Markets News, Sep. 17, 2026: Tech Stocks Rise, Lead Major U.S. Indexes Higher; Bond Yields, Oil Prices Drop

Bitcoin was trading around $76,500, modestly higher over the past 24 hours. The U.S. dollar index , which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, ticked 0.1% lower to 100.20. Gold futures edged 0.1% lower to $4,385 an ounce. Shares of Generac Holdings (GNRC) soared 19% on news of a deal worth up to $8 billion to sell backup power generators to Amazon (AMZN) for data centers. Amazon advanced more than 2%, as did its Magnificent Seven brethren; the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) closed nearly 2%. Tech stocks powered gains Thursday, with the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) and broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) closing up about 4.5% and 3.5%, respectively. Super Micro Computer (SMCI), Intel (INTC), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Micron Technology (MU), Sandisk (SNDK), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Arm Holdings (ARM) all were up by roughly 5% or more. Oil prices extended recent declines Thursday on optimism that supply disruptions because of a closed Saudi Arabian pipeline would be short-lived. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate prices were down 1.2% to $101.25 a barrel around 4 p.m. ET. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, declined 1.7% to just above $104. Investor attention has now turned to the likely path forward for rates. Per the CME FedWatch tool, traders see a 53% likelihood that the Fed will raise interest rates a quarter-percentage point above its new range of 3.75% to 4% at its late-October meeting, and an 87% likelihood of lifting them by the same amount in December after the U.S. midterm elections. The 10-year Treasury yield , which serves as a benchmark for a wide range of interest rates, including those for mortgages , corporate bonds, and other loans, was around 4.94% in late-afternoon trading, down more than eight basis points from Wednesday's close. The three indexes closed yesterday lower for the seventh time in eight sessions, with the Dow shedding more than 600 points, after the Fed unanimously raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and Chair Kevin Warsh told reporters that inflation has been "too high ... for too long." The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite, benchmark S&P 500, and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.7%, 1.1%, and 0.6%, respectively. Information Technology was the top-performing sector in the S&P 500, rising more than 2%. Technology stocks powered major indexes to sharp gains Thursday a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years. Story Continues Summary List Go beyond the day's market moves with Investopedia's Value Add, where you'll find sharp analysis, investing ideas, and practical guidance on what today's biggest financial stories could mean for your money. Explore Value Add and subscribe on Substack. SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 AT 08:13 PM GMT Mortgage Rates Just Took Their Biggest Jump in Over a Year The housing market was already stalling. Now borrowing costs have jumped to their highest in more than a year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.95% from 6.76% a week ago, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's the highest since late January 2025 and the biggest one-week jump since April 2025. The surge in borrowing costs came after the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed Tuesday to its highest since 2007. Mortgage rates largely track Treasury yields, which rise when investors are concerned about inflation. Yields rose over 5% as fighting in the Middle East pushed up oil prices and sent diesel to record prices. For sale signs are posted in front of condominiums for sale in July in Los Angeles. Mortgage rates rose this week to their highest since early 2025. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Rising rates since the Iran war began in late February have already added hundreds of dollars to the typical mortgage payment on a newly purchased home, pushing buyers out of the market and slowing sales. Read the full article here. -Diccon Hyatt SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 AT 07:33 PM GMT Yeti Holdings Stock Rises After Company Unveils Fiscal 2030 Targets Yeti Holdings shareholders seem to be responding positively to the cooler maker's long-term financial framework. Yeti (YETI) shares are rising 4% heading into the close after the company announced ahead of its investor day that it sees "low-double-digit to high-teens" annual adjusted earnings per share growth through 2030, as well as "mid-single-digit to high-single-digit" annual net sales growth. "As we enter our next decade, we are focused on four priorities: creating the next billion dollars of sales, building our next billion-dollar product platform, generating a billion dollars of sales outside the United States and delivering more than a billion dollars of cumulative free cash flow," Yeti CEO Matt Reintjes said. "These priorities are underpinned by a clear operating plan and disciplined