Market Wrap
Published
The S&P 500 fell 0.8% as the bond market, not equities, drove the session. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped 10 basis points to 5.27%, its highest since 2007, and is up roughly 65 basis points since the end of August, while the 2-year yield hit 4.952%, its highest since May 2024. That repricing toward higher-for-longer rates overwhelmed a volatile Iran story that saw crude spike above $96 a barrel on stalled talks before reversing to settle near $92.60, even as Trump signaled openness to easing sanctions in exchange for concrete nuclear concessions and Iran's foreign minister met mediators in New York without US officials present.
Financials led sector losses, with XLF down 1.2% as Bank of America fell 2.2%, Citigroup dropped 2.3% and Blackstone lost 3.3%. Technology (XLK, -0.9%) was dragged by Qualcomm's 7.2% slide and Oracle's 3.2% drop, though Nvidia rose 1.7% after its board approved an additional $150 billion in buyback authorization, bringing the total program to $235 billion. Consumer Discretionary (XLY, -1.4%) fell as Tesla dropped 3.9% and Ford lost 2.6%, with General Motors warning on the US market amid competition from Chinese rivals. Materials (XLB, -0.7%) and Real Estate (XLRE, -0.5%) also declined. Health Care (XLV, +0.3%) and Consumer Staples (XLP, +0.3%) were the only sectors to finish higher, while Energy (XLE, +0.1%) squeezed out a small gain as ExxonMobil rose 1.2% and Chevron added 1.0%.
Precious metals were hit hard as the rate repricing outweighed geopolitical risk: gold fell more than 3% below $4,155 an ounce, with GLD down 3.9%, GDX off 5.4%, GDXJ down 5.7% and SLV down 5.3%. Natural gas futures fell more than 5% as UNG dropped 3.0% on contract expiry and rising output expectations. Growth and momentum factors underperformed broadly, with the Mega Cap Growth ETF down 0.9% and the High Beta ETF down 1.7%.
Company News
- MongoDB shares dropped after chief executive CJ Desai abruptly resigned to take a senior role at Meta Platforms; former CEO Dev Ittycheria returns as interim head, and the company reaffirmed its third-quarter and full-year guidance.
- Nvidia raised its share buyback authorization by $150 billion to a total of $235 billion through fiscal 2028, and separately unveiled open-source AI security tools, OpenShell and Sentry, aimed at preventing agent breaches like the one at Hugging Face.
- AMD agreed to acquire World Labs for $8.2 billion, with CEO Lisa Su saying the deal strengthens its hardware roadmap and AI computing capabilities.
- Paramount Skydance launched a roughly $44.4 billion debt offering to help fund its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition and repay existing debt.
- Valley National Bancorp agreed to acquire digital small-business banking platform Bluevine for about $340 million.
- Merck licensed an investigational KRAS G12D inhibitor from Scibrunch Therapeutics for pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
- Mirum Pharmaceuticals and Incyte said the FDA approved Atebrioz for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, and reported positive Phase 3 results for brelovitug in chronic hepatitis delta, with estimated annual revenue potential of more than $1 billion.
- Portland General Electric said it does not expect to proceed with its holding-company reorganization after Oregon regulators imposed conditions on dividends that the company says may not be feasible.
- The FAA said a software issue will delay certification of the Boeing 737 Max 10, with Boeing shares among the session's biggest decliners.
- Northern Star rejected a $27 billion takeover proposal from Gold Fields, and Evonik rejected a 10.3 billion euro bid from BASF.