Stock Market Today: Indexes Retreat as Oil Tops $100 a Barrel; 10-Year Treasury Yield Hits Highest Level Since 2023

The Trade War With Canada Is Heating Up: How It Will Affect The Economy

FROM 24 minutes ago

Molson beer, Can-Am motorcycles and Canadian milk may soon join Cuban cigars and Iranian carpets on the list of products Americans are forbidden to purchase at any price.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump escalated his tit-for-tat trade war with Canada by taking the unusual step of banning a list of products outright, including many kinds of alcohol, and motorcycles with large engines, ATVs, and dairy products that were already subject to tariffs. The import bans are set to take effect on Sept. 29, potentially giving negotiators time to reach a deal to avert them.

The ban on Canadian products is a notable shift in Trump’s trade wars, which have mainly focused on tariffs to date. Currently, the U.S. bans imports from hostile nations (such as North Korea) or products made with forced labor, but not for more mundane trade disputes. In announcing the ban, the administration noted that some Canadian products have been banned from U.S. alcohol as part of the trade dispute.

“President Trump is taking decisive and appropriate action to respond to Canada’s additional retaliation and continued discriminatory treatment of crucial American exports,” the White House said in a statement.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Just 5 of 30 Dow Components in Positive Territory Today

FROM 1 hr 30 min ago

Only one-sixth of the Dow Jones Industrial Average components are in the green Wednesday.

With the blue-chip index down 0.6% in mid-afternoon trading, a mere five of the 30 Dow components are in positive territory.

International Business Machines (IBM) is leading the handful of gainers with a 2.5% advance. Chevron (CVX), up 1.7%, is the only other one up at leaset 1%.

The biggest Dow decliner is Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), down about 2.5%.

Energy Is Only S&P 500 Sector in Green Wednesday

FROM 2 hours ago

The S&P 500 Energy Sector is surging Wednesday as oil prices jump. Unfortunately for investors, that’s the only one in the green today.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are in negative territory in mid-afternoon trading. The benchmark index is down 0.4% overall.

The S&P 500 Energy Sector is up 1.1%, led by a nearly 2.5% rise in shares of ExxonMobil (XOM).

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, topped the $100-a-barrel threshold for the first time since July 23 and recently traded at $100.60, up 2.7%. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate prices were 2.7% higher at $95.55.

Meta Says Interest in Its Newest AI Agent Has ‘Blown Way Past’ Expectations. The Stock Is Rallying

FROM 2 hr 46 min ago

Meta Platforms stock is soaring as the social media giant touts early signs of success with a new AI agent. 

Shares of Meta (META) were up 6% in recent trading, leading S&P 500 gainers on a broadly down day for markets, a day after the social media and digital advertising giant announced its Muse AI agent. 

Already, usage of the agent has “blown way past our projections,” Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said in a social media post late yesterday. 

The company said Muse will be free “for most of what people need,” with subscriptions available for more complex tasks, which could provide another way for Meta to make money from AI.

Meta said Muse can be used to autonomously perform simple tasks like sending emails, making reservations, and booking flights, among other uses. 

Though developments in AI have helped improve Meta’s advertising platforms and grow its ad revenue, worries around the scale of its spending on the technology have weighed on the shares in recent months.

With Wednesday’s gains, Meta shares climbed back to roughly where they started the year.

–Aaron McDade

10-Year Yield Jumps After Treasury Dept. Announces Up to $6B Buyback Operation

FROM 3 hr 42 min ago

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was rising Wednesday after the Treasury Department announced it would buy back $6 billion in bonds, an effort it undertook to ease the market’s recent wobbles. 

The buyback, which will take place on Thursday, will target 10-year and 20-year Treasury securities. Yields on both have risen sharply over the last month as investors grapple with uncertainty over the Federal Reserve, artificial intelligence and soaring government debt levels across the globe.

At an event Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the program was partly aimed at calming a “fever that was building” in bond markets. Higher bond yields have raised mortgage rates, business borrowing costs and the cost that the Treasury pays when it borrows in financial markets.

The 10-year yield, however, continued to grind higher on Wednesday. It was up to 4.84% in late-morning trading, up from just below 4% before the Iran war. 

“It doesn’t seem like the patient’s feeling much better,” Adam Josephson, the founder of Sakonnet Research, wrote in a note.

More buybacks may be coming in the weeks ahead. Treasury officials said last month that any buybacks would be “at least $4 billion per operation,” scaling up an existing cap of $2 billion per operation.