capital allocation framework, which we believe will drive durable growth and attractive long-term shareholder returns." Despite today's gains, Yeti shares are 5% lower this year. Credit: Soobum Im / NWSL via Getty Images Austin, Texas-based Yeti also affirmed its fiscal 2026 guidance, including sales growth of 7% to 8% and adjusted EPS of $2.94 to $3.00. Despite today's gains, Yeti shares are about 5% lower this year. SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 AT 06:38 PM GMT Bond Markets Like What They Heard From Fed Chair Kevin Warsh If bond markets gave report cards, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh would get high marks for Wednesday's meeting, where the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023. It wasn't a smooth path to get there. Bond investors have been lukewarm on Warsh in the early days of his tenure, a worry that ultimately costs households and businesses by raising mortgage rates and other borrowing costs. Bond investors see inflation as an enemy, since rising prices eat at the fixed interest payments they collect on bonds. And they've had trouble taking Warsh at his word that he, too, dislikes inflation enough to raise rates and return it to 2%—the latest reading pegged it at an annual rate of 3.4%. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh speaks during a news conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 16, 2026. Credit: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images Warsh quelled those doubts on Wednesday. He gave a "confident, pound-the-podium press conference argument that the FOMC would achieve the 2% inflation target," wrote James Egelhof, chief U.S. economist at BNP Paribas. Read the full article here. -Polo Rocha SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 AT 05:34 PM GMT Arm's CEO Says the Chip Designer Is Even More Confident in Hitting $2B AI Chip Sales Target. The Stock Is Rallying Bullish comments from Arm Holdings' chief executive last night are helping its stock rank among the Nasdaq's top gainers today. Arm's (ARM) U.S.-listed shares are up 8% as tech stocks rally Thursday, a day after CEO Rene Haas told CNBC's Jim Cramer that the firm is even "more confident today" it can meet the $2 billion sales target for its debut AI chip than it was when it announced the goal on its May earnings call. Haas said demand for Arm's products has "never been stronger," and said the main constraint on its ability to grow revenue will be its ability to secure supply in the crowded AI chip market. With Thursday's gains, Arm shares are up some 140% since the start of the year. Credit: Long Wei / VCG via Getty Images Arm has long made most of its money from designing chips used in smartphones and for other tech companies, including Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOGL). Amid a weakening smartphone market, the company announced plans back in March to start selling its own AI chip. At the time, the company said the new chip could drive $15 billion in sales by 2031. With Thursday's rally, Arm's U.S.-listed shares have gained 140% this year. Still, they are down more than 40% since hitting an all-time high of $452.70 on June 18, as worries about the sustainability of spending on artificial intelligence have weighed on AI-tied stocks. -Aaron McDade SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 AT 05:11 PM GMT The SEC Steps In to Ease Crypto's Path After Big Legislative Loss Federal agencies are stepping up their support for digital assets after a major disappointment for the cryptocurrency industry in Congress earlier this week. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday handed the industry what is effectively a hall pass, in the form of a five-year conditional exemption of existing securities laws, that facilitates trading of tokenized stocks, or digital representations of public companies' shares that can move on blockchains. Versions of this exist today, via Robinhood and others, though the vast majority are synthetic or derivative-based investment products and are circulated outside of the U.S. The federal agency's signal that it's working to clear the regulatory path for crypto arrived swiftly—just 48 hours after the Clarity Act, a broad framework for digital assets, suffered a near-death blow to passage on Tuesday when the bill failed to garner enough votes to pass through Senate's cloture vote, a procedural motion that could've moved it to a floor vote. The Trump administration's commitment to keep crypto moving forward in the absence of a clear legislative path for industry-specific rules appears to be keeping spirits up. Bitcoin got a small boost following the SEC's move, leaving it around where it was prior to the cloture vote. Crypto-linked stocks including Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and Circle (CRCL) were up at least 3% in recent trading. The SEC said it plans to ensure progress continues on crypto rules. Credit: J. David Ake / Getty Images SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a video message published today that the agency is using "its statutory authority" in the wake of Congress' inability to advance the Clarity Act "to ensure progress continues." The exemption, albeit temporary, allows venue

