Market Review: September 08, 2026

Closing Recap

Tuesday, September 08, 2026

U.S. stocks finished lower amid another round of sector rotation as recently strong healthcare stocks led the declines along with financials, while energy, power and technology saw the biggest gains as investors await key CPI and PPI inflation data the latter part of this week. Oil prices jumped, yields edged higher again as stock market inflation concerns rise into next week’s FOMC rate policy meeting (9/15-9/16). While healthcare (XLV) tumbled on Novartis (NVS) announcing two failed drug trial studies, weighing on the cardiovascular, muscular drug companies, there were a few pockets of strength today, led by energy as oil prices hit 6-week highs. Some sectors in tech were strong such as semis (SOX), along with opticals (AAOI, LITE, COHR, CIEN) following commentary around OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra, which was released September 3, explicitly pointed to 800G/1.6T Optical modules as a direct beneficiary of another compute-scale-up Cycle. The comments also helped neoclouds like CRWV and NBIS while nuclear power names saw strength as well NNE, SMR, LEU, and others. Energy rose behind oil as which rallied on reports Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis attacked four cities in the south of Saudi Arabia. It was a very quiet afternoon with major averages trading in a narrow range.  Stocks did take a leg lower late after reports Iran launched an attack against U.S. Navy ships on Monday that the U.S. military has yet to acknowledge, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing U.S. officials.

• December gold fell -$37.60, or -0.84%, to settle at $4,439.00 an ounce and December Silver edges higher $0.25, or +0.38%, to finish at $67.00 an ounce.  U.S. Treasury yields edged higher on Tuesday as traders awaited key inflation data due later this week for clues on whether the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates this month. The 2-year note yield rose 1.46 basis points to 4.394%, while the yield on benchmark 10-year notes gained 1.2 basis points to 4.796%. The Japanese yen hovered near a seven-month high, while the dollar steadied against major peers. The move comes after the yen gained nearly 5% since last week, driven partly by expectations of faster BoJ policy tightening.

• Retail sector: BBY was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Davidson with a $95 price target saying fundamentals remain solid, but the downgrade is primarily driven by profit-taking and valuation after a 35% year-to-date gain, with potential upside from an emerging TV innovation and replacement cycle signaled by the first positive Consumer Electronics comp since 4Q21.

• E&C and Power sector: nuclear/SMR names outperformed with strength in OKLO, SMR, LEU, NNE and others; BE shares rallied after being added to the S&P 500 index effective prior to the open of trading on Monday, September 21, to coincide with the quarterly rebalance; SEI shares gained after raising its Q4 adj EBITDA to $145M-$180M range, above its prior $100M-$120M and also now sees Q3 adj. EBITDA of $110M-$130M vs. prior range of $90M-$105M citing stronger contributions from core power services and better-than-expected performance from its recently acquired businesses; ETN was upgraded from Neutral to Buy at UBS and raised tgt to $515 from $450 on strong sales growth and improving margins as expects the company’s margins to meaningfully improve in Q3 and beyond, reflecting proactive pricing actions and better execution. NEE said it has secured a U.S. Department of Energy loan of up to $1.9B to support the restart of its Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, as the country seeks to add reliable power generation capacity to meet rising demand.
• Aerospace sector: GEV said it would buy castings maker Consolidated Precision Products from investment firms Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners for $11.75 billion. Bombardier (BDRBF) shares were pressured after President Trump aid in a social media post that Canada’s Bombardier’s aircraft should no longer be sold in the U.S. unless it started manufacturing in the country.
• Defense sector: LMT was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS and raise tgt to $674 from $581 saying growth in missiles/munitions – and others like F-35 sustainment, Ch-53K, and Trident – drive a 9% revenue CAGR through 2028; this is above consensus and does not appear priced in.
• Metals, Mining and Materials: SGML shares fell after a Brazilian court ordered suspension of environmental licenses and mining activities at miner’s Grota do Cirilo mine; the Judge ruled on Friday that co’s project was within the direct area of influence of the Bau Quilombola community

• Crypto sector: Visa (V) tells CNBC it is expanding data offering for blockchain lenders as demand for stablecoin-linked cards surges. Visa currently operates more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs for issuers and program managers, a nearly 200% increase year over year. CRCL agreed to acquire Singapore-based cross-border payments platform Tazapay to expand its global payments infrastructure. Tazapay brings more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume, 60+ banking and fintech partners, and local payout rails across 100+ markets. HOOD signed a multiyear deal to bring Crypto.com-backed event contracts onto its platform and will take minority stakes in both https://Crypto.com and its prediction-markets business, OG.