–Polo Rocha

Why Casey’s General Stores Stock Is Leading the S&P 500 Lower Today

FROM 4 hr 45 min ago

Casey’s General Stores stock is tumbling after a key sales metric disappointed.

Shares of Casey’s General Stores (CASY) were down nearly 17% in recent trading, making it the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500, on a day when broader markets declined. Yesterday, the convenience store and gas station operator reported same-store sales growth of 3.2% for the fiscal first quarter, below the 3.8% analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for.

CEO Darren Rebelez said the company faced a “volatile” fuel environment in the quarter, with same-store fuel sales falling by 0.3% when analysts had been expecting a slight gain.

William Blair analysts wrote after the report that they see the stock’s slump as “overblown.” Lackluster fuel and grocery sales are “likely exacerbating concerns around the health of the consumer,” they wrote, overshadowing otherwise strong results.

Casey’s said it earned $7.37 per share on $5.68 billion in revenue for its fiscal first quarter, topping analysts’ projections of $6.81 per share and $5.56 billion.

Even with Wednesday’s decline, Casey’s shares are still up more than 10% from the start of the year.

–Aaron McDade

Are You Bracing For a Wave of Unemployment? Why Economists Aren’t Sounding the Alarm

FROM 6 hr 44 min ago

Is the job market going to fall apart in the coming year? Experts and the public sharply disagree on the outlook.

Consumers are getting remarkably pessimistic about their job-finding prospects—44.4% of U.S. adults believe the unemployment rate will be higher a year from now, according to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for August, published Tuesday. That’s the highest since April 2020, when the economy was being ravaged by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts, by contrast, see the job market as stable. A survey of professional forecasters by the Philadelphia Fed put the unemployment rate at 4.3% in 2027, just a touch above its current level and relatively low by historic standards. And in a July survey of economists by the Wall Street Journal, none of the 71 professionals predicted the unemployment rate would reach 5% by June 2027.

The data was the latest pointing to a disconnect between expert and public opinion about the economy.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Signet Jewelers Stock Jumps on Profit Beat, Guidance Raise

FROM 7 hr 13 min ago

Signet Jewelers stock entered Wednesday slightly lower for the year. It looks likely to move sharply into positive territory when markets open.

Shares of Signet (SIG) are surging more than 10% before the bell Wednesday after the Hamilton, Bermuda-based parent of Kay Jewelers, Jared, and Zales posted Q2 adjusted earnings of $2.19 per share, well above the $1.73 consensus of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue of $1.53 billion matched expectations.

Same-store sales growth of 2.2% easily topped the 1.7% consensus estimate, while adjusted operating income of $107.2 million surpassed the $89.6 million Visible Alpha projection. Adjusted EBITDA of $152.3 million beat the $131.9 million estimate.

“We delivered another quarter of comp sales growth with a positive comp performance in all fine jewelry brands,” Signet CEO J.K. Symancyk said.

As a result, Signet raised its full-year guidance for adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, and adjusted EBITDA. It also lifted the low end of its same-store sales range to flat growth from a decline of 0.75%.

“We are entering the back half of the year well-positioned to deliver compelling value throughout the holiday season for customers across a broad range of income levels,” Symancyk added.

Signet shares were down less than 1% since the start of the year through Tuesday’s close.

Apple Is Set to Reveal New iPhones Wednesday—Here’s What You Need to Know

FROM 8 hr 3 min ago

Apple and its new CEO face a big test this week.

The consumer tech giant is set to unveil its latest products at its annual launch event Wednesday, with John Ternus hosting for the first time as CEO after taking over for Tim Cook earlier this month. The event, themed “surprise and shine,” is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET. (You can stream it live here.)

Apple’s (AAPL) first foldable iPhone is widely expected to be part of the new lineup, along with premium models of the iPhone 18. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said they’ll be looking for new Apple watches and AirPods as well. A base model of the iPhone 18 might not be released until next spring, they told clients in a recent note.

Morgan Stanley said Apple could also test demand in the face of “what are likely to be the broadest, and most significant, like-for-like iPhone price hikes in company history.”

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Futures Fall as Oil Prices Hits Above $100 a Barrel

FROM 8 hr 49 min ago

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.5%.

S&P 500 futures pointed down 0.3%.

Nasdaq 100 futures pulled back 0.4%.