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rallied to its best day in six weeks Thursday after falling oil prices and easing pressure from the bond market helped Wall Street reverse many of its moves from the prior day. The S&P 500 jumped 1.1% for just its second rise in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 316 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.7%. Stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil slid 1% to settle at $104.82. That's down from the nearly $110 it reached earlier in the week on worries that the war with Iran will keep oil bottled up in the Middle East instead of going to customers worldwide. Brent is of course still much more expensive than the $72 per barrel that it cost earlier this summer, but Thursday's drop helped pull yields lower in the bond market and removed some pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.93% from 5.01% late Wednesday. Higher yields make it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, from the U.S. government to people looking to buy houses to businesses wanting to build data centers. That in turn slows the economy. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised the short-term interest rate that it controls, the federal funds rate, by a quarter of a percentage point for its first hike in more than three years. Officials also signaled they may raise the federal funds rate one more time this year as they try to get the nation's high inflation under control. The signals sent Wall Street on a roller coaster. Stocks initially remained higher for the day after the Fed made its announcement Wednesday. They then slid sharply before recovering a chunk of the losses before trading ended. On the upside for markets, the shift to higher interest rates built confidence that the Fed is committed to getting inflation back to its target of 2%. Questions had begun to bubble earlier about whether it would feel pressure from President Donald Trump, who is calling for lower interest rates. And the short-term cost of pain for the economy could be worth it if it gets inflation under control following years of its staying too high. On the downside for markets, higher rates undercut prices for stocks and other investments. When investors earn more in interest from bonds, which are considered safer investments, they're less willing to pay high prices for other investments. That's beyond the slowing effect that higher rates have on the economy in hopes of removing fuel for inflation. Some reports on Thursday signaled the U.S. economy may be strong enough to withstand higher interest rates. One said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. Another said that manufacturing growth in the mid-Atlantic region was stronger than economists expected.

Several factors are behind its stubbornness. Aside from post-pandemic sticker shock that never went away, the Iran war , tariffs and the AI buildout are contributing to the rise in prices American consumers are experiencing at the gas pump, grocery store, and nearly everywhere else. While year-over-year consumer price inflation has come down since peaking at 9.1% in 2022 , it stood at 3.4% in August , still above the Fed's 2% annual target. Fed watchers will soon get more clarity on where officials believe the federal funds rate is headed as the September decision is expected to be released alongside the FOMC's Summary of Economic Projections. That quarterly report includes committee members' projections for the appropriate path for interest rates. No fan of letting markets know what he's thinking, Warsh did not provide his own projections in June , but his colleagues did. As of Sept. 13, most traders, according to CME FedWatch , were betting that the Federal Open Market Committee will raise the federal funds rate by a quarter-point on Sept. 16. While traders were more divided on what the committee will do at its final two meetings this year, a little more than half predicted that it would leave the range at 3.75% to 4% in October, and a little less than half are betting it will raise it to 4% to 4.25% in December. "Price stability is not self-executing," Warsh said. "It is the Fed's job to deliver stable prices." Ahead of the September meeting, inflation was rising faster than workers' paychecks, and hiring rebounded, with U.S. employers adding 162,000 jobs in August . Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on Aug. 28 described the labor market as "stable" and said policymakers should be focused on rising prices. Fed policymakers typically raise the benchmark for short-term interest rates across the country to tame inflation and lower it to stimulate the job market. So far in 2026, they have chosen to leave it unchanged at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Although President Donald Trump and some in his administration have called for lower rates , economists believe a cut probably isn't on the table. Instead, they said, the Fed's decision is whether to hike or hold. The Federal Reserve's September decision may be a close call, but traders are betting that policymakers will raise the federal funds rate, a target range for short-term interest rates, for the first time in more than three years. Story Continues After Labor Department data on Sept. 11 showed that consumer costs rose again in August, several experts said the new numbers would likely be enough to push the Fed to raise the target range at its next meeting. Analysts from Bank of America Global Research, KPMG Economics and Oxford Economics noted that while a hike is not guaranteed, the data strengthened the case for an increase. "Will their broad reading of economic conditions remain sufficiently benign for them to hold steady for now or will the moderate reacceleration in inflation represent a tipping point that nudges them to hike? That's the question," Jim Baird, Plante Moran Financial Advisors chief investment officer, said in a note to USA TODAY. "If policymakers choose to stand pat again, the questions surrounding what they're waiting for will become louder and more direct." Why would the Fed leave the rate unchanged? Despite stubborn inflation, a September rate hike is not a "slam dunk," according to Mike Skordeles, Truist Advisory Services' head of U.S. economics. While gas prices were not the only thing that got more expensive last month, their 3.9% increase helped drive August's rise in consumer inflation. Fed policymakers have historically tended to look through supply shocks, such as those stemming from constrained oil supply linked to the Middle East conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war, because they cannot directly control them. However, they tend to be more likely to respond when those supply shocks start raising the cost of other things. In addition, markets have already pushed long-term rates higher. At the Fed's last meeting in July, Warsh suggested that markets may be doing some of the FOMC's inflation-fighting work for it, pointing to higher nominal and real yields across the Treasury curve. "The hike-hold debate is rather close," Skordeles said. "There are a lot of reasons to go in either direction." When was the last time the FOMC changed its rate? In 2024 and 2025, the Fed followed a similar pattern. In both years, the Federal Open Market Committee left the target range alone until voting to change it in September and at its two meetings that followed. What's different is that back then, the FOMC lowered the range. Now, it's contemplating raising it. If committee members were to approve a hike, it would be the first time they opted to do so since July 2023. At that time, U.S. employers added an estimated 209,000 jobs and year-over-year consumer price inflation stood at 3% the month before. While the committee has left the federal funds rate unchanged this year, three of its 12 voting members dissented from that decision at its most recent meeting. In July, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan preferred to raise the target range by a quarter-point. "Both the hard data and the anecdotes are telling me the same thing: Policy is not restrictive. Inflation is too high – and the longer it stays above our objective, the harder it will be to bring it back down," Hammack said in a Sept. 4 LinkedIn post. "I'll keep paying attention to the data and listening to the anecdotes. Right now, what I'm hearing is that it's time to act." What would a rate hike mean for American consumers? In general, the Fed raising its benchmark rate can lead to higher interest rates on credit cards, auto loans, and personal loans for borrowers. For savers, it typically means higher returns on their high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit. If the FOMC approves a hike on Sept. 16, borrowers with variable-rate debt will probably feel the impact first, according to Rodney Williams, SoLo Funds' co-founder and president. He said credit card APRs could rise within one to two billing cycles, increasing minimum payments, while HELOC and variable personal loan payments could climb as their rates reset. "Adjustable-rate mortgage borrowers may be temporarily protected, but it's very likely they could face higher payments at their next scheduled adjustment," Williams told USA TODAY. "For Americans already living paycheck to paycheck, even a modest increase will ultimately make it harder to pay down existing debt while still being able to cover essentials." A rate hike would also mean savings yields move higher over time, but not every bank or credit union adjusts their rates at the same pace, according to CJ Pointkowski, Navy Federal Credit Union's assistant vice president of deposit products operations. "Rather than trying to perfectly time market movements, savers tend to be better off reviewing their accounts often, making their moves when they find a competitive rate that works for them, continuing to pay attention, and staying flexible so that they can take advantage of rates that work for their goals," Pointkowski said. Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com, follow her on X @rachelbarber_, and subscribe to her newsletter "Making More of Your Money" here. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is it finally time? Why the Fed may raise rates for first time since 2023.