Midday read — Thursday, September 10, 2026 · 11:35 AM ET

Third straight down day, and the S&P is sitting on a line that matters. S&P 7,603.93 (−0.42%), Nasdaq 26,128.42 (−0.48%), Dow 52,144.18 (−236.48, −0.45%). VIX +5.0% to 17.28.

August producer prices landed hot enough to gap the index down to 7,580 at the open. Buyers stepped in immediately, and it's spent three hours grinding back to 7,604 — which puts it directly on its 50-day moving average at 7,602. That level held on the first test.

The AI complex is where the selling is. MU −4.23% losing the $1,000 handle it just reclaimed, SNDK −3.98%, INTC −4.25%, NVDA −2.47% for a third consecutive decline, AMD −2.58%, SMH −1.75%. Memory has given back most of Monday's push.

Apple is the lone bid. AAPL +2.59% to $323.50, the day after unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro on 2nm silicon and the first foldable. That's a real product-cycle answer to the memory-cost squeeze that's been eating at the margin story since August.

Tomorrow brings consumer inflation, and it now carries the whole week. Hot payrolls at 162,000, crude near $92, and a producer print the market didn't like — all heading into the September 15–16 meeting. If CPI runs warm, the hike stops being a debate.

🍌 See you all on the trading floor

Blow Up Ships, Get Expensive Oil. Any Questions?

Midday read — Wednesday, September 9, 2026 · 11:30 AM ET

One winner, everything else red. S&P 7,629.19 (−0.58%), Nasdaq 26,204.00 (−0.82%), Dow 52,364.81 (−421.26, −0.80%). VIX +5.5% to 16.58.

Meta launched Muse Tuesday evening — its first personal AI agent, sold through tiered paid subscriptions. META +6.32% to $652.27, and it's the only mega-cap doing anything today.

The reason it matters isn't the product, it's the business model. Meta guided 2026 capex to $130–145 billion and got punished all summer for spending with nothing attached to it. Muse is the first thing the company has shipped that carries a price tag. That's why a product launch moved a trillion-dollar stock six percent.

Alphabet is paying the bill. GOOGL −2.76% to $329 as Muse lands directly on Gemini's territory. AMZN −2.41%, AAPL −1.18%, NVDA −0.85%.

Chips are quietly fine underneath. MU +2.21% holding above $1,022, AMD +2.54% extending yesterday's move, SNDK +2.23%, INTC +0.35%. The AI trade isn't breaking — it's concentrating into fewer names.

The tape opened at 7,660 and has sold off all morning. That's the real story. Tomorrow brings consumer inflation, and after Friday's 162,000 payrolls with crude near $92, this is the print that decides whether September is live. Nobody wants risk on going into it.

🍌 See you all on the trading floor

Midday read — Friday, August 28, 2026 · 11:55 AM ET

Warsh said nothing, and the market believed him. S&P 7,733.19 (+0.03%), Nasdaq 26,516.76 (−0.09%), Dow 53,637.59 (+0.13%). VIX 14.49.

The most anticipated speech of the year delivered exactly what the tape feared. No reaction function. No forward guidance. Warsh called himself impressed by the economy's strength, then said this summer's inflation readings — better than expected as they were — do not tell him underlying trends have meaningfully improved. His framing was blunt: market participants should not be looking primarily to the Fed for their next trade.

Watch the sparkline. The S&P jumped from 7,732 to 7,771 in the twenty minutes after he spoke, then bled the entire move back within the hour. Traders bought the absence of a hawkish surprise, then remembered that absence of guidance is the problem, not the relief. September odds sat near one in three going in, and nothing today moved them.

The rotation is the real story. Money left the AI winner and went straight back to the old guard: AMZN +3.61%, AAPL +2.25% clearing $321, MSFT +1.97%, GOOGL +1.97%. Against that, NVDA −2.60% giving back a third of yesterday's pop, MRVL −9.29%, SMH −2.53%, AMD −1.71%.

One day after the best AI print in history, the chips are the worst group on the board. That's what a market with no policy roadmap does — it takes profits and hides in the names that don't need cheap money.

Closing out August next week.

🍌 See you all on the trading floor

Midday read — Thursday, August 27, 2026 · 12:20 PM ET

The streak breaks. S&P 7,723.67 (+0.62%), Nasdaq 26,477.37 (+1.33%), Dow 53,627.00 (+0.31%). VIX crushed to 14.48.

Nine companies beat this month and got sold for it. Nvidia beat and got paid. Revenue $96.2B, up 106% year over year. Data center $89B, up 117% and past the roughly $86B expected. EPS $2.22 against $2.09. Gross margin held at 75%. And the guide is the part that mattered: about $108B for the current quarter versus roughly $104B expected — with no China data center revenue assumed in it at all.

NVDA +8.82% to $228.15 on volume already north of 160 million shares.

The line that reframes the whole AI debate: management sees capex among the five largest hyperscalers rising to roughly $1.3 trillion next year from about $800 billion this year. Every card since July 22 has tracked the market punishing companies for spending on AI. Nvidia just told everyone the spending accelerates from here, and the tape bought it.

Software came along for the ride. CRM +20.59% and CRWD +17.26% both reported strong and both got rewarded — the second and third confirmation that the punish-every-beat reflex has flipped.

The rotation inside is worth watching. AVGO +3.52% and SMH +2.49% joined, but MU −2.81% and AMD −1.96% are being sold to fund it. Money is concentrating into the winner, not spreading across the group.

Warsh at Jackson Hole tomorrow. The market just got its answer on AI demand. Tomorrow it asks about the cost of money.

🍌 See you all on the trading floor