.4% to $215.1M.

• Editas Medicine (EDIT) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim
• InnovAge (INNV) announces offering of 10M shares of common stock for holders.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) is open to considering a direct NYSE listing, replacing the ADR structure U.S. investors use today. CEO told the FT a direct listing could help raise Novo’s U.S. profile, where it generates more than half its revenue.

• CGI Partners (GIB) with D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) to expand enterprise Quantum Computing adoption. CGI entered a strategic partnership with D-Wave Quantum to speed enterprise adoption of Quantum Computing.
• Meta (META) holds its Connect conference today at 7PM ET and is expected to show smart glasses with no camera, per Reuters, as the privacy backlash against face-worn AI devices builds.
• IonQ (IONQ) announced a major milestone in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Researchers demonstrated the development and successful testing of the industry’s first end-to-end real-time quantum error correction decoder that runs on a single standard off-the-shelf central processing unit.
• Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel and raised tgt to $575 from $530 saying “open-weight model advancement has boosted management’s LLM-agnostic strategy” as Azure & Copilot keep scaling. The firm states it is increasingly comfortable with the company’s ability to sustain mid/upper teens revenue growth.
• Qualcomm (QCOM) unveiled its newest Android phone chipsets, which will be tuned for on-device artificial intelligence and will compete with Apple’s (AAPL) A20 Pro in iPhones. The new chips, under the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 brand name, will be built on Taiwan Semi (TSM) 2-nanometer manufacturing process, and will be included in premium smartphones from companies including Motorola, Xiaomi and ZTE, Qualcomm said