Market Brief — September 24, 2026

US equities were mixed, with SPX slipping 0.02%, DJIA down 0.31%, and ^IXIC essentially flat at +0.01% as the global bond selloff and oil above $100 per barrel limited risk appetite. European indices weakened, with DAX down 0.57%, FRA40 lower by 0.52%, and UKX off 0.24% while long-dated US Treasury yields climbed toward 5.444% on the 30-year and into the mid-5% range on the 10-year. In Asia, 000001.SS ended unchanged (0.0%) with volume near 903 million shares.

Global bond selling accelerated, pushing the US 30-year Treasury yield to about 5.444%, its highest since 2004, and the 10-year into the 5.13% to 5.158% range as stronger economic and business-activity data and oil above $100 per barrel stoked growth and inflation concerns; US Treasury officials responded by expanding buybacks of 20- and 30-year debt and rising yields lifted reported 30-year mortgage rates to about 7%. NY Fed President John Williams said the central bank still has more work to do to lower inflation and called another Federal Reserve rate hike by year-end reasonable after a move last week took the policy rate to 3.75% to 4.00%; rate markets reflected that stance, with investors pricing roughly a 70% to 71% probability of a hike at the October 27–28 2026 meeting while the US Dollar Index traded near 101.10 and oil was about $105 per barrel. In Europe, the German Ifo Business Climate index for September printed at 89.9 versus 88.8 previously and around an 89 consensus, and the SNB kept its policy rate at 0%, nudged its conditional inflation projections to about 0.7% to 0.8% for 2026 to 2028, and allowed USD/CHF (USDCHF) to trade around 0.827 after softening its foreign-exchange intervention language.

BlackBerry (BB) raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to 616 to 636 million dollars from 594 to 621 million and reported second quarter revenue of 163.3 million versus a 145.6 million dollar LSEG estimate, with its QNX division up 27% to 80.3 million and a new commercial-vehicle contract expected to add more than 100 million dollars to royalty backlog; US listed BlackBerry (BB) shares rose about 3% in premarket trading. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) retreated from a recent peak near 87000 dollars to intraday lows in the low 83000s and traded around 84300 dollars as the US 10-year Treasury yield climbed above 5% to roughly 5.11% and a weak 70 billion dollar five-year auction cleared 3.1 basis points above the 5.002% when-issued yield, triggering liquidation of about 454 million dollars of long crypto positions despite more than 2.3 billion dollars of net inflows into US spot Bitcoin (BTCUSD) ETFs over the prior four sessions. In commodities and shipping, Saudi crude exports averaged 5.28 million barrels per day in September 2026 with Hormuz flows near 2.9 million barrels per day versus about 700000 in August, and war related rerouting plus increased ship-to-ship operations outside Hormuz helped lift VLCC one year time-charter rates toward 150000 dollars per day and drive an exchange-traded fund tracking tanker freight futures to a roughly 3700% year-to-date gain, while India's National Stock Exchange raised 2.4 billion dollars in an IPO priced at 1785 rupees per share after demand reached about 5.7 times subscription, valuing the bourse around 4.4 trillion rupees. Stewards completed its 90 million dollar acquisition of Envy Pompano Beach, expanding its South Florida real assets portfolio, and RS2 Healthcare Partners completed an investment in KMM Group while appointing J. Mark King as chief executive officer. Announced deals included PLACE agreeing to acquire fintech Maxwell to bolster its platform for lenders and institutional partners, Statecraft acquiring Daybreak to accelerate efficiency in federal services, and Buchanan Capital Partners buying Churchill Tower, a Class A office tower in the Dallas Park Central submarket. Additional announced transactions saw Cloopen Group Holding Limited secure shareholder approval for a merger agreement, Arcline backed DwyerOmega move to acquire SOR Controls Group, Specialty Program Group acquire HCM Unlocked, Vertiv agree to purchase King Environmental Services, and EMARKETER acquire the research arm of RetailX.