Market Review: September 11, 2026

Closing Recap

Friday, September 11, 2026

U.S. stocks opened higher and stayed there throughout the trading day, snapping the 4 day losing streak for the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq, but still ended the week with declines ahead of next week’s FOMC policy meeting. Economic data was not favorable for a “dovish” interest rate outlook as this morning’s August CPI report was mostly in line, although monthly core inflation rose 0.3% versus 0.2% expected. Michigan Sentiment missed estimates at 47.8, and 1-Year Inflation Expectations were higher than forecast at 4.6%. The data followed a slightly hotter producer price index (PPI) on Thursday that sunk markets. Treasury yields remained higher, while the dollar was little changed and oil pulled back. Nine of eleven S&P sectors finished higher led by technology (XLK), Industrials (XLI) and Communications (XLC) all up over 1% while Healthcare (XLV) and utilities (XLU) lagged. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, the Dow fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq fell 0.7%.

After the ECB raised interest rates this week as expected, several key Central bank meetings are coming up this week. The FOMC rate decision in Wednesday after 2 day meeting and now seen a 90% chance of a rate hike. Also next week on Wednesday the BCB policy announcement, on Thursday 9/17 The Bank of England policy announcement and Friday the Bank of Japan rate news (hike expected). U.S. data highlights for next week include the September New York and Philly Fed indices, August retail sales, industrial production and weekly jobless claims. The yen rallied to a seven-month high against the U.S. dollar this week, driven by expectations of faster Bank of Japan policy tightening.

Interesting stats: U.S. investors recorded net sales of $32.27 billion in equity funds during the week, their largest since $52.45 billion in disposals in the week to December 17, 2025, per LSEG Lipper data. U.S. large-cap funds posted record weekly outflows of $40.44 billion, while mid-cap funds recorded net sales of $682 million. In contrast, multi-cap funds attracted $3.52 billion and small-cap funds drew $274 million in inflows. 2) @Kobeissi Letter noted, “US housing affordability is rapidly deteriorating: The annual Income needed to afford an average home in the US surged +$4,107 in May, to a record $124,674 per year. This Marks the 3rd consecutive monthly increase, totaling +$9,734. By comparison, US median household Income stands at $86,159 per year. This brings the Gap between median household Income and the Income needed to afford an average home to $38,515, the largest Gap since July 2025. This is just $2,288 below the $40,803 record set in June 2024.”

• 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. UoM 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%.
• The U.S. federal budget deficit for August shrank to $167 billion due to smaller outlays including for ongoing refunds on illegally collected tariffs, a rare drop in interest payments and some calendar shifts in benefit payments. The budget gap for the 11 months through August exceeds the full-year fiscal 2025 deficit of $1.775 trillion. For August alone the budget gap was down 52% from a year earlier. Unadjusted outlays in August fell by 24%, to $527 billion. Interest payments on the federal debt fell by $14 billion. A Treasury official said the drop was due to changes in inflation accruals, and pointed to the fiscal year-to-date data showing an increase of $143 billion, or 13%.

• Gold prices ended flattish, rising $1.60 to settle at $4,408.90 an ounce and December silver gained $0.26 of 0.4% to finish at $65.19 an ounce in a quiet day for metals, but for the week gold and silver prices both finished with losses. Prices fell nearly 2% on Thursday after the U.S. Producer Price Index data showed prices increased in line with expectations in August.

• Treasury yields aren’t just hitting multi year highs in the U.S. but globally as the German 10yr highest since 2009 above 3.51%, while the Japan 10 year yield hit 2.985%, its highest since 1996. The European Central Bank (ECB) raised rates yesterday at its policy meeting while Nagel said that interest rates may have to be raised further to bring inflation under control. The FOMC policy meeting is next week and there is a better than 50% chance of a rate hike per fed fund futures heading into the meeting.

