Market Review: September 02, 2026

Closing Recap

Wednesday, September 02, 2026

U.S. stocks posted solid returns after slipping the last few days as U.S. Treasury yields pulled back from multi year highs following bullish comments from NY Fed head Williams. Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams tried to put a more positive spin on the spike in Treasury yields today in CNBC interview saying the rising long-term bond yields aren’t driven by inflation fears but are instead a reflection of a solid economy. He said he was still collecting information to drive his next monetary policy decision. In terms of the increase in real-world borrowing costs, “what’s driving it…is really a strong U.S. economy and a strong economic outlook fueled by big investments in AI and data centers and technology in general, so I see this as more of a reflection of the strength of the economy,” Williams said. That helped yields from going higher…but they still remain elevated. Oil prices started the day lower but worked higher all day. Still, U.S. stock markets rallied as nine of the eleven S&P sectors closed higher, led by Materials, Communications and Financials while Energy and Tech lagged. Plenty of concern still within equities around September, historically the market’s weakest month with the August jobs report on Friday, the FOMC rate decision on 9/16 (rising chances of a hike), both the ECB and BOJ are widely expected to tighten policy on 9/10 and 9/18, respectively and the Trump/Xi summit (Sept 24). DELL was a standout to the upside in tech following a massive beat and raise for earnings, while software names lagged after MDB and PANW results.

• U.S. July factory orders rose +0.9% topping consensus +0.6% and vs June -0.2%; July factory orders ex-transportation +0.6% vs June -0.1% (prev -0.4%); July factory orders ex-defense +1.0% vs June -0.3%; U.S. July Durables orders unrevised at +1.1% and U.S. July nondurables orders +0.7% vs June -0.9%.

• U.S. WTI crude oil futures rose $0.79 or 0.88% to settle at $91.01 per barrel while Brent Crude futures settle at $95.63/bbl, up 98 cents, or 1.04% as both contracts finished strong after starting the day lower on mild profit taking. After earlier falling about 1%, crude prices reversed course to advance as supply worries from the Iran war overshadowed earlier comments from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said that more than 17 million barrels of oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

• Bank of Japan Board Member Hajime Takata, one of the central bank’s most hawkish members, left the door open for an outsized interest-rate increase as well as back-to-back hikes, indicating he might push for a faster pace of tightening. The BOJ has raised its benchmark interest rate in quarter-point increments in the most recent three moves, while spacing the moves roughly six months apart

• Footwear & Sporting sector: ADDYY was upgraded from Equal Weight to Overweight at Barclay’s saying the market is missing that Adidas is a much better managed company today with positive market share momentum across key regions, is likely to be a beneficiary of any improvement in sales quality at NKE and has invested in its innovation pipeline and franchise management capabilities. SPWH shares rose on results as Q2 adj EPS loss (-$0.08) better than est. loss (-$0.11) on in-line revs $295.58M and said gross margin rose 0.5% to 32.5%, helped by lower freight from tighter inventory management and a one-time tariff benefit; Q2 adj EBITDA rose to $8.7M from $8.3M.
• Discount retailers: OLLI posted mixed Q2 results as EPS of $1,42 topped estimates but sales $741.1M missed the $751.5M consensus; raised its year EPS outlook to $4.57-$4.65, up from its previous guidance of $4.45-$4.55 as it expects to invest its tariff refunds in lower prices, but they cut annual sales outlook to $2.93B-$2.94B from prior view of $2.98B-$3B
• Food & Grocers: Citigroup opened a downside catalyst watch into Q2 earnings for KR saying they expect Q2 ID sales/comps of +1.0% (cons +1.0%) with EPS of $1.05 (cons $1.05) while the firm lower F26 comp guidance from +1-2% to +1-1.5% (cons +1.4%) and their EPS from $5.10-5.30 to $5.00-5.20.

• Gaming & Lodging: Wolfe’s Research initiated CHDN, DKNG, FLUT and Hyatt (H) at Outperform and BYD, LVS, HLT, MAR at Peer perform. In their gaming coverage, says investors should position for megatrends to continue. Digital should command most of the category’s growth thanks to gradual legalization, product innovation, and socialization of online sports betting, iGaming, and prediction services. The biggest online Gaming operators (DKNG) are well positioned to compete as prediction markets grow…and create opportunity for data firms like SRAD.

• Utility & Alt Energy sector: PCG said it will defer about $2B in spending for next year (to $11.4B from $13.4B) and launched a strategic review, after an amended state Senate bill raised concerns around wildfire liability costs; the company faces renewed uncertainty over liability costs after a California Senate bill amendment did little to reduce utilities’ exposure to expenses related to the fires. FCEL shares fell after Q3 revs fell -29% y/y to $33M missing the $38.8M estimate and its adj Ebitda loss for Q3 widened to -$36.74M) and missed analyst expectations of (-$11.7M) as revenue drop was mainly due to fewer module deliveries to customers in Korea

• EYPT downgraded to Hold at TD Cowen following the failure of Eyepoint’s first Phase III wAMD study, as found the LUGANO post-hoc analysis instructive and are sympathetic that the nine patients could represent an anomalous randomization scenario that disproportionately affected the Duravyu Arm.
• QURE shares rose after saying they submitted a marketing application to the FDA seeking accelerated approval of its experimental Huntington’s disease treatment, ifezuntirgene inilparvovec (AMT-130); says it has requested a priority review for the application
• TEVA said its experimental drug tev ‘408 met the main goal in a mid-stage study in celiac disease, an autoimmune condition in which gluten damages the small intestine; says a single under-the-skin dose of tev ‘408 significantly prevented gluten-triggered intestinal damage compared with placebo.

