Mid-Morning Look: September 22, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

U.S. stocks holding steady after surging near all-time highs for the Nasdaq Monday and near record highs for the S&P 500 as technology shares surged, led by another spike in AI related plays, mega cap and semiconductors despite negative market breadth. The S&P 500 is back within sight of a new record, after having gone nowhere since June 1, but hasn’t slipped more than 3% from a record high over that span. It has spent nearly the entire time since Aug. 4 inside the range of that single day’s rally to a record high. Note the QQQ’s (Nasdaq 100) have gone from lows of $700 just last Wednesday after the FOMC rate hike, to highs above $745 this morning in what has been a powerful bounce. Helping boost sentiment this morning, another pullback in oil prices after sliding over -4% Monday after Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Iran offered to reopen the Strait Of Hormuz within 7 days if the United States takes initial steps toward easing military pressure. The Arab Times is reporting that Qatar is working to facilitate a short-term agreement between Iran and the United States that could reopen the way for direct negotiations, according to a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson. Prices bounced after reports later that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it must negotiate if it’s in the national interest to do so. One of the bigger stories in tech/AI space today was that China’s internet regulator is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI after Anthropic alleged the companies secretly routed customer requests to Claude, potentially sending sensitive Chinese data to U.S. servers, per The Information. Anthropic says Moonshot routed more than 23M exchanges to Claude between May and July, while DeepSeek routed more than 12.1M exchanges in just 14 days in July. Materials (XLB), Consumer Staples (XLP), and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) early leaders while Financials (XLF) and Energy (XLE) slip.

• Hardware sector: In PC Sector (DELL, HPQ), UBS cutting 2027 PC units noting PC shipment growth deteriorated from +5.5% YoY in Q126, supported by pullins, to -2.5% in Q226, with sequential growth of only 1% below normal seasonality. UBS maintains its 2026 forecast at 241M units, down 11% but lower 2027 from 2% growth to a 4% decline. AAPL new Mac Mini and Mac Studio available today: Mac Studio starts at $2,499 with M5 Max and $5,499 with M5 Ultra, Mac Mini with M6 starts at $899

• BABA +2%; said it was developing an Ai model up to four times larger than the company’s flagship model and unveiled a next-generation Ai chip it called China’s most powerful
• LEN +5%; after last night Berkshire Hathaway revealed increasing its stake in the homebuilder. Berkshire bought more than 2.7M LEN Class A and Class B shares from Sept 17 to Sept 21 across multiple transactions, at weighted-average prices ranging from $74.80 to $79.41, per filing.
• ONON +13%; authorized its first share repurchase program, worth up to $1 billion through the end of 2029, and unveiled long-term financial targets, including high-teens percentage annual constant-currency sales growth and net sales of at least 5.6 billion Swiss francs.
• VICR +12%; raises Q3 sequential growth guidance to more than 20% from nearly 10% in view of royalties from a recently announced non-exclusive license to Vertical Power Delivery
• VKTX +30%; after maintenance study shows 22% placebo-adjusted weight loss reported at week 33 following weekly dosing of VK2735 at 17.5 mg; no plateau observed. Weight loss after 21 weeks of dosing ranged from approximately 16% to 19% compared with approximately 0% for placebo.

• DGX -4%; along with weakness in LH after CMS posted prelim weighted median private payor rates for certain clinical diagnostic lab test codes ahead of setting Medicare’s CY2027 payment rates for the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, pointing to a ~16% lower average potential change to CY2026 CLFS rates into 2027 under PAMA.
• ERIC -4%; was downgraded from Equal Weight to Underweight at Morgan Stanley and lowers its 2027 EBIT/ EPS by 5/6% due to growing concerns around margin pressure; also lowers price tgt to $9 from $11 as shares trade on 16x P/E.
• MPC -2%; was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies long with VLO saying refining risk-reward supports holding existing positions, but waiting for volatility to add to positions. Even with elevated strip pricing from 2H26-2029, the current share price implies 2030 midcycle margins near 2025 levels