The market is higher at midday with the Federal Reserve decision two hours away, and the tone is broader than it was on Tuesday.
CAMS Midday Market Check
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
The market is higher at midday with the Federal Reserve decision two hours away, and the tone is broader than it was on Tuesday. Oil is the main mover, and it is moving lower.
At 12:06 p.m. Eastern, the S and P 500 was up 0.38%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.72%. The Dow was up 0.04%, and the Russell 2000 was up 0.55%. The VIX was 16.78, down 2.44%.
Breadth has flipped from Tuesday. On the Nasdaq screener, advancing issues numbered 3,643. Declining issues numbered 2,761. Another 677 were unchanged. That snapshot is provisional, but it is the opposite of Tuesday's negative split.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate was $102.02, down 3.60%, and Brent was $105.24, down 3.23%. Both remain above $100, and the supply picture has not changed. Saudi Aramco's Yanbu loadings remain suspended after the East-West pipeline halt, with no restart timetable. Reporting on the decline has pointed to a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories in industry data. The energy fund was down about 2%.
Rates eased slightly. The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.961%, after closing Tuesday just above 5%. The two-year yield was 4.619%. The dollar index was up 0.10% at 99.72, and gold rose 1.38% to about $4,392.
Eight of the 11 tracked S and P sector funds were higher. Technology gained 0.99%, industrials 0.84%, real estate 0.63%, and health care 0.58%. Energy, financials and communication services were lower, with financials off 0.48%.
Semiconductors led. The S M H fund was up 1.65%. Intel rose 5.05% to $102.05. A M D gained 3.98%, Marvell 3.38%, and Nvidia 1.63%. Oracle was up 2.28% and Tesla 1.57%. Microsoft was down 0.62%, and Amazon slipped 0.24%.
Forgent Power Solutions extended its post-earnings run, up 11.96% to $35.11. Trip.com gained 3.92%. Lennar, which reports after the close, was up 0.65%.
The Federal Open Market Committee statement and projections are due at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, with the press conference at 2:30. Futures pricing reported by CNBC and TheStreet put the odds of a quarter-point increase above 90%, from the current 3.50% to 3.75% range. This morning's import price data showed a 0.7% rise in August and a 7.0% increase over 12 months.
For the afternoon, the questions are whether the 10-year yield stays below 5% after the statement, whether oil holds its decline with the supply risk unresolved, and whether the breadth improvement survives the press conference.
Market analysis, not personalized investment advice.
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