A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, Sept. 16, 2026.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Stocks fell Monday, weighed down by a jump in oil prices and Treasury yields to start the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 239 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 slide 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite fur 0.7%.
Brent crude traded more than 2% higher at $106.79 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures gained around 2% as well as $94.40, after President Donald Trump rejected conditions for a ceasefire presented by Iran.
Treasury yields build on last week’s sharp moves. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield traded above 5.2%. The 30-year bond yield topped 5.5%. Both traded around multi-year highs.
Several AI stocks led the major indexes lower on Monday. Chip stocks such as Advanced Micro Devices and Micron Technology traded down about 3% and 2% on the day, respectively. Amazon so edged down 1%, while Microsoft dipped 2% over the same period. Meta shed nearly 4%.
However, Nvidia bucked the trend in hyperscaler and other AI stocks. The stock popped more than 3% after the company announced on Monday it plans to buy back an additional $150 billion worth of its shares, bringing the total value of its share repurchasing program to $235 billion.
Wall Street is coming off a winning week after tech and tech-linked names outperformed. Meta Platforms rallied nearly 13% in that time, as traders cheered the company’s Muse artificial intelligence agent. Microsoft climbed more than 4%, while Apple and Nvidia advanced more than 1% each.
10-year Treasury yield in 2026
Those gains came even as Treasury yields raced to highs not seen in years, with traders increasing bets of more Federal Reserve rate hikes due to persistent inflation. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield scaled to a level not seen since 2007. The 30-year bond yield reach a 2004 high. The 2-year note yield also jumped around 17 basis points last week.
“The rapid rise in 2-year government note yields worldwide signals that major central banks need to raise their policy rates further in response to the inflationary impact of higher-for-longer oil prices resulting from the recent re-escalation of the Middle East war,” wrote Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. “Unfortunately, these higher rates also exacerbate the outlook for large government deficits worldwide.”
Rates will be in focus again this week, with a slew of key economic data on deck. The August personal consumption expenditure price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, is due out Wednesday. New US manufacturing numbers are due Thursday, while the closely watched September jobs report is set for release Friday.
