U.S. stocks rebounded sharply Thursday, erasing two sessions of losses as crude oil retreated from its geopolitical spike and Treasury yields eased back below 5%, one day after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate hike since 2023.
- The S&P 500 rose 1.1% to 7,635.21, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a 0.7% advance, up 365 points to 51,827.04.
- The Nasdaq 100 outperformed, jumping 1.8% to 29,450.56.
- West Texas Intermediate fell 1.6% to $100.81 a barrel
- Brent dropped 2.5% to $103.23, a one-week low
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and a unanimous FOMC lifted the fed funds target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4% on Wednesday and projected at least one further increase this year, citing inflation that remains too high at 3.4% and a labor market at effectively full employment.
Treasury Yields Retreat, Volatility Cools
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.95%, down 8 basis points and back under the 5.04% level hit earlier this week, which had marked a 19-year high.
The policy-sensitive 2-year yield slipped 6 basis points to 4.69%, while the 30-year eased 7 basis points to 5.30%.
The CBOE Volatility Index slid 11.4% to 15.69, unwinding the fear premium built up around the Fed decision and the Middle East supply scare.
Gold was the standout in commodities, jumping 2.5% to $4,368.71 an ounce as real yields retreated, with silver surging 4.1% to $65.86.
On the macro front, initial jobless claims fell 10,000 to 196,000, well below the 206,500 consensus and close to July’s 60-year low, while the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index slowed to 37.8 from 47.4 but comfortably beat the 32.1 estimate.
Thursday’s Performance In Major US Indices
| Index | Last | % Change | MTD | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,635.21 | +1.1% | -0.7% | +11.5% |
| Dow Jones | 51,827.04 | +0.7% | -2.6% | +7.8% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 29,450.56 | +1.8% | 0.0% | +16.6% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,891.07 | +1.1% | -2.2% | +16.5% |
According to the Benzinga Pro platform:
- The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) gained 1.1%.
- The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.7%.
- The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) climbed 1.7%.
- The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) advanced 1.0%.
Chip Rebound Powers Tech
The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) was the clear leader, rising 2.2% as semiconductor names extended a rebound from Monday’s AI-safety-driven selloff.
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) followed with a 1.4% gain.
At the other end, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) fell 0.4% and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) slipped 0.1%.
The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) was flat despite the crude selloff, while the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) and Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLU) added 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively.
At the industry level, the Invesco Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) led with a 4.1% jump and the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (NYSE:PBW) rose 3.8%, both riding the same power-generation theme that dominated the tape.
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) climbed 3.6% alongside bullion, the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (NYSE:XME) added 3.1% and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) gained 2.6%.
The laggard was the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSE:XOP), which ended the morning essentially flat.
The chip complex did the heavy lifting. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) surged 9.7% on more than 77 million shares, nearly twice its normal pace, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 6.9%, Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) added 5.4% and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) climbed 5.6%.
Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) jumped 8.8% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE:HPE) rose 8.0%.
Defense Names are the Session’s Dead Weight
RTX Corp. (NYSE:RTX) fell 2.3%, Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) dropped 1.9%, General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE:GD) slid 1.7% and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) lost 1.5%, a clean unwind of the Middle East risk premium.
On the earnings front, Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) was the only major name to report after Wednesday’s close, missing on both lines with adjusted EPS of $1.23 versus $1.29 consensus and revenue of $8.05 billion against $8.37 billion expected.
The homebuilder cut its full-year delivery guidance to 80,000-81,000 units from 82,000-83,000 and saw home-sales gross margin compress to 15.8% from 17.5%.
Shares fell roughly 1.5%, with the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS:ITB) still managing a 0.9% gain.
The Day’s Big Winners
Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC), up 20.1%, after disclosing Wednesday evening that it issued Amazon warrants for up to 1.69 million shares at $200.93 – roughly $340 million – tied to a backup-generator supply agreement for AWS data centers, with initial deliveries of about $2.4 billion across 2027 and 2028 and full warrant vesting at $8 billion of aggregate payments.
Vicor Corp. (NASDAQ:VICR) rallied 14.3% after announcing Wednesday it licensed its Vertical Power Delivery patent portfolio to an unnamed leading AI OEM on a non-exclusive basis, layering a royalty stream on top of product sales. The news follows a raised fiscal 2026 revenue outlook of more than $600 million and a 145% jump in backlog.
Tempus AI Inc. (NASDAQ:TEM) gained 13.7% following a Morgan Stanley note that quantified the company’s reimbursement tailwind, with management pointing to roughly $80 million to $100 million of incremental revenue next year from xT pricing and $250 million to $300 million annually from xF approval and pricing.
Nuclear-adjacent power names Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO) and X-Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XE) rose 12.3% and 11.5%, respectively, with no company-specific news in the tape. Both appear to be trading in sympathy with the broader data-center power complex after the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 on Wednesday, shifting generation and transmission costs onto large data centers. X-Energy’s most recent release, a Sept. 15 UK partnership with Centrica, was met with a nearly 4% decline that day.
Other notable gainers included IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ), up 9.9%, SiTime Corp. (NASDAQ:SITM), up 8.7%, and Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), up 8.1%, as the iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) added 2.2%.
On the Downside
AutoNation Inc. (NYSE:AN) dropped 3.9% after CFO Thomas Szlosek flagged third-quarter headwinds at the same Morgan Stanley conference, citing softer service growth, model-year changeover pressure, affordability and lower EV penetration following the expiration of federal incentives.
Further up the auto value chain, General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) shrugged off the same read-across, rising 3.6%.
Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) slid 3.9%, extending losses after a Sept. 15 Wells Fargo note lowered confidence that the company can renegotiate its AI content-licensing agreement with Google on favorable terms.
Third-party data cited in recent sell-side work showed Google search traffic to Reddit down roughly 10% year-over-year so far in September, after a 7% decline in August.
Karman Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KRMN) rounded out the losers, down 3.8% consistent with the broader unwind in aerospace and defense as the Middle East risk premium deflated.
Elsewhere, T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) fell 3.1% to lead S&P 100 decliners, weighing on the communications sector alongside Salesforce and Verizon.
Thursday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers
| Name | % change |
|---|---|
| Generac Holdings Inc. | +20.12% |
| Vicor Corporation | +14.27% |
| Tempus AI, Inc. | +13.73% |
| Oklo Inc. | +12.33% |
| X-Energy, Inc. | +11.52% |
Thursday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers
| Name | % change |
|---|---|
| MasTec, Inc. . (NYSE:MTZ) | -4.58% |
| ATI Inc. (NYSE:ATI) | -4.42% |
| AutoNation, Inc. | -3.90% |
| Reddit, Inc. | -3.86% |
| Karman Holdings Inc. | -3.83% |
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