• 1) NVS and partner IONS shares fell after saying their experimental drug Pelacarsen did not cut the risk of major heart attacks and strokes in patients with a genetic risk factor in a late-stage trial (HORIZON study). The drug successfully lowered a dangerous genetic cholesterol, Lp(a), but it did not improve overall heart health outcomes. AMGN and LLY drugs "lower Lp(a) more than Pelacarsen" and could now face greater scrutiny. Pelacarsen is a subcutaneous injection given once a month that lowers lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a)– a type of genetically inherited cholesterol that has been linked to higher heart risk. Other experimental Lp(a)-lowering drugs in development include AMGN’s olpasiran and LLY lepodisiran, while shares of NAMS falls on read-through/implications for PREVAIL study.
• 2) NVS also announced this morning negative top-line data from the Phase 3 HARBOR trial evaluating del-desiran in patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), with the study failing to achieve a statistically significant improvement on the primary endpoint of video hand opening time (vHOT) through Week 54 versus placebo, although some evidence of clinical activity was noted in the secondary endpoints. Shares of SRPT and DYN both declined on NVS failed drug trial as DYN’s z-basivarsen is also trying to correct DM1 by reducing toxic DMPK RNA while SRPT’s SRP-1003 is also an siRNA that knocks down DMPK, but they use an αvβ6-integrin-targeting Ligand rather than TfR1.
• AMGN was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital citing valuation, saying Amgen’s commercial execution "is now the base case" with the shares up 34% year-to-date. Also, shares pressured after NVS cholesterol drug failed in a closely watched study, raising concerns for Amgen’s experimental cholesterol drug olpasiran. J.P. Morgan says Novartis’ Pelacarsen study results lower expectations for Amgen’s olpasiran ahead of late-stage data
• AZN said its cancer drug Imfinzi combined with AMGN’s targeted immunotherapy Imdelltra significantly improved overall survival in first-line extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.
• BHVN was downgraded from Outperform to Sector Perform at RBC Capital and lower tgt to $19 from $23 saying they had been looking for the Kv7 program to provide an upside catalyst and Bridge the Gap to additional data from the degraders, helping balance the overall risk profile. With shares up ~100% since the lows earlier this year, RBC thinks this has largely occurred.
• BMY said its experimental cell therapy arlocabtagene autoleucel, or arlo-cel, for a type of blood cancer had met the main goal of a mid-stage trial; study met its main goal, showed significant improvement in the percentage of patients who responded to the treatment as well as secondary point
• BNTX was downgraded to market perform at BMO Capital and reducing its target to $105/share based on 1) stronger-than-expected future erosion of Comirnaty; 2) a lack of de-risking data for pumitamig until 2028, and 3) reduced expectations for the company’s mRNA-based iNEST program.
• GPCR shares fell in obesity sector after trial data announcement is disconnected from the datasets with no fundamental issues emerging from either the trial readout or the public call. Jefferies said the company’s shares were potentially affected by broader pullback following recent heart-health trial disappointments along with a lack of deal signal as investors await more data.
• INBX announced the primary endpoint results from the randomized and controlled Phase 2 portion of the HexAgon study, which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of INBRX-106, in combo w/pembrolizumab vs. pembrolizumab monotherapy as the control arm in first-line patients with treatment-naive, PD-L1 positive metastatic or unresectable recurrent HNSCC.
• NTLA said the U.S. FDA accepted its application seeking approval of lonvoguran ziclumeran, or lonvo-z, as an experimental treatment for hereditary angioedema (HAE), and granted it priority review; the FDA set a target action date of March 10 next year for its review of the therapy.
• PHVS shares rose after Deucrictibant Trial Meets Key Endpoints. Primary endpoint met with 83% attack reduction rate versus placebo. 87% reduction rate observed in people with HAE Type 1 or 2. All secondary efficacy endpoints met with statistical significance. Plans to submit NDA to FDA for prophylaxis of bradykinin-mediated angioedema attacks in 1H 2027.
• ROIV shares rise after saying an experimental drug for a type of pulmonary hypertension achieved the goals of a mid-stage study. In the 16-week Phase 2 study its drug mosliciguat achieved a statistically significant 56% reduction compared to placebo in pulmonary Vascular resistance.
• Medical Devices: BSX said it is unlikely to meet net sales, adjusted EPS guidance after noting that on August 25, the company identified a cybersecurity incident that affected certain of its information technology systems and resulted in a global disruption to the company’s operations. SYK shares fell after their CFO said at the Wells Fargo conference they are seeing manufacturing issues in peripheral Vascular business beyond Q3 as now expect it to continue a little bit into the fourth quarter as well.

