Mid-Morning Look: September 21, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Monday, September 21, 2026

U.S. stocks off to a strong start to kick off the trading week, led by gains in Technology (XLK) and Communications (XLC) while Energy (XLE) and defensive sectors see early weakness. Oil prices fall along with Treasury yields improving market sentiment while Bitcoin and crypto prices surge, adding to last week gains as Bitcoin hits 7 month highs around $86,000. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks Sunday in New York on trade, artificial intelligence and other key issues ahead of a pivotal summit this week between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Chicago Fed President Goolsbee said on Monday that U.S. inflation may have moved beyond the tariff and energy prices shocks of the last 18 months and is now being driven by strong demand as well, potentially requiring a faster pace of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. An overall quiet start the week in what is generally a start to historical weakness the tail end of September heading into buyback blackout periods ahead of Q3 earnings in a few weeks.

• Media sector: PSKY is in advanced talks with state attorneys general to allow its $110 billion purchase of WBD to be completed, though not all of the state AGs are on board. Shares rise for both amid reports that Paramount Skydance is discussing a $1.5B investment in California movie and television production as part of potential concessions to resolve legal challenges to its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. In Internet/social media, META shares jumped amid renewed excitement around Muse and Meta Connect on Sept. 23–24 holding its annual Connect developer conference, with CEO keynote scheduled at 4pm. Wells Fargo raised its tgt to $796 citing excitement around new Ai releases, including the Muse personal agent app
• Optical sector: CIEN was upgraded to Outperform at Evercore ISI on sustained growth and raise tgt to $550 from $375 as sees connectivity between and inside data centers becoming an increasingly critical gating factor for frontier LLM monetization and calls Ciena an attractive way to gain exposure to the optical networking space. LITE announced plans for a joint demonstration together with QCOM and GLW of a high-density die-to-die (D2D) optical interconnect showcase for AI scale-up architectures at ECOC 2026. The board-level demonstration will combine a D2D interface IP subsystem from Qualcomm Technologies with Lumentum’s VCSEL-based optical interconnect platform and Corning multimode fiber connectivity.

• AMD +8%; among leaders in the semiconductor sector (SOX) in broad rally as shares top $600 for the first time and cross the $1 trillion market cap level for the first tie.
• CIEN +3%; was upgraded to Outperform at Evercore ISI on sustained growth and raise tgt to $550 from $375 as sees connectivity between and inside data centers becoming an increasingly critical gating factor for frontier LLM monetization and calls Ciena an attractive way to gain exposure.
• COIN +6%; shares of Bitcoin related movers such as HOOD, MSTR, IBIT, and others extended last week’s rally after Bitcoin prices hits their highest levels since January 29, at $85,117.89, last up 4%.
• CRML +36%; along with gains in GRML, GLND after the United States, Denmark and Greenland said they had reached an agreement for the US to expand its military footprint in the self-governed Danish territory.
• META +6%; back above the $700 level amid renewed excitement around Muse and Meta Connect on Sept. 23–24 holding its annual Connect developer conference, with CEO keynote scheduled at 4pm. Wells Fargo raised its tgt to $796 citing excitement around new Ai releases, including the Muse personal agent app.
• VGZ +18%; Artemis Gold has agreed to acquire Vista Gold (VGZ) in an in an all-stock deal valued at around $427M, giving Artemis ownership of the massive Mt Todd gold project in Australia. Vista Gold shareholders will receive 0.0966 shares of Artemis Gold for each share, implying a value of $2.83 a share.
• WBD +7%; amid reports that Paramount Skydance is discussing a $1.5B investment in California movie and television production as part of potential concessions to resolve legal challenges to its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

• HPQ -2%; shares declined after saying they expect industry-wide PC unit volumes to decline in 2027 and assumes industry-wide PC unit volumes decline mid-single-digits in 2027 as compared to calendar year 2026.
• NVO -6%; issues long term guidance; Goldman Sachs noted operating margin suggest c.3% downside to consensus in 2030 while overall views the revenue targets as broadly in line with consensus, but with stable margins anticipated between 2026-30, this suggests c.3% downside to consensus profit ests.