House byline
Stocks correspondent
Nina Okonkwo is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Stocks desk.
With Delta set to open airline earnings on Friday, Barclays and Raymond James warn that jet fuel near $4 a gallon is swallowing fare increases—and American Airlines already guided to a third-quarter loss.
After Friday’s payroll shock, investors enter a new week focused on Monday’s ISM services reading, a 10-year yield near 5.28%, and whether tech can keep carrying the Nasdaq.
Friday’s 29,000-job payroll print sent small-cap and tech shares higher while traders slashed October Fed hike bets, even as Treasury yields reversed part of the morning drop.
U.S. employers added 29,000 jobs in September and unemployment rose to 4.2%, a miss that sent stock futures higher as traders bet the Fed will pause in October.
The S&P 500 finished September at 7,651.54 after a morning inflation relief rally reversed, leaving the index down for the month while the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 5.29 percent.
The Dow closed at 51,349.92 on Tuesday as bond yields hovered near multidecade highs, while morning data showed core PCE inflation cooled to 3.0% in August.
MongoDB shares plunged after CEO CJ Desai left for Meta, while rising Treasury yields and an OpenAI training pause kept the S&P 500 from holding its record despite Nvidia’s buyback news.
U.S. equity futures fell Monday as crude jumped toward $108 a barrel after President Trump rejected an Iranian peace proposal, while traders priced in back-to-back Federal Reserve rate hikes.
With U.S. equity markets closed for the weekend, investors are positioning for Wednesday’s August PCE report—consensus near 3.8 percent headline and 3.4 percent core—plus a batch of Fed speeches before Friday’s jobs data.
A 3.4% drop in Brent and hopes for U.S.-Iran talks in New York helped the S&P 500 close at 7,743.41, up 0.51%, snapping a three-week losing streak. The Dow led, the Nasdaq lagged, and the 10-year eased from its 5.20% weekly peak.
The S&P 500 closed at 7,704.13, essentially flat, as a Trump-Xi truce extension to Jan. 10, 2027 met rising Treasury yields and oil prices, leaving holders near record highs to weigh trade optimism against the cost of capital.
RTX Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. shares led defense gainers in Wednesday’s cash session after a drone strike wounded civilians in Eilat, widening call volume on Patriot and THAAD-linked names as desks repriced Middle East interceptor replenishment before Q4 foreign military sale paperwork clears Congress.
Nvidia Corp. one-week options implied volatility climbed ahead of Thursday’s Commerce BIS advanced-chip rule publication, widening call skew as desks hedge Blackwell export thresholds while the Nasdaq tech complex treats regulatory headline risk as a single-name event not fully priced in index beta.
Palantir Technologies Inc. shares rose after the U.S. Army disclosed a Pacific theater logistics dashboard award, extending government software revenue visibility while peers traded flat on defense budget headlines that did not yet change FY26 obligation totals in public trackers.
Oracle Corp. shares outpaced the Nasdaq Composite as cloud booking disclosures beat consensus during a Federal Reserve communication week, forcing desks to reprice backlog conversion while macro headlines moved index futures more than single-name software models assumed.
MediaTek shares settled at NT$5,010 as AI ASIC design wins drew buyers alongside TSMC’s NT$2,480 close, pairing Taiwan’s leading fabless chip designer with its foundry anchor in one session.
The TAIEX finished 23 points under its all-time high as semiconductor heavyweights drove turnover past NT$820 billion, the busiest cash session Taiwan’s market has printed in months.
Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings shares face a repricing test when Tokyo trading resumes, with storm tallies showing about 135 JAL and 140 ANA flight cancellations tied to Typhoon Dujuan just as Silver Week travel demand peaks.
Nikkei 225 index futures held gains built after the Bank of Japan's 18 September hike while the cash market stays shut for Silver Week, with the cash close at 65,018.95 anchoring thin holiday-session positioning.
RTX Corp. shares hovered near record levels as President Donald Trump’s UNGA-week threats against Iran revived bets on Patriot interceptor replenishment, even as oil prices eased and defense names debated how much war premium is already priced in.
Diamondback Energy shares held firm as management guided investors toward lower routine flaring in the Permian after EPA’s May methane rule phase-out, leaning on midstream fixes and new federal guidance on temporary flares.
Wistron Corp. signaled firmer notebook ODM margins on enterprise bids for Copilot-ready fleets after Microsoft-aligned reference designs cleared security reviews at Taoyuan and Chongqing assembly campuses.
Innolux Corp. display fabs extended LED driver IC backlog notices to Hsinchu monitor OEMs as gaming and commercial panel builds pulled forward orders, stretching lead times on driver wafers sourced from Taiwanese foundry partners.
MS&AD insurance group units raised loss-reserve assumptions after Hokkaido landslide and debris-flow claims from late-summer typhoon rains exceeded modelled September pick-up, pressuring combined ratios ahead of third-quarter disclosures.
Screen Holdings guided OLED evaporation tool shipments toward a Kyushu display pilot line, tightening delivery windows as the customer tests mid-size panel stacks ahead of mass-production decisions.