• Global semiconductor sales fell in July from a record high in the previous month, with memory sales posting a sharper decline, UBS noted. Global chip sales fell 9.8% in July from June, says UBS based on Semiconductor Industry Association data. Memory sales dropped 16.3% month-on-month, while ex-memory integrated circuit sales rose 0.9%. The memory decline was led by lower shipments. While DRAM and NAND average selling prices increased 8.3% and 9.8%, respectively. UBS expects DDR prices to rise 22% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter and NAND contract prices to increase 20%. "We now expect both DRAM and NAND to continue to be undersupplied into 2027."
• Optical stocks were broadly higher led by names like AAOI, LITE, COHR, CIEN, and others with the catalyst being commentary around OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra, released September 3. Copper reach and power become limiting at 800G and 1.6T, so hyperscalers need more high-speed optical transceivers, lasers, and related photonics. AAOI, LITE, and COHR are among the main U.S. suppliers of those parts. Commentary after Astra explicitly pointed to 800G/1.6T optical modules as a direct beneficiary of another compute-scale-up cycle. That thematic bid is what is lifting the group today, on top of the existing AI-optics capacity-constrained story. VZ and GLW strike multi-billion dollar fiber deal to expand broadband and build next-gen AI infrastructure through 2032.
• Quantum sector: shares of RGTI, QBTS, QNT shares were active after signs a $100-million agreement with U.S. government to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D. U.S. Department of Commerce to receive a minority equity stake in Rigetti under the deal; IONQ raises FY26 Revenue Outlook to $450M–$460M after SkyWater acquisition and says outlook also removes estimated intercompany revenue under the prior IonQ-SkyWater agreement.
• Robotics sector: XPEV has commissioned the world’s first automated production line for advanced general-purpose humanoid robots, with more than 80% of core manufacturing processes automated. Its IRON humanoid is now being built using automotive-grade production systems. XPENG targets mass production by the end of 2026, with initial deployments in its own stores and campuses before commercial deliveries begin in China and overseas markets in 2027. ARBE radar chipset selected for a Level 3 automated-driving passenger vehicle program in China at one of the world’s largest automotive groups. Hirain will supply the imaging radar across multiple brands under the group, handling development, manufacturing, integration, validation, and quality.
• Industrial Technology sector: ST was upgraded to Overweight at Barclays and raised price targets for MANH to $239, CDW to $150, SNX to $287 & lower SYM’s to $38 in Industrials Tech & Distribution sector saying 2026 CAPEX Growth est. +19% (vs. July +15%); Short-Cycle & Long-Cycle CAPEX drives Industrial Tech OSG to +12% (prior +10%). Valuations imply shortest recovery in a Generation. Barclays expects ST to outperform global production given its improving content per vehicle trends, raise price targets for MANH, CDW, SNX & lower SYM’s.