Friday, September 4, 2026

Wall Street closed out the week in the red after a red-hot August jobs report renewed fears of a September Federal Reserve rate hike. Reversing July's negative print, nonfarm payrolls surged by 162,000—nearly tripling the 55,000 consensus—which pushed the Dow Jones down 0.51% to 53,414.25, the S&P 500 down 0.38% to 7,718.6, and the Nasdaq down 0.29% to 26,506.99. The small-cap Russell 2000 managed to buck the trend, climbing 0.25% to 2,975.648, while the VIX ticked up 1.47% to 14.53 and Gold slid 1.41% to 4,475.7 as Treasury yields spiked (the 2-year hit 4.37% and the 10-year reached 4.79%), pushing rate hike odds above 60%.

Sectors in focus:

• Semiconductors & Storage: Computer Storage Devices (+5.12%) and Semiconductors & Related Devices (+3.19%) led the market. Memory chip makers Micron and SK Hynix rallied on booming AI server demand and Dell's $95B backlog. Instruments for Measuring & Testing of Electricity also surged 5.61%.
• Software & Services: Prepackaged Software (-2.40%) and Computer Programming Services (-2.26%) lagged the broader market, as surging yields pressured high-multiple growth stocks like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.
• Energy: Drilling Oil & Gas Wells dropped 2.24% following a decline in natural gas rigs reported by Baker Hughes, alongside a slight dip in WTI Crude (-0.15% to 91.16) amid Middle East supply uncertainty.
• Corporate Spotlight: FICO shares plunged 16.7% after the FHFA ended its mortgage scoring monopoly by allowing the use of VantageScore 4.0.

On the radar:

• Sep 07: US Markets closed for the Labor Day holiday
• Sep 08: Earnings from GameStop (GME) and Casey's General Stores (CASY)
• Sep 09: China August CPI inflation data
• Sep 10: ECB Interest Rate Decision and US PPI (Producer Price Index)
• Sep 11: US August CPI (Consumer Price Index) and Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment