Market Review: September 24, 2026

Closing Recap

Thursday, September 24, 2026

US equity futures continued lower overnight as yields and oil pushed higher. WTI crude futures gained over 2% early and the 30-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.446%, hitting its highest point since 2004, then continued higher. In sentiment today, the Fear & Greed Index registered 35/100 (Fear) versus 28 (Fear) last week and 54 (Neutral) last month. Meanwhile the bull-bear spread in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) weekly survey improved to -15.4% vs -24.6% last week. Bulls rose to 32.7% from 28.8%, Neutrals rose to 19.2% from 17.9% and Bears fell to 48.1% from 53.3%.

Mid-morning breadth favored decliners by 11:4 with IWM (-0.76%) versus SPY (-0.49%) and QQQ (-0.78%). SPY breadth favored decliners by 17:9, while QQQ breadth favored decliners by 13:6. In early sector performance, Energy (+1.46%), Health Care (+0.95%) and Communications (+0.59%) were outperformers among S&P sector ETFs, while Industrials (-0.93%), Materials (-1.06%) and Technology (-1.23%) paced the underperformers with 4 sectors gaining versus 7 declining.

Heading into the final hour of trading today, stocks held near flat on both the S&P and Nasdaq. Breadth continued to favor decliners by about 7:4 and only three S&P sector ETFs were in the green (Communications, Health Care and Energy), but gains in META, GOOGL, AMZN, NFLX and AAPL certainly provided a nice offset to support the indices. Tomorrow we see Michigan sentiment and inflation expectations pre-market and investors are sure to continue to keep a close eye on yields.

• New home sales up 6.4% from previous month to SAAR of 684,000 in August vs. est. 620K; sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. jumped 6.4% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 684,000 in August, marking the highest level of sales since the start of the year and beating market expectations of 620,000 homes.
• August building permits revised to -2.1% from -2.7%, annual rate to 1.403M units from 1.394M units.

• WTI crude gained again overnight as few signs of progress emerged in US/Iran talks. Later headlines noting Houthi attacks on Saudi military sites and Iran flight cancellations further boosted prices intraday. WTI crude futures settled +$2.45/bbl, or +2.66%, at $94.61. Brent similarly gained $3.52, or 3.41%, to settle at $106.60/bbl.

• Online retail sector: SFIX shares tumbled as Q4 revs rose 4.2% y/y to $324.4M slightly below est. $325.5M, while net loss narrows but guides Q1 revs $323M-$328M below the consensus $360.7M and guides year revs $1.31B-41.36B vs. est. $1.4B; said Q4 Active clients fell -1.4% y/y to 2,277,000.
• Consumer Staples: Shares of PEP surrendered mid-morning positive gains after Bloomberg reported that PepsiCo is raising prices on some chips, dips and soda.
• Consumer Services: ROL was downgraded to Neutral at Piper and cut tgt to $33 based on two primary concerns: Agentic AI search activity seems to favor smaller/local pest control providers and increased private equity investment in the pest control space likely created a more competitive backdrop. Blue Orca Capital said they are short EQPT “because we believe that undisclosed promises to backstop its equipment investment program create billions of dollars in hidden liabilities that could easily impair its balance sheet and bonds.”
• Restaurant sector: DRI reported in-line Q1 results of $2.05 EPS and $3.2B (rising 5% y/y) in sales saying Q1 blended same-restaurant sales increase of 3.1%, just below ests for a 3.3% increase; Growth was led by a 6.2% jump in comparable sales across its LongHorn Steakhouse brand, while same-restaurant sales across its Olive Garden banner ticked up 1.1%; operating costs rose 6.5%; reaffirmed annual outlook; SBUX will close about 1% of its coffeehouses in North America, as CEO Brian Niccol deepens his turnaround push, the company said. YUM was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.
• Casinos & Gaming sector: MGM shares fell after Barry Diller’s People Inc (PPLI) withdrew its proposal to purchase all public shares of MGM. People Inc, which owns a ~27% stake in MGM, had proposed buying the remaining shares for $48.30 each, valuing company at more than $18 billion.
• Airlines: ALK COO told Reuters he expects the BA Max 10 to receive certification by end of September

