Midday Mashup, October 2, 2026

The coordinated push to ease the diesel and crude squeeze scored a real win this morning, then ran into a fresh scare by midday. The Navy reopened the Strait of Hormuz and the G7, after Macron's early call for a 50-million-barrel release, settled on plans to free up as much as 100 million barrels of diesel and crude over the next four months while urging producers to avoid export bans. Trump said Europe has agreed to begin releasing stocked diesel immediately, and IEA chief Birol said prices had already dropped at least $5 on the announcement, with more reserves available if needed. But just before noon, UKMTO reported a tanker struck by an unknown projectile transiting outbound through Hormuz, causing a fire and blackout, and a US official told N12 that Washington is preparing for possible renewed fighting. The relief rally is real, but the strait is clearly not fully secure.

That left stocks mostly holding gains built earlier in the session, even as a weak jobs report complicated the picture. September nonfarm payrolls came in at just 29,000 versus 90,000 expected, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.2% and average hourly earnings growth slowing to 0.1%. The prior two months were also revised down by a combined 60,000. Hassett called the report "about expected" and said yields are up on a "robust economy," a framing the data don't obviously support.

Equity moves are concentrated in storage and chips. Seagate is down 11.6% and Western Digital off 11.0%, the market's worst performers, while NetApp gains 7.4%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is up 8.3%, Teradyne 8.1%, Karman Holdings 7.8% and Space Exploration Technologies 7.0%. Accenture is down 5.9% and EPAM Systems off 4.3%. Nike extends its post-earnings slide to 4.6%, now trading near its lowest level since 2013.

Elsewhere, Tesla's Q3 deliveries of 486,532 beat the 463,761 estimate, Authentic Brands Group is weighing a takeover of Mattel above $6 billion, and Paramount Skydance confirmed it will move to the NYSE and rename itself Skydance Corporation on October 6. Gold slipped toward $4,138 an ounce as risk appetite firmed, and the French-German bond spread narrowed to 140 basis points from 159, easing some of the pressure flagged earlier in the week.