Stocks fall as traders kick off final trading week of September: Live updates

It’s possible that oil could hit $100 per barrel in the U.S. and a little higher overseas, Chevron chairman and CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC on Monday.

“We’ve seen a global economy that is continuing to do pretty well. We’ve seen some production cutbacks in some of the OPEC countries come on top of a market that was already showing some tightening,” Wirth said. “It’s fundamentally supply and demand, and prices have been firming here for a number of weeks. I think risks remain more to the upside than the downside.”

Oil prices gained on Monday after Russia relaxed its fuel ban. The energy sector led the broader market and was up 1.3% in early afternoon trading. 

Shares of Chevron were up 1.3%. The stock is up more than 7% this year.

— Pia Singh

Small cap stocks outperformed Monday, with the Russell 2000 and the S&P Small Cap 600 last rising by 0.6%, each. Both have underperformed this year. The Russell 2000 is up by more than 1%, while the S&P Small Cap 600 is off by 0.4%.

By comparison, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were just up 0.1%, each, on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%.

— Sarah Min

These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves midday:

• Alcoa — Shares of the aluminum stock slipped 5% after the company said executive vice president William Oplinger would succeed Roy Harvey as the CEO and president.
• Williams-Sonoma — Shares of the home goods company jumped 9% after Green Equity Investors, an arm of investment firm Leonard Green and Partners, revealed a 5% stake.
• JD.com — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce stock slid 2% as concerns mounted over the state of country’s economy.

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Stocks reached session highs midday Monday, all trading in positive territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Averages gained 22.90 points, or 0.07%. The S&P 500 gained 0.37%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.48%.

Earlier in the day, the 30-stock index was down by as much as 183.17 points, or by 0.54%. The broad index fell as much as 0.4%, and the Nasdaq had dropped 0.6%.

— Sarah Min

Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci upgraded Microsoft on Monday to neutral from sell, saying the “potential monetary benefit from Generative AI is too strong a force to contend with” despite the company’s recent underperformance.

Microsoft shares were down slightly by 0.3% in midday trading.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Pia Singh

Energy was the leading advancer in the S&P 500 Monday, with the sector last rising 0.9% in midday trading.

Coterra Energy and EOG Resources shares outperformed in the sector, up by 2.3% and 1.9%, respectively. Shares of EQT were higher by 1.5%.

— Sarah Min

JPMorgan thinks now is the time to buy the dip in Dow Inc.

The bank upgraded Dow to overweight from neutral and maintained its price target of $55, implying shares can gain substantially from where they closed Friday. Shares of the chemical company are up 1.7% during Monday’s trading session.

“We think the recent downward movement in equity values has given investors an opportunity to purchase Dow shares at a reasonable valuation,” analyst Jeffrey Zekauskas wrote in a Monday note. 

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more behind the upgrade here.

— Pia Singh

Citi analyst Anthony Pettinari upgraded packaging company Sealed Air Corp to buy from neutral on Monday.

“Sentiment on SEE (and the broader packaging space) has been highly negative given share price weakness, persistent vol challenges, and downward earnings revisions,” Pettinari said in a Monday note. “We see 3Q results as a potential catalyst, with upside from cost saves and reiterated volume outlook after a sharply lowered bar in 2Q.”

Shares have plunged about 34% this year as it navigates a post-Covid lower growth environment. The stock gained more than 3% on Monday. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

The early demand metrics for the newest batch of iPhones are an encouraging signal for Apple investors, according to Morgan Stanley.

“As of Friday, Sept 22nd, lead times for all iPhone 15 models are ahead of the iPhone 14 cycle, with Pro/Pro Max lead times at new records. We’re encouraged by these early data points, but the next 2 weeks will be critical in determining the directionality of the cycle & Dec Q iPhone builds/revenue,” Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring said in a note to clients on Sunday.

Shares of the tech giant were up 0.1% in morning trading.

— Jesse Pound

The dollar index was on track to finish a strong month and quarter.

The index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was up about 2% month to date and 2.7% quarter to date. Those gains would make it the best month since May and best quarter since last year if held through the end of Friday, which concludes both the trading month and quarter.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

The Federal Reserve likely is getting closer to the point where it can keep interest rates steady, though at a higher level than the market is used to seeing, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said Monday.

“So we’re just going to have to play by ear the how much is still coming down the pike versus how much was expected and was was already in there,” the central bank official said during a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview. “But I think we’re getting close to this spot where it’s going to be more about the how long we hold rather than how high we go.”

Fed officials’ projections released last week about where rates are headed indicated “a little longer than than seemed like what the market had thought,” Goolsbee added.

Indeed, market pricing has adjusted since that Wednesday release, with expectations now pointing to just two quarter-point rate cuts in 2024, aligning with Fed projections, according to CME Group tracking.

—Jeff Cox

Amazon announced on Monday that it will invest up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic and take a minority ownership position in the company. The move comes as Amazon looks to capitalize on the generative AI boom.

Anthropic said it has selected Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider. In turn, the startup will provide AWS customers with early access to unique features for model customization and fine-tuning capabilities.