• Medical Equipment sector: ESTA mentioned positively by TD Cowen saying they view the 2025 American Society of Plastic Surgeons statistics as a meaningful positive datapoint for the breast implant maker as U.S. cosmetic surgery market growth accelerated to 7% in 2025, while breast augmentation procedures rose 11% and breast lifts increased 8%, according to the data. These datapoints make a strong case that GLP-1-driven weight loss is becoming an incremental structural demand driver for breast augmentation.
• Ortho sector: SNN was downgraded from Overweight to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley saying current 2025–28E medium-term revenue target looks ambitious and needs to be re-based given challenged growth across Orthopaedics, Wound Biologics and China. Also notes recent earnings misses and ambitious guidance have distracted investors from impressive improvements.

• Metals & Mining: broad strength in the metals space as industrial metals STLD, CLF, NUE as well as precious metal gold/silver miners HL, AG, CDE, WPM saw notable strength as prices recovered following a few day decline on rising yields/dollar.
• Defense sector: broad weakness in the defense stocks GD, LMT, NOC as well as gov’t IT service named CACI, LDOS, SAIC; PLTR shares were broadly lower with some noting Google’s sudden entry into Palantir’s most lucrative territory: specialized government and Defense Ai while weakness maybe related to the ANT changes to their enterprise data retention policy.
• Chemical/fertilizer stocks broadly higher (CF, NTR as well as CE, FMC, EMN others). Many fertilizers are produced in the Middle East because energy prices make up as much as 70% of production costs. About a third of fertilizer flows usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz and have been largely disrupted since the war began. Rabobank notes special concern are phosphate-based fertilizers, prices for which soared in the wake of the U.S.-Iran war and unlike nitrogen-based urea, have not retreated because prices for key input Sulphur — used to produce phosphates — remain at record highs.

• Media Sector: SIRI was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank and raise PT to $45 driven by their higher revenue, EBITDA and FCF estimates, as well as an improved terminal value picture based on the growth outlook for digital audio advertising and stability in the SiriusXM subscription radio segment.
• Hardware & Components: DELL quarterly results crushed expectations driven by better-than-expected datacenter equipment revenue and stronger margins across its entire platform while the company meaningfully increased FY27 guidance for revs/EPS growth of ~70%/150% versus 47%/74% previously; raised FY revs target by $25B to $192B and AI server revenue target by $14B to $74B.
• Cloud software sector: MDB shares slid on mixed results/guide as reported strong Q2 results, beating across all metrics and raising the FY27 guide but shares fell as Atlas growth grew 29% for Q2 (flat) and sequential deceleration in Atlas growth in FQ3 and FQ4. FY27 non-GAAP EPS of $6.39-$6.58 (beat consensus $6.13) and operating Income of $616.3M-$636.3M (consensus $585M).
• Security Software sector: PANW delivered a strong Q4 print, with bookings accelerating for the second consecutive quarter, all metrics above guidance and consensus expectations, and with most metrics generally in line to above elevated buy-side expectations heading into the print. Notable, its 3% NGS ARR beat fell short of elevated investor expectations – Q1 guidance was above consensus across the board, with FY27 top-line guidance metrics (RPO, NGS ARR, Revenue) and FCF Margin above consensus. VRNS shares spiked late day after both Bloomberg and WSJ reported that Thoma Bravo-backed Proofpoint is in talks to buy cybersecurity firm Varonis Systems.
• Software development sector: GTLB shares jumped after reported a solid quarter with revs $286.3M beating the $273M estimate on better earnings driven by broad based strength across enterprise accounts, first order traction, and early success with various consumption-based products. calculated billings accelerating from 12% to 24%, and about 1,700 first orders, more than double a year ago.
• AI Infrastruture/connectivity: CRDO shares fell despite Q1 beat as revs rose 115% y/y to $479M beating the $472M estimate citing AI infrastructure demand and broader portfolio as drivers for growth. Raised Oct Q guide, with the $530.0M revenue guidance midpoint coming in +5.4% higher than its $502.9M prior estimate while FY27E revenue growth guide raised to +85% Y/y (from +80% Y/y). Optics driving 41% FY27-29E CRDO sales CAGR as AECs decelerate.
• AI Power & Cooling sector: VRT said it would acquire Utility Innovation Group, a provider of microgrid solutions and advanced data center power control systems, for about $1.45 billion in cash. ETN said it will invest more than $242 million to build a new manufacturing plant in Arkansas that will double the U.S. capacity of customized electrical enclosures from its Fibrebond business