• Metals & Mining sector: KGC shares fell along with other gold and silver miners (AEM, AG, CDE, B, NEM) as precious metal prices decline again amid a rising US dollar and Treasury yields; separately, KGC said it now expects full-year 2026 and 2027 attributable production to be 2% to 3% below the low end of the previously disclosed guidance, with approximately 1.84 to 1.86M gold equivalent ounces ("Au eq. oz.") expected per year.
• Energy sector: in refiners, DK shares fell after announcing $400M convertible senior notes offering due 2031, but other refiners VLO, MPC saw early strength as oil/diesel prices resumed upward momentum early, which boosted the overall energy complex. PBR CEO said they were selling oil to Japan for the first time this year and are close to reaching 3M bpd oil production. Reuters reported that BP has been evaluating acquisition targets to grow its US shale business
• Nuclear Energy sector: Short report issue Iceberg Research published a report on Deep Fission (FISN) calling the small nuclear reactor maker a “money pit.”
• Auto sector: Shares of EV bus maker BLBD fell the NY Post reported that, “Less than 40% of EV school buses purchased with Biden-era EPA grants have been delivered: ‘Taxpayer dollars vanished.’” Michigan Senator Slotkin notes she will try to win approval of Chinese car ban today, believing only 1 senator opposes ($NI $BYDDY)

• Private Credit: ARES and CG both initiated with Overweight ratings at Piper saying Ares is a premium, credit led platform with strong growth, improving economics, deployment momentum, and $670B+ of AUM. Carlyle’s valuation makes it too cheap to ignore, with attractive 2028 targets that should lead to multiple expansion if met. Separately, ARES said investors sought to redeem 13.1% of shares in the Ares Strategic Income Fund (ASIF) in the third quarter, down from 14.4% in the previous quarter. The fund limited withdrawals to 5% of shares, the customary threshold for such vehicles. The FT reported that GS reaped more than $200M in fees from hedge fund Situational Awareness fiasco.
• REIT Sector: JP Morgan made several changes this morning as they upgraded WELL, EGP, MAC and REG to Overweight while downgrading ARE to Underweight citing downside risk to 2027 FFO/share estimates and GLPI and COLD to Neutral in a sweeping REIT sector ratings reshuffle. WELL was raised arguing that Street focus has shifted back to the company’s multi-year outsized same-store NOI growth trajectory after a period of valuation-driven overhang. EGP upgraded on improving shallow-bay industrial leasing fundamentals and 2027–28 FFO growth potential it views as competitive across the REIT universe. SAFE was downgraded to Underweight as believes Safehold shares could be challenged in a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment and SKT cut to Neutral from Overweight.
• Crypto sector: The Federal Reserve unveiled proposals for stablecoin issuers, briefly lifting shares of companies like CRCL.