• Auto Retail sector: ACVA shares jumped CPRT agreed to acquire the digital dealer auction platform for $10.50 per share in cash, implying an equity value of about $1.9B. The offer represents a roughly 45% premium. Copart will fund the acquisition with cash on hand, with the deal expected to be neutral to EPS in the first full-year and accretive in FY2028 and beyond.
• Specialty Retail sector: ZUMZ 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. GME 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.
• Food & Grocer sector: KR 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%; SG shares advanced after the CDC said the cyclospora outbreak linked to more than 12,000 cases this summer has ended.

• Utilities and nuclear power sector: SMR 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. UBS now assumes only one project begins construction in 2028 and forecast approximately $700M of cumulative 2026-28 cash burn. OKLO 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.

• 1) AB said preliminary assets under management increased to $919 billion as of August 31, 2026, from $908 billion at the end of July. The 1.2% increase in AUM was driven by market appreciation, partially offset by net outflows.
• 2) APAM preliminary assets under management totaled $183.5 billion. Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds accounted for $94.5 billion of total firm AUM, while separate accounts and other AUM accounted for $89.0 billion.
• 3) IVZ prelim month-end assets under management of $2,562.1 billion, an increase of 4.7% versus previous month-end.
• 4) LAZ prelim assets under management totaled approximately $290.3 billion. The month’s AUM included market appreciation of $3.7 billion, net outflows of $1.8 billion and FX appreciation of $1.5 billion.
• 5) TROW August month-end assets under management of $1.90 trillion. Net outflows for August 2026 were $7.9 billion.
• 6) VCTR reported Total Assets Under Management of $356.5B, other Assets of $3.7B, and Total Client Assets of $360.2B, as of August 31.
• 7) VRTS preliminary assets under management (AUM) of $147.5 billion and other fee earning assets of $1.7 billion for total client assets of $149.2 billion as of August 31, 2026.
• Private equity sector: BLK said withdrawal requests as their flagship private credit fund slowed in the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. Investors in BlackRock’s HPS Corporate Lending Fund sought to pull roughly 11.5% of shares, compared with 13.3% in the prior quarter. It will repurchase 5% of shares or roughly $600 million, the customary threshold ⁠for such vehicles.

• GSK said it will be shutting down a vaccine factory in Dresden, Germany, in the summer of 2027,citing decreasing demand for traditional egg-based flu vaccines. The closure would put 641 jobs at risk, according to German trade union.
• MedTech space remains weak with RMD falling for a 9th straight day; SYK down for a 9th straight day as Medtech remains weak spot; MTD up slightly after falling 7 straight days. SYK shares hit 52-week lows after saying earlier in the week 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.

• Metals & Mining: a rollercoaster ride this week for metals, as gold and silver prices rebound on Friday after tumbling on Thursday as Treasury yields ease off multi-year highs following today’s CPI data.
• Paper & Containerboard sector: IP was upgraded from Neutral to Buy at Bank America and raised tgt to $46 from $34 as continues to make forecast and rating changes heading into 2026’s home stretch. The firm raises containerboard price forecasts, along with other grades.

• Also in software: ADBE shares fell as Q2 results were roughly in line with expectations, and net new ARR declined by ~38% Y/y; Q2 adj EPS of $6.13 beat by $0.05, while revenue rose 13% y/y to $6.76B, $60M above consensus, with subscription revenue at $6.58B and ARR reaching $27.5B. FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance was raised to $24.45-$24.50 from $24.35-$24.45, while mgmt maintained conservative FY26 total ARR guidance at 10.2%, hinting at another quarter of declining new net ARR.
• Cyber security: Wedbush assumed coverage of the cybersecurity sector with a positive stance on AI-native platform vendors and a negative stance on standalone vulnerability management vendors. Their view is not that AI-driven threat escalation converts into larger cybersecurity budgets, but rather that the budget is being re-distributed. With this spending concentrated across some platforms, note that vendor results are now starting to show that a handful of cyber platforms are emerging as long-term winners. Add PANW, RBRK to Best ideas list, downgrade VRNS.
• 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.