Coinbase Global shares swung wider after ETF issuers disclosed staking fee splits on spot ether products, forcing retail flow models to treat platform take rates as volatile revenue rather than steady subscription income.
Marathon Petroleum shares rose as Gulf Coast turnaround schedules tightened Gulf gasoline spreads, trimming available reformer capacity before autumn driving demand while peers delay maintenance into winter.
United Microelectronics Corp. reopened fabs with utilization targets in the low seventies percent range after a Mid-Autumn holiday shutdown, prioritizing mature-node automotive and display-driver wafers over legacy consumer inventory.
MediaTek Inc. shares climbed after management signaled firmer mid-range handset chipset shipments tied to design wins at Taiwanese ODMs and brand partners clearing inventory ahead of year-end model refreshes.
Isuzu Motors shares drew parcel-logistics interest after it pitched hydrogen box trucks for suburban last-mile hubs, extending its Toyota-backed ELF fuel-cell program toward cube-van duty cycles parcel carriers run between depots and convenience stores.
Daiichi Sankyo is reserving oral-solid capacity at its Odawara API campus after shelving ADC equipment there, timing a pilot suite to obesity-pill demand tied to its Espha-linked semaglutide partnership.
Pfizer kept its dividend steady while Paxlovid stockpile carrying costs and lower COVID revenue left free cash flow barely covering the payout, tightening the board's capital allocation choices.
Deere stock eased as investors weigh swelling late-model tractors on dealer lots against harvest auction volumes that could finally clear used 8R and combine inventories.
E.SUN Financial Holding advanced as wealth-management fee income and NT-dollar structured-note sales offset mark-to-market pressure from a softer local currency in September.
Delta Electronics shares rose in Taipei trading after management confirmed stepped-up orders for high-efficiency power shelves and busbars tied to AI server racks built for domestic and export assemblers.
Nintendo Co shares stalled in Tokyo after the company rolled back a Pocket Camp Complete server patch in Japan that had briefly restored leaf-ticket microtransactions, confusing mobile revenue models analysts thought were retired.
Advantest shares outpaced the Nikkei as brokers priced in HBM probe-tool backlog even while DRAM spot indices whipsaw, betting memory makers will keep buying testers through generational transitions.
Call volume on Nvidia jumped after Amazon and Alphabet lifted 2026 AI infrastructure budgets again, forcing options desks to reprice earnings-week volatility around hyperscaler capex revisions.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron paced the S&P 500 energy sector higher after Saudi Arabia said SAMREF’s Yanbu complex partially restarted distillate units, easing Red Sea export anxiety without restoring full crude runs.
Cathay Financial Holding topped the TAIEX leaderboard as retail desks rebuilt positions ahead of its NT$3.50 cash dividend record date, extending a September pattern that favors insurers over chip cyclicals.
ASE Technology Holding outpaced the TAIEX after supply-chain managers said automotive and edge-AI customers moved wire-bond packaging slots to Taiwan when Penang clean-room space filled, even as ASE expands its fifth Malaysia plant.
Recruit Holdings shares eased after trackers showed Indeed Japan manufacturing job posts stalling in September, overshadowing a raised HR Technology outlook tied to sponsored listings in other sectors.
TOPIX construction and materials names outpaced the broader index as MLIT’s fiscal 2026 seismic retrofit subsidy window stayed open, funneling diagnosis grants toward mandatory building upgrades.
Regional bank shares slid after fresh data showed office commercial real estate delinquencies ticking higher, reviving fears about concentration in midsize lenders still digesting 2023 turmoil.
U.S. carriers with out-of-the-money hedges are marking fresh losses as jet fuel tracks middle-distillate scarcity, while unhedged airlines face margin pressure without balance-sheet cushions.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp. shares rose 3.8 percent, topping the TAIEX gainers, as improving Asian naphtha crack spreads and a weaker NT dollar lifted refining sentiment ahead of maintenance.
The TAIEX rose 1.4 percent Wednesday as TAIFEX index futures desks covered short positions into the close, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Mediatek after overnight U.S. chip names stabilized.
Fast Retailing shares eased after Uniqlo Japan posted a same-store sales shortfall in early September, as humid weather and cautious apparel spending overshadowed tourism-linked purchases in Ginza and Kyoto.
SoftBank Group marked down several Vision Fund private AI bets after portfolio labs missed revenue milestones, narrowing reported NAV even as Arm Holdings shares held up in September trading.
Nvidia and AMD retreated after OpenAI and Anthropic reiterated pacing plans tied to the Hugging Face breach, reviving questions about how fast accelerator orders will grow.
Exxon, Chevron, and Saudi Aramco-linked ADRs rallied as Brent stayed near $107 and Yanbu loadings remained paused, lifting the S&P 500 energy sector by more than 2%.
S&P Friday 7,656.98 still last. Pirates won 4-3. Monday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
S&P Friday 7,656.98 still last. Pirates won 4-3. Monday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.