More on the partnership can be found here.

Amazon shares were up 1.2% Monday morning.

— Hakyung Kim, Arjun Kharpal

The Dollar index, which measures the value of the dollar against a basket of six foreign currencies, rose 0.3% Monday to hit a fresh high of 105.925, the highest level since Nov. 30.

The index just came off a 10-week winning streak and is up 2% in September, on pace for the best month since May.

Stocks opened lower Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 68 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5%.

— Sarah Min

U.S. Treasury yields crept higher Monday, following last week’s Federal Reserve meeting that signaled more hawkish messaging than investors previously expected.

The yield on the current 10-year Treasury hit a high of 4.506%, hovering near Friday’s high of 4.509%. Friday’s level was its highest since Oct. 18, 2007, when the 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.57%.

The spread between the U.S. 2-year and 10-year notes also climbed to 62.09 basis points, its highest level since hitting 56.40 basis points on May 24.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Gina Francolla

Crypto prices were lower to start the final trading week of September and the third quarter.

Bitcoin briefly fell to as low as $26,011.41 Monday morning, its lowest level in almost two weeks, according to Coin Metrics. It was last lower by more than 1%. The flagship cryptocurrency is on pace to end the month flat but is heading for a third-quarter loss of 14%.

Ether was down by more than 1%, at one point trading as low as $1,564.12, its lowest level since Sept. 12. It’s down 5% for the month and 18% for the quarter.

— Tanaya Macheel

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

AstraZeneca — Shares rose 1.4% after Jefferies upgraded the stock to buy from hold. The upgrade comes after one of its breast cancer therapies, in joint development with Daiichi Sankyo, came out with positive results in a late-stage trial on Friday. 

Urban Outfitters, Foot Locker  — Shares of Urban Outfitters fell 4%, while Foot Locker slid 2.9% before the bell after Jefferies downgraded the stocks to hold from buy. Jefferies said the companies could be impacted by pullbacks on consumer spending. 

Dow — Shares of the petrochemicals company rose 1.6% Monday during premarket trading. JPMorgan upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral, citing potential upside from higher oil prices. 

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Shares of Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery were higher in the premarket after Hollywood writers and studios reached a tentative deal that would end the Writers Guild of America’s strike.

Disney rose 1.2%, while Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery gained 3.5% and 4.1%, respectively.

“What we have won in this contract – most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd – is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days,” the WGA negotiation committee wrote in a letter to members Sunday night.

The WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are still drafting the contract’s final language.

— Fred Imbert, Sarah Whitten

European markets opened lower, with all sectors in the red.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.3% in early trade, with all sectors in negative territory. Mining stocks led losses with a 1.9% drop, followed by travel and leisure, which fell 1.4%.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Japanese markets were the sole gainer among major Asian markets on Monday, with both the Nikkei 225 and Topix in positive territory amid a broader sell-off.

The Nikkei gained 0.88%, while the Topix was up 0.41%. According to FactSet data, the gains are led by health technology and retail trade stocks.

The largest gainer on the Nikkei was pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo, while other top gainers include departmental store chain Takashimaya and investment company SoftBank.

Shares of embattled Chinese real estate firm Evergrande tumbled about 20% after the company said over the weekend that it would delay a debt restructuring meeting due Monday.

In a filing with the Hong Kong exchange, Evergrande said “the sales of the Group has not been as expected by the company” since its March debt restructuring announcement.

As such, Evergrande “considers it necessary to re-assess the terms of the proposed restructuring to meet the company’s objective situation and the demand of the creditors.”

On Sunday, the company also revealed that due to an investigation into subsidary Hengda Real Estate it was unable to issue new notes under its debt restructuring plan.

Reuters reported the Evergrande unit was being probed by the Chinese securities regulator for suspected violation of information disclosure.

Congress is still in a stalemate on the federal budget as GOP hard-liners refuse to budge on further spending cuts.

Current spending laws are due to expire on Sept. 30. That means if Congress does not reach an agreement before 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, the government will shut down. House Republicans on Thursday sent the chamber into recess, delaying further developments in the negotiations.

— Yun Li, Rebecca Picciotto

Earnings for the S&P 500 companies are forecast to edge lower by 0.2% and decline for the fourth quarter in a row, but the outlook is improving, according to FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters.

The 0.2% decline for ther entire index is better than the 0.4% decrease that was forecast on June 30, and would prove the smallest during the four-quarter-long skid. Meanwhile, a 0.2% decline in individual stock third quarter per-share earnings estimates since the end of the second quarter is far less than the five-year average decline of -3.6% and 10-year average of -3.4%, FactSet said.

Eight of the 11 main sectors in the S&P 500 are estimated to post higher year-over-year third quarter earnings, led by communication services and consumer discretionary companies. Three are forecast to see earnings declines, led by energy and materials.

Earnings are expected to continue to improve, with fourth quarter S&P 500 profits expanding by 8.2% from last year, and 12.2% in all of 2024, up from just 1.1% in calendar 2023, Butters said Friday.

— Scott Schnipper