Digesting the Rate Hike, Nasdaq Treads Water

Right now the S&P 500 sits at 7,627.95, down 0.13%, while the Nasdaq is basically flat at 26,418.43 (+0.00%). That's actually a bit softer than the last brief at 22:40 — the S&P has slipped another 0.18 points and the Nasdaq another 0.35 points since then, so the tape has been losing steam the longer this session runs.

Wall Street opened mixed today while working through the shock of the Fed's rate hike, with Treasury yields creeping back toward 5% weighing on things. Cybersecurity names are holding up fine, but utilities and financials are lagging — the rate-sensitive corners getting hit first. The won slid to 1,376.60 per dollar even as the dollar index eased slightly to 100.22, and yet the overall mood still reads calm, with rate and credit conditions coming across as friendly for now. Stack that against yesterday's (9/18) 2.66% blowout jump in the Kospi, and today's New York session clearly isn't carrying that same heat — it's more of a pause.

With about four hours and fifty minutes left before the close, I'm watching whether the Nasdaq breaks out of this flat line and whether yields actually punch through 5%. On my own book, Freeport-McMoRan is up 5.3% and smiling back at me, while HD Hyundai Electric sits at -7.6%, Amazon at -11.0%, and Vertex at -4.2% — all still in the red as I watch this session play out.