Wednesday’s big stock stories: Whatโs likely to move the market
Stocks @ Night is a daily newsletter delivered after hours, giving you a first look at tomorrow and last look at today. Sign up for free to receive it directly in your inbox. Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as the S & P 500 closed at a record, and what’s on the radar for the next session. Record breaker The S & P 500 closed at a new high Tuesday. It is up 23% from the March 30 low and up 14% year to date. A new high for the Nasdaq-100 and the Nasdaq Composite . They’re both up about 35% from their March 30 lows. The Nasdaq-100 is up 23% this year, and the composite is up almost 19% in 2026. Here’s Jim Cramer’s take on “Mad Money” on Tuesday night. He said, “People may be too negative and too critical about stocks that have room for growth.” He also made the case, “Don’t ask what can go wrong. Ask what can go right?” As he said, the market is divided between “the winners, like AI, and everything else.” That can be seen in the difference between the big indices and the equal weights. As highlighted in this note on Monday night , the equal-weight ETFs are trailing the indexes. As the S & P 500 hit a new highโฆ the Invesco S & P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) is down 5% from the high. The First Trust Nasdaq-100 Select Equal Weight ETF (QQEW) is near a high but hasn’t hit one since Aug. 13. .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500 in 2026 Indices closing in The NYSE Composite is down 3.8% from the high. It is up 14% from the November low and up 8.7% year to date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 6% from the high. It’s up 14% from the low and up 7% in 2026. The Russell 2000 is off 8% from the high hit in mid August. The index is up 23% from the November low and up 14% year to date. Sector check Tech was the only S & P sector to hit a high on Tuesday. It is up 51% from the March 30 low and up about 32% year to date Energy is down 3% from the high, while healthcare is off 4.7%. Fed minutes at 2 p.m. ET CNBC’s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman will have the details on the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its September policy meeting. Ahead of the news, here’s how the bond complex and bond ETFs are faring. The 10-year Treasury note is yielding 5.286%. The 2-year is yielding 4.798%. The 1-year Treasury bill is yielding 4.45%. The 6-month T-bill yield is at 4.293%. The 3-month T-bill yield is 4.138%. The Fidelity Corporate Bond ETF (FCOR) has a dividend yield of 4.87% as of Tuesday night. The iShares 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (SHYG) has a dividend yield of 7.14%. The State Street SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) is yielding 6.82% The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) is yielding 6.08%. US10Y YTD mountain U.S. 10-year Treasury yield in 2026 Interest rates and the private equity guys CNBC TV and “Morning Call” anchor Morgan Brennan was going through these names Tuesday and will have more in the days ahead. Apollo is off 25% from the high, down 13% in a month. Ares is down 35% from the high. It’s down 16% in a month. KKR is down 37% from the high, off almost 16% in a month. Blue Owl is down 47% from the high. It’s down about 23% in a month. Microsoft The software giant has a key artificial intelligence event Wednesday, focusing on the future of the personal computer. CNBC’s Kate Rooney and Jordan Novet will be watching and waiting to report. Microsoft is 4.4% from the 52-week high, seen back on Oct. 28, 2025. The stock is up 2.3% in two days and up about 37% in three months. MSFT 3M mountain Microsoft in the past three months Not so happy at home Analyst Michael Rehaut, a longtime housing analyst at JPMorgan, recently joined Melius Research and picked up coverage there. He believes the housing stocks have a lot of challenges including higher mortgage rates, a lot of existing homes on the market, record low affordability, and consumer worries over jobs and low consumer confidence. He thinks we’ll see problems deep into 2027 for key housing stocks. Pulte is down 19% from the high. D.R. Horton and Hovnanian are down 22% from their highs. KB Home is off 33% from the high. Lennar is off 42% from the high.
