Nasdaq 100 Rallies as Oil Slides, Yields Retreat: Stock Market Today

U.S. stocks rebounded sharply Thursday, erasing two sessions of losses as crude oil retreated from its geopolitical spike and Treasury yields eased back below 5%, one day after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate hike since 2023. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% to 7,635.21, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a 0.7% advance, up 365 points to 51,827.04. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed, jumping 1.8% to 29,450.56. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.6% to $100.81 a barrel Brent dropped 2.5% to $103.23, a one-week low Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and a unanimous FOMC lifted the fed funds target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4% on Wednesday and projected at least one further increase this year, citing inflation that remains too high at 3.4% and a labor market at effectively full employment. Treasury Yields Retreat, Volatility Cools The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.95%, down 8 basis points and back under the 5.04% level hit earlier this week, which had marked a 19-year high. The policy-sensitive 2-year yield slipped 6 basis points to 4.69%, while the 30-year eased 7 basis points to 5.30%. The CBOE Volatility Index slid 11.4% to 15.69, unwinding the fear premium built up around the Fed decision and the Middle East supply scare. Gold was the standout in commodities, jumping 2.5% to $4,368.71 an ounce as real yields retreated, with silver surging 4.1% to $65.86. On the macro front, initial jobless claims fell 10,000 to 196,000, well below the 206,500 consensus and close to July’s 60-year low, while the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index slowed to 37.8 from 47.4 but comfortably beat the 32.1 estimate. Read Also: Fed Rate Hikes Are Supposed to Hurt Bonds: This One Is Doing the Opposite Thursday’s Performance In Major US Indices IndexLast% ChangeMTDYTDS&P 5007,635.21+1.1%-0.7%+11.5%Dow Jones51,827.04+0.7%-2.6%+7.8%Nasdaq 10029,450.56+1.8%0.0%+16.6%Russell 20002,891.07+1.1%-2.2%+16.5%Updated by 12:15 PM ET According to the Benzinga Pro platform: The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) gained 1.1%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) rose 0.7%. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) climbed 1.7%. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) advanced 1.0%. Chip Rebound Powers Tech The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) was the clear leader, rising 2.2% as semiconductor names extended a rebound from Monday’s AI-safety-driven selloff. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) followed with a 1.4% gain. At the other end, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) fell 0.4% and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) slipped 0.1%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) was flat despite the crude selloff, while the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLB) and Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLU) added 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively. At the industry level, the Invesco Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) led with a 4.1% jump and the Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (NYSE:PBW) rose 3.8%, both riding the same power-generation theme that dominated the tape. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) climbed 3.6% alongside bullion, the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (NYSE:XME) added 3.1% and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) gained 2.6%. The laggard was the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSE:XOP), which ended the morning essentially flat. The chip complex did the heavy lifting. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) surged 9.7% on more than 77 million shares, nearly twice its normal pace, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 6.9%, Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) added 5.4% and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) climbed 5.6%. Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) jumped 8.8% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE:HPE) rose 8.0%. Defense Names are the Session’s Dead Weight RTX Corp. (NYSE:RTX) fell 2.3%, Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) dropped 1.9%, General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE:GD) slid 1.7% and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) lost 1.5%, a clean unwind of the Middle East risk premium. On the earnings front, Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) was the only major name to report after Wednesday’s close, missing on both lines with adjusted EPS of $1.23 versus $1.29 consensus and revenue of $8.05 billion against $8.37 billion expected. The homebuilder cut its full-year delivery guidance to 80,000-81,000 units from 82,000-83,000 and saw home-sales gross margin compress to 15.8% from 17.5%. Shares fell roughly 1.5%, with the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS:ITB) still managing a 0.9% gain. The Day’s Big Winners Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC), up 20.1%, after disclosing Wednesday evening that it issued Amazon warrants for up to 1.69 million shares at $200.93 – roughly $340 million – tied to a backup-generator supply agreement for AWS data centers, with initial deliveries of about $2.4 billion across 2027 and 2028 and full warrant vesting at $8 billion of aggregate payments. Vicor Corp. (NASDAQ:VICR) rallied 14.3% after announcing Wednesday it licensed its Vertical Power Delivery patent portfolio to an unnamed leading AI OEM on a non-exclusive basis, layering a royalty stream on top of product sales. The news follows a raised fiscal 2026 revenue outlook of more than $600 million and a 145% jump in backlog. Tempus AI Inc. (NASDAQ:TEM) gained 13.7% following a Morgan Stanley note that quantified the company’s reimbursement tailwind, with management pointing to roughly $80 million to $100 million of incremental revenue next year from xT pricing and $250 million to $300 million annually from xF approval and pricing. Nuclear-adjacent power names Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO) and X-Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:XE) rose 12.3% and 11.5%, respectively, with no company-specific news in the tape. Both appear to be trading in sympathy with the broader data-center power complex after the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 on Wednesday, shifting generation and transmission costs onto large data centers. X-Energy’s most recent release, a Sept. 15 UK partnership with Centrica, was met with a nearly 4% decline that day. Other notable gainers included IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ), up 9.9%, SiTime Corp. (NASDAQ:SITM), up 8.7%, and Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), up 8.1%, as the iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) added 2.2%. On the Downside AutoNation Inc. (NYSE:AN) dropped 3.9% after CFO Thomas Szlosek flagged third-quarter headwinds at the same Morgan Stanley conference, citing softer service growth, model-year changeover pressure, affordability and lower EV penetration following the expiration of federal incentives. Further up the auto value chain, General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) shrugged off the same read-across, rising 3.6%. Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) slid 3.9%, extending losses after a Sept. 15 Wells Fargo note lowered confidence that the company can renegotiate its AI content-licensing agreement with Google on favorable terms. Third-party data cited in recent sell-side work showed Google search traffic to Reddit down roughly 10% year-over-year so far in September, after a 7% decline in August. Karman Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KRMN) rounded out the losers, down 3.8% consistent with the broader unwind in aerospace and defense as the Middle East risk premium deflated. Elsewhere, T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) fell 3.1% to lead S&P 100 decliners, weighing on the communications sector alongside Salesforce and Verizon. Thursday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers Name% changeGenerac Holdings Inc.+20.12%Vicor Corporation+14.27%Tempus AI, Inc.+13.73%Oklo Inc.+12.33%X-Energy, Inc.+11.52% Thursday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers Name% changeMasTec, Inc. . (NYSE:MTZ)-4.58%ATI Inc. (NYSE:ATI)-4.42%AutoNation, Inc.-3.90%Reddit, Inc.-3.86%Karman Holdings Inc.-3.83% Image: Shutterstock