• ARCT announced encouraging interim Phase 2 results from ARCT-810 in ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency and introduced LUNAR 2.0, the Company’s next-generation mRNA delivery platform, and additional liver pipeline programs
• GOSS submits new drug application to U.S. FDA for seralutinib for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; FDA to determine NDA Acceptance for filing later this year.
• KYTX said its experimental cell therapy, miv-cel, delivered sustained benefit through one year in stiff person syndrome; said 95% of patients who achieved meaningful mobility improvement maintained that benefit at one year; 92% remained off chronic immunotherapy.
• MRK said its drug met the main goal in a mid- to late-stage trial testing it in adult patients with a type of disease that affects blood vessels at the back of the eye.
• RGNX said SRPT to pay $39M within 10 days of effective date while the company agrees not to sue Sarepta or affiliates over existing Elevidys or aavrh74-based capsids; all ongoing patent litigation regarding patents-in-suit to be terminated with prejudice.
• VKTX shares fall after announced the pricing of its concurrent public offerings of 7.85M shares of common stock, at a public offering price of $35.00 per share, and $225.0 million aggregate principal amount of 2.00% convertible senior notes due 2032.
• Gene editing sector was pressured (BEAM, CRSP, NTLSA, PRME, QTTB) after Anthropic said its Claude AI model had “autonomously discovered” a new enzyme system similar to the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
• Medical Research sector: GRAL shares rally after an FDA panel endorsed a blood test designed to spot signs of various cancers in apparently healthy people while warning that it’s far from clear how well it works. The FDA advisory panel voted 7-2, with one abstention, that the DNA-based test offers more potential benefits than risks such as causing false assurances or raising false alarms

• Entertainment: Deadline reported that the PSKY & WBD merger settlement sign-off was delayed as deal foes granted Hail Mary move by judge to grant the administrative motions to file Amicus briefs.
• AI sector: AI is now officially the biggest “economic bet” in the “history of the country” the WSJ reported as data-center spending is greater than that for the canals, railroads and Grid combined—creating jobs and Wealth but also boosting inflation. GOOGL is nearing the launch of its next-generation Gemini 4 AI model, DeepMind chief Koray Kavukcuoglu announced Wednesday during The Information’s AI Agenda Live Summit. The development comes as the company races to catch up with competitors Anthropic and OpenAI. META keynote from Connect last night showcase focused more on hardware (new Muse gadget +VR goggles + audio-only smart glasses) rather than genuine AI utility. META did announce more partnerships with retailers that Muse will seamlessly connect to. GOOGL introduced Gemini 3.8 Live with Live avatar, bringing near real-time visual presence to native Live dialogue models.
• Power/AI sector: ORCL shares tumbled after Bloomberg reported that Oracle sent OWL, the developer of its data center being built in New Mexico, a notice citing force majeure. Shares of BE also declined in reaction as Project Jupiter — the New Mexico AI campus — is planned to run on a very large Bloom fuel-cell microgrid. Oracle and its partners announced in April 2026 that the site would use up to 2.45 GW of Bloom solid-oxide fuel cells as the primary power source, replacing an earlier gas-turbine/diesel plan.
• Internet sector: The FT reported GDDY received a takeover offer from maker of Norton antivirus software owner GENGoDaddy shares lifted as the co’s said talks were in early stages.

• Hardware & Components: SNX Q3 revs rose 38% y/y to $21.56B topping consensus $18.86B and adj EPS $5.68 above est. $4.63 on better adj net income of $456M driven by strong Distribution and Hyve performance; gross margin narrowed 0.61 percentage points to 6.61%; guided Q4 non-GAAP EPS $5.65-$6.15, vs. consensus $4.87 and sees revenue $21.8B-$22.6B vs. consensus $19.44B. Bloomberg reported that the Dutch Premier hopes to prevent more US export curbs on ASML
• Software sector: BB posted Q2 revs $163.3M vs. est. $145.6M while guided Q3 revs $143M-$154M vs. est. $149.6M and raised annual revs view to $616M-$636M from prior $594M-$621M view; said revenue at BlackBerry’s QNX division, which develops software for safety-critical systems in vehicles, robotics, medical devices and industrial applications, rose 27% to $80.3M in Q2. SoftBank Group (SFTBY) raised $11.1B bonds in the largest high-yield corporate bond sale globally on record. The deal is the latest example of how AI investments have led to a surge in corporate borrowing this year. U tweeted "We’re excited to partner with META to deliver day-one support for Meta VR Glasses.
• IT Services & Consulting sector: DT price tgt was raised to $71 from $60 at Oppenheimer and added to the firm’s top picks as it grows more constructive on its Ai positioning, sales execution, and prospects for revenue/ARR acceleration