After-RTH Summary — Thursday, September 24, 2026
Equities finished mostly lower in a whippy, yield-driven session, as a fresh leg up in Treasury yields and a Hormuz-tinged spike in crude overshadowed pockets of strength in energy and healthcare.
Index Closes
S&P 500 (SPX): 7,700.6, -5.4 (-0.07%)
Nasdaq 100 (NDX): 30,464.2, -6.1 (-0.02%)
Dow Jones (DJI): 51,377.6, -134.0 (-0.26%)
Russell 2000 (RTY): 2,836.1, -2.8 (-0.10%)
Breadth was thin all session. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed to its highest level since 2007 and the 2-year hit multi-year highs, and that repricing did the damage — large-caps mostly shrugged it off while small-caps and rate-sensitive growth names took the brunt. Oracle's pre-market plunge set an ugly tone for tech that the tape never fully shook, even as energy and healthcare offered some ballast.
Sector Heatmap
Winners
Energy: +1.1% — crude's Hormuz-risk rally lifted the majors, Exxon +1.6%
Healthcare: +0.5% — a defensive bid as yields ripped higher
Losers
Communication Services: -2.4% — Alphabet -3.8%, Amazon -2.0% after both blocked Meta's new "Muse" AI assistant from their platforms
Technology: sharply lower — Oracle -6.4% was the single biggest cap-weighted drag on the tape
Leadership was about as narrow as it gets — only a couple of sectors closed green, and the ones that did were classic "risk-off with a yield twist" plays (energy on the oil bid, healthcare on the defensive rotation) rather than any broad risk-on impulse.
Notable Movers / Themes
Oracle (ORCL) -6.4% — a force majeure notice on its New Mexico data center project reignited AI-capex jitters
MGM Resorts (MGM) -9.98% — withdrew its $18B buyout proposal
TD Synnex (SNX) -13% — classic sell-the-news reaction despite record quarterly earnings
Charles River Labs (CRL) +5.4% — investor day commentary sent shares sharply higher
Agilent (A) +3.7% — strong quarterly growth commentary drew buyers
Meta Platforms (META) +1% — up again (now +12% on the week) as its new Muse AI assistant keeps drawing attention, and rivals' pushback
After-Hours Earnings & News
Costco (COST): beat on both lines; shares edged only marginally higher after hours as the "healthy but priced-for-perfection" debate continues
Darden Restaurants (DRI): met EPS estimates but slipped as Olive Garden same-store sales growth cooled
Key Levels for Tomorrow's Open
SPX: 7,650 support / 7,750 resistance
NDX: 30,200 support / 30,700 resistance
DJI: 51,000 support / 51,700 resistance
RTY: 2,800 support / 2,870 resistance
Macro Context Going Into Friday
Fed's Williams opens the day at 9:15am ET, with durable goods orders due at 12:30pm and final Michigan consumer sentiment and inflation expectations at 2pm; Fed's Hammack closes out the speaker slate at 6pm. It's a heavier Fedspeak day than usual, and it lands at a sensitive moment — the 10-year at its highest since 2007 has markets now pricing roughly 66% odds of an October rate hike, up sharply from under 10% just a week ago. Any pushback on that pricing could spark a relief bounce in duration-sensitive growth names; confirmation of the hawkish drift keeps the pressure on. Watch gold, too — its slide toward the low-$4,300s is as much a read on real yields as anything happening in equities.
— Marketfragments
Comments