Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 25, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures jumped on Wednesday, the final day of September, after new U.S. economic data showed inflation slowed last month, sending Treasury yields lower.
Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading up 205 points, or about 0.4%. S&P 500 futures also rose about 0.4%, while Nasdaq-100 futures were trading 0.4% higher.
The personal consumption expenditures price index for August increased at a 3.4% annual rate, down from 3.7% the month prior. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for inflation to remain steady at 3.7%. Even more encouraging was core PCE, excluding food and energy, rose 3% year on year, down from 3.3% the month before and also lower than economists had forecast.
Treasury yields eased slightly on Wednesday, a day after the 30-year Treasury reached levels not seen since June 2002. The 10-year yield, meanwhile, scaled to a fresh 2007 high on Tuesday near 5.3%. Those moves led the Dow to decline more than 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slid 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, noted that equities are “trying to hang in there, but tighter financial conditions are emboldening the bears and lifting interest in downside hedges.”
To be sure, new comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams appeared to have eased fears of higher central bank rates, at least for the moment. Williams said late Tuesday, “there is no need for urgency, and we have time to gather more information” before the Fed’s October meeting.
The CME Group’s FedWatch tool shows traders are pricing in a 49% chance of a quarter-point rate hike next month. That’s down from 71% on Monday.
Wednesday marks the last day of September and the third quarter. Market performance has been mixed in both timeframes. For the month, the S&P 500 and Dow are tracking for declines while the Nasdaq is up more than 1%. For the quarter, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up 2%, while the Dow is off nearly 2%.