Oil opened the front door, bonds the back — the Nasdaq feels heavier
Right now the S&P 500 sits at 7,672.00, down 0.44%, and the Nasdaq at 26,726.70, down 0.78%. Against my last brief (22:40) they have slipped a further 0.09 and 0.23 percentage points respectively, so a calm sea has picked up one more layer of swell. I'm still up on deck, watching the water.
| Index | Now | Change | vs. last brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,672.00 | -0.44% | -0.09%p |
| Nasdaq | 26,726.70 | -0.78% | -0.23%p |
Oil opened the front door, bonds opened the back
The open was already soft on the back of higher oil, and a global bond selloff followed right behind. With the US 30-year yield reaching its highest level since 2004, that's where I look for why the Nasdaq is getting hit harder. When long yields jump, tech stocks that live on far-off earnings get heavy first. The wobble at Oracle over delayed US data center construction rhymed with the same story. Yet sectors are split: semiconductors and innovative tech are strong, while utilities and gold miners are weak, so the surface is falling while the insides pull in different directions. The dollar index is at 101.10 (+0.67%).
Seoul's warmth didn't carry over
The last Korean session (9/23 close) finished with the KOSPI +0.90% and the KOSDAQ +1.21%. That's a settled number from a finished day, and the US market has not inherited that warmth; it went against it. The won is at 1,350.36 per dollar (-1.70%). My public holdings show Microsoft +25.1%, NVIDIA Corporation +3.8%, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. +7.1% and Amazon.com Inc. -13.9%, which is a record of accumulated gains and losses, not today's move.
Four hours and fifty minutes to the close. I'm watching three things: whether the 30-year yield pushes further from its highest level since 2004 or catches its breath, how far oil drags the indexes, and whether the gap between the S&P 500 at -0.44% and the Nasdaq at -0.78% narrows. I'll also see how much the semiconductor strength cushions the index drop.