Video summary
The market session on September 18th concluded with a mixed performance as the S&P 500 finished positive by two points, recovering from afternoon lows around 7681 to settle near 7710. While the broader indices showed resilience, technology stocks emerged as the sole bright spot in an otherwise choppy trading environment, leading the NASDAQ 100 up by 94 points to reach 29,837. In contrast, traditional sectors struggled significantly, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 91 points to close at 52,129 and the Russell 2000 falling 21 points to 2876, highlighting a clear divergence between tech-driven gains and broader market weakness during the final hour of the trading week.
Volatility remained a defining characteristic of the session, particularly in the bond market where the 10-year Treasury yield experienced sharp fluctuations throughout the day. The yield swung dramatically on Wednesday, moving from a high near 4.61% down to approximately 4.52% before recovering, illustrating the intense uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve policy and economic data. This volatility extended to currency markets as well, where the US dollar demonstrated significant instability; after initially catching a bid to reach 100.56, it quickly retreated back down to 100.22, reflecting the unpredictable nature of investor sentiment heading into the weekend.
Precious metals displayed complex behavior influenced heavily by the strength of the US dollar and broader market dynamics. Gold started the morning under pressure, dipping as low as 4273 before rebounding to finish at 4418, a gain of about 18 dollars despite a strengthening dollar that typically weighs on its price. Other metals showed varied results with silver rising nearly 4% to approach $68 and platinum gaining over 7%, while the GDX gold miners ETF declined by roughly 67 cents to 95.26, underscoring the challenging environment for commodity assets as investors navigated the final hours of options expiration and prepared for the weekend close.
Read the full video transcript
This is TFN,
the Tiger Financial News Network.
[groaning]
[music]
TFN
Headline News [music] Update.
Good afternoon, folks. Tommy O'Brien,
excuse me, [clears throat] coming to you
live from TFN, 3 p.m. Eastern time,
final hour of the trading week. And we
got markets chopping around with an S&P
positive by two points. We jump over the
futures. You got an S&P right now
trading barely in the positive. You
drive down to lows at about 12:30 this
afternoon. Those lows at 7681 and we're
a solid 30 points above there. Right
back to the acceleration on the open.
7710 in the S&Ps. Tech stocks. We'll
jump into it on the Tom O'Brien show
coming up. But yeah, you talk about, you
know, the only thing green in this
market right now, folks. chip stocks,
tech stocks, NASDAQ 100 up by 94 points,
29,837. The Dow right now off 210% off
91 points at 52,129 and the Russell down
7/10% off 21 points 2876. We jump over
to yields,
you get the 10ear, how's that for lower
price, higher yield. Look at this
volatility this week, right? Wednesday
on Fed day, folks. This is at least half
a point almost. Yeah. 20 ticks or so
from 10610
down to 10522. You get it all back and
then you give it all back. How's that
one? Right. You get the 10 year right
now. Just pushing 5%. We jump over the
dollar. Not surprising. The dollar
catches a bid on that action. But you
give it up. You got a bid to 100.56. And
just like that, we're back to 100.22.
Gold right now. Talked about it and
we'll bring it up on the program. Gold
trading very well with what the dollar's
doing, folks. Okay.
Look at the initial reaction gold had
down to 4273.
You back it up to the dollar for a
moment. Okay. And you're talking about
they get it all back as and the dollar
strengthened tremendously. Gold pulled
back dramatically, right? Well, the
dollar just stays where it is and gold
gets it all back.
That's invalid. Pull it up one. We'll
jump into the in the Tom O'Brien show.
But this is a very difficult environment
for gold. And with that said, it's
behaving remarkably well as you're
positive by 18 bucks this morning at
4418. GDX negative by 67 pennies at 9526
right now. Silver up one and a4%. We
almost hit $68 this morning. Platinum up
7/10% right now. And as we trail into
the weekend, we got a VIX right now.
We'll get it up there. VIX.
Nope. My chart's a little slow. We'll
see if they catch up. We're coming back,
folks, to the Tom O'Brien show. S&P's up
by two. 1 hour left to go in the trading
week. It's options expiration too. Final
hour of options expiration. We'll come
right back folks.