Evening Market Recap - Wednesday, 16-Sep

US equities were higher in Monday trading as stocks ended near best levels. AI trade extended its rebound from recent pacing worries with focus on agent momentum. Rates were likely helped by oil’s move amid some hawkish post-FOMC Fedspeak.

Major US equity indices were mostly lower this week, though the Nasdaq Composite logged a weekly gain. AI had an up-and-down week with some notable Monday and Tuesday softness coming after Anthropic's Dario Amodei last weekend released a call for a slower pace of frontier evolution, citing cybersecurity concerns and worries about unchecked recursive self-improvement. The FOMC this week hiked rates by 25 bps, as had been widely expected, though the tone was more hawkish than anticipated.

US equities were higher in Thursday trading. Oil was a tailwind (though ended the day off its lows) despite mixed takeaways from the latest Middle East updates. Other areas of focus included positive AI updates, largely upbeat sell-side conference takeaways, and next week's Trump-Xi summit.

US equities were down in Wednesday trading, rebounding a bit from their worst levels after somewhat hawkish remarks from Warsh post-FOMC. The Fed raised rates by 25 bp as widely expected, while dot plot showed one additional rate hike for 2026 and nothing more in 2027. Market still pricing in 25 bp of hikes through year-end.

US equities finished lower in Tuesday trading, ending not far from worst levels. Stocks extended Monday's selloff with biggest focus on another oil rally amid latest cautious Middle East and global supply updates.

US equities finished lower in Monday trading, though ended well off the morning's weakness. A rotation out of the AI infrastructure space was today's big story. There’s also a lot of anticipation ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC meeting.

US equities were lower this week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq snapping two-week winning streaks. Iran conflict and energy-market spillovers remained a major market headwind, with increased kinetic activity and dwindling diplomatic off-ramps pushing WTI and Brent above $100 and US diesel above $6/gallon. August CPI came in slightly hotter than expected and strengthened the case for a September Fed hike.

US equities were lower in Thursday trading, ending a bit off worst levels. The market was on the defensive against continued strength in crude and a notable jump in Treasury yields. WTI is crude now up for the eighth consecutive session (and up ~20% over that stretch) with a focus on Mideast headlines, particularly regarding Houthi influence over Bab el-Mandeb strait.

US equities were lower in Wednesday trading, extending Tuesday's declines. The defensive tone once again chalked up to continued escalation in kinetic activity in the Middle East (and no diplomatic off-ramps in sight) that pushed oil back to four-month highs. Rates were also a headwind, tabbed in part to oil as well as underwhelming Treasury buyback announcement.

US equities were lower in Tuesday trading as major averages ended near session lows. Defensive tilt chalked up to latest hawkish US/Iran updates following weekend ramp in kinetic activity.