4:20pm: Risk-off mood

Wall Street kicked off September on the back foot, with all three major indexes closing lower as a fresh rise in oil prices and Treasury yields put investors in a risk-off mood.

The Dow Jones fell 419 points, or 0.8%, to 52,767, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.7% to 7,631. The Nasdaq took the biggest hit, sliding 1% to 26,100, as technology and other growth stocks bore the brunt of the selling.

The move came as Brent crude pushed above $95 a barrel, reigniting concerns that higher energy costs could keep inflation elevated. The rise in oil prices has been tied to renewed geopolitical tensions and disruption risks around the Strait of Hormuz.

At the same time, the global bond sell-off continued, with the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield climbing to around 4.80%. Higher yields can make bonds more attractive relative to stocks while also raising borrowing costs for companies and putting pressure on the valuations of higher-growth technology names.

That combination gave investors plenty to worry about as September got underway. After a strong run for equities, the latest move served as a reminder that markets remain highly sensitive to both inflation expectations and geopolitical developments.

Investors will have plenty of earnings catalysts to watch, with Palo Alto Networks, Dell and MongoDB reporting tonight, followed by Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and Brown-Forman tomorrow morning. Broadcom, Snowflake and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are set to report Wednesday night.

3:40pm: Small cap wrap

  • First Phosphate Corp. (CSE:PHOS, NASDAQ:PHOS, FRA:KD0, OTCQX:FRSPF) said shareholders re-elected all five board nominees with more than 95% support and approved an advance notice policy as its registered shareholder base grew 861% over the past year.

  • Blockmate Ventures Inc (TSX-V:MATE, OTCQB:MATEF, FRA:8MH) submitted a zoning application for about 40 acres in Wyoming to support its planned AI data centre and announced the launch of a Bitcoin cloud mining product from investee company Hivello.

  • 374Water Inc (NASDAQ:SCWO, FRA:8LL) will showcase its AirSCWO supercritical water oxidation technology and Waste Destruction Services platform for eliminating PFAS, biosolids and other organic waste at WEFTEC 2026 in New Orleans.

  • Immunic Inc (NASDAQ:IMUX, FRA:10VA) appointed Chitrang Davé as chief data and digital officer to lead its data, analytics, artificial intelligence and digital strategy as the biotechnology company moves toward potential commercialization.

  • TNR Gold Corp (TSX-V:TNR, FRA:TNW, OTC:TRRXF) is urging shareholders to support its board nominees ahead of its September 22 annual meeting as dissident shareholder Jon Christian Evensen campaigns to replace the entire board.

2:30pm: Market movers

  • Hims & Hers Health shares fell 3.2% after the FDA warned telehealth companies and compounding pharmacies against marketing or using unapproved weight-loss drugs including retatrutide and cagrilintide.

  • Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) shares climbed 2.7% as John Ternus officially took over as CEO from Tim Cook, who will remain with the company as executive chairman.

  • GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) agreed to merge with Starman Optical in a $285 million recapitalization that will see Starman acquire a 90% stake in the combined company while GoPro shareholders receive about $1.14 per share in cash and retain roughly 10% ownership.

  • Rezolve AI reported a nearly 20-fold increase in first-half 2026 revenue to $130.8 million, although its net loss widened to about $139.5 million largely due to non-cash charges.

  • NIO Inc (NYSE:NIO) reported second-quarter revenue of RMB32.14 billion ($4.74 billion), up 69.1% year over year but below Wall Street expectations, while narrowing its losses and pointing to improving margins.

1:30pm: Ternus takes over

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) shares climbed 2.7% as John Ternus officially became chief executive, succeeding Tim Cook.

Ternus, previously Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, was announced as Cook’s successor in April 2026. Cook will remain with the company as executive chairman.

In an email to Apple staff on his first day as CEO, Ternus thanked colleagues for their support and praised Cook’s leadership.

“I also want to extend my deep appreciation to Tim for sharing so much of his knowledge and experience during this transition, and more importantly, for everything he contributed to Apple over the years,” Ternus wrote. “We’re so lucky to have had a CEO who led with his values and with such decency and humanity.”

Ternus said he was “honored” to take on the role and pointed to a major product launch next week, along with other projects already underway.

“I’m just as excited about what lies beyond that, including the incredible products already in the works and the ones we haven’t even imagined yet that we’ll dream up and create together,” he wrote.

11:20am: Job openings edge lower

US job openings edged lower in July, with 7.271 million vacancies compared with expectations for 7.313 million, as the labour market showed further signs of losing momentum.

LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach said the latest data point to a labour market approaching a standstill, with the quits rate remaining low as workers, particularly in construction and information technology, become less willing to change jobs.

At the same time, manufacturing activity strengthened in August, with five of the six largest industries expanding. That suggests the sector could make a positive contribution to third-quarter economic growth.

Roach also highlighted a sharp increase in data centre construction, with annual spending growth topping 50% for a second straight month. However, investment remains heavily concentrated in the sector, while construction spending in healthcare, retail and education has declined from a year earlier.

Despite these imbalances, Roach expects US economic growth of around 2% in the third quarter and the unemployment rate to remain near 4.2%. Inflation remains the bigger concern, with price pressures still elevated and potentially increasing the odds of a September interest rate hike.

9:50am: Oil rattles investors

Wall Street opened sharply lower on Tuesday as rising bond yields and elevated oil prices put pressure on stocks, with technology shares bearing the brunt of the selling.

The Nasdaq fell 1.2% to 26,053, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.7% to 7,636. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% at 52,970.

The latest move higher in Treasury yields is adding another layer of pressure to equities. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.78%, its highest intraday level since January 2025, while the 30-year yield rose to 5.27%, keeping it close to multidecade highs.

Higher yields can make stocks, particularly richly valued technology names, less attractive by raising borrowing costs and increasing the appeal of fixed-income investments.

Oil prices are also keeping investors on edge as the US-Iran conflict escalates. Brent crude remained above US$92 a barrel after reports that two oil supertankers were struck by projectiles while trying to leave the Strait of Hormuz. The latest incidents have raised fresh concerns about disruptions to one of the world’s most important oil-shipping routes.

Investors will also have some economic data to digest, with the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index and job openings figures on today’s calendar.

On the earnings front, attention will turn to Palo Alto Networks, Dell Technologies and MongoDB, which are all scheduled to report after the closing bell.

Wobbly start predicted

Stock futures wobbled on Tuesday morning as investors weighed the fallout from the weekend’s escalation in Iran, a jittery bond market and the growing chance the Fed might hike rates again.

Dow and S&P 500 futures slipped around 0.5%, while Nasdaq-100 contracts dropped a full percentage point, as traders took some chips off the table after a strong August close.

Oil is doing most of the talking this morning.

Brent crude is sitting near $90 a barrel after the US and Iran traded blows over the weekend, and that’s rattling nerves just as markets head into September, historically the toughest month of the year for stocks.

Treasury yields aren’t helping the mood either, with the 10-year hovering around 4.75%.

There’s plenty of data to chew on this week too.

JOLTS kicks things off on Tuesday, giving a first read on hiring and quits before Friday’s big jobs report, while manufacturing surveys from S&P Global and ISM will offer a look at factory activity.

Earnings season is winding down, but Dell and Palo Alto Networks report this week, and both should give a decent read on how much big companies are still willing to spend on cloud and tech.