Opening Comment — Monday, September 21, 2026
DJIA: 51,682.64, down 95.40
S&P 500: 7,650.50, up 12.74
NASDAQ: 26,522.54, up 104.24
Stocks higher to start off week
Stock futures are higher Monday morning as markets await Wednesday’s preliminary September purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs) from S&P Global and Thursday’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. As of 7:31 AM ET, the Dow is rising 0.8%, while the S&P 500 is up 0.7%. The Nasdaq 100 is increasing 1.0% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were mixed on Friday as August industrial production was little changed on a month-over-month (MOM) basis, while capacity utilization remained steady at 76.3%, falling short of expectations for modest increases in both measures. Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index unexpectedly decreased 0.1% in August. The Dow was down 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%. The S&P 500 increased 0.2% with four of 11 sectors finishing in positive territory. The Information Technology sector was the top performer, rising 0.8%, while the Utilities sector was the bottom performer, falling 1.4%.
On the data front, the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Chicago’s National Activity Index for August is expected to come in at -0.04, up from the prior month’s -0.08.
Across the pond, European stocks are higher in mid-day trading as the U.K. Rightmove House Price Index rose 0.7% MOM and fell 0.8% year-over-year (YOY), compared to the prior month’s decreases of 2.0% and 1.0%, respectively.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were higher as China’s one- and five-year loan prime rates were left unchanged at 3.00% and 3.50%, respectively. South Korea’s exports over the first 20 days of September surged 78.3% YOY, while imports increased 26.7% YOY.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is slightly higher ahead of this week’s PMI releases, due Wednesday.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 3.2% lower at $97.13/barrel following optimism on a potential meeting between President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.8% lower at $4,342.73/ounce following a strengthening U.S. dollar.