Wednesday trading closed out the month of September and the third quarter of 2026, a mixed bag for U.S. stocks, cushioned in part by softer-than-expected inflation numbers, and GDP growth exceeding expectations.
Perhaps as expected, there has been a kind of schism developing between tech stocks and others. 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been falling overall, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ has been climbing, in part due to the stoking of a kind of “AI” craze.
- On the day — The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite climbed 0.2%, but the Dow dropped 0.9% and the benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.3%.
- For September — The NASDAQ rose 1.9%, the Dow dropped 4.3% and the S&P 500 fell 0.5%.
- Third Quarter — The NASDAQ rose 2.5%, the Dow dropped 4.3% and the S&P 500 rose 2.0%.
The 10-year Treasury yield, benchmark for mortgage rates, corporate bond rates, and interest rates on various loans, rose another 5 basis points from late Tuesday, above 5.30% late-afternoon.
Oil prices climbed, hanging upon events and perceptions relating to the Middle East. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 1.4% to $90.90 by late afternoon ET. International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.9% to $103.50 in a similar time frame. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump indicated that he did not intend to ease Iran sanctions.
Prior to trading, it was announced that August inflation was 3.4% year-over-year, below expectations of 3.7%, while third quarter U.S. GDP growth was revised to 2.2%, upward from 1.5%
Ironically, would-be concerns about “AI” dangers perhaps serve as a pretext to amplify the notion that so-called “AI” actually exists. That is, it loudly implies that there, in fact, has been attained such a thing as so-called manmade “intelligence,” as opposed to simply a faster, more automated — often unpredictably defect-prone — set of programs that are a kind of helter-skelter type of search engine. The added component for the mirage, of course, is designing the programs to spew results layered with verbiage that attempts to imitates somewhat glib — often annoying, unrealistic and unprofessional — speech patterns, and trained to insert text for the pronouns “I” or “me.”
Reputed dangers seem to center around so-called “AI’s” automated functions, sometimes turning it into a kind of hacking malware that reconfigures its own parameters, or targets third parties for coding sabotage. Of course, any machine that is given diverse ranges of options,and allowed to keep running, or go in various directions, without being steered or controlled by humans is bound to wreck havoc in time. For example, a self-propelled lawn mower that ends up mowing down flower beds is not necessarily “intelligent,” just poorly designed and managed in a derelict manner.
In the News
- Stocks Come Under Pressure as Government Bond Yields Surge; S&P 500, Nasdaq End Q3 With Gains; Inflation Data Comes in Softer Than Expected; US 10-Year Treasury Yield Hits 24-Year High – Investopedia
- S&P 500 dips, Nasdaq higher after data shows moderate inflation rise – Reuters/Yahoo
- S&P 500 Ends September to Forget With Loss – Barron’s
- Oil climbs after Trump denies he is willing to ease sanctions on Iran – Reuters/MSN
- Stocks swoon into close, with Nasdaq booking gain but Dow, S&P 500 down – MarketWatch
- U.S. dollar flat against peers after softer-than-expected inflation data – Reuters/Yahoo
- Crude oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz hit prewar levels, but fuel shipments remain constrained – CNBC
- 10-Year Note Has Ugliest Quarter in 3 Decades – Barron’s
- Yield Is Surging Toward 6% – Barron’s
- 4 Key Questions for Investors to Ask at the Start of Q4; And why today’s biggest market stories may be distractions. – MorningStar
- Markets – Morningstar
- NASDAQ Composite Index (COMP) – NASDAQ
- NASDAQ 100 – NASDAQ
- S&P 500 – Yahoo Finance
- U.S. Stock Market Today – Fox
- Stock Market Indexes Today – Motley Fool
- Dow Jones Industrial Average – Yahoo Finance
- Dow Jones Industrial Average – S&P Global DJIA
- NYSE Composite – New York Stock Exchange
- U.S. 10 Year Treasury Note – MarketWatch
- CME Group West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Light Sweet Crude Oil futures
- ICE Brent Crude Futures
- U.S. Dollar Index (DXI) – MarketWatch
- Gold futures – CME
- [PDF] S&P Global US Flash PMI®; Business growth surges to fastest for over five years and job gains accelerate, but price pressures also intensify amid spike in costs – SPC GlobalPMI by S&P Global
- Federal Reserve Calendar
- Federal Reserve
- Consumer Spending – Bureau of Economic Affairs
- Consumer Price Index – BLS
- U.S. Jobs Reports – Current Employment Statistics – CES (National) – Bureau of Labor Statistics
