AI Stocks Close
🔔 AI Stocks Close — Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Closes: SPX 7,551.81 (-0.45%) · NDX 28,945.06 (+0.03%) · DJI 51,461.90 (-1.21%)
Day narrative: The Fed hiked 25bp to 3.75%–4% — the first increase in three years — and stocks went from green to red the moment Chair Warsh opened his mouth. The Dow shed 631 points, but tech barely flinched: semis actually closed higher, which tells you the AI bid isn't a rates trade anymore.
Sectors: Best Technology (+0.10%) · Worst Energy (-2.88%). Financials -1.62%, Communication Services -0.90%, Health Care +0.07%, Utilities flat.
Movers:
• INTC +4.0% — Reuters report that SK Hynix may make memory chips at Intel's delayed Ohio megafab, possibly via a JV with hyperscalers
• IBM -4.4% — worst Dow name, no single headline; a 5%-handle on the 10-year is brutal on slow-growth compounders (my read, not a reported catalyst)
• SMCI +3.4% — AI server names caught the semis updraft
• SNOW +2.5% and ORCL +2.0% — data/AI infrastructure bid held up through the Fed
• ADBE -2.8%, CRM -2.0% — software multiples compressed as yields firmed
• SOUN -3.6%, BBAI -3.2% — small-cap AI speculative names took the hit they always take on hawkish days
After-hours / Earnings:
• No watchlist name reported — the AH tape is thin. FLNC -16.7% on the day's biggest post-close decline; Lennar (LEN) closed -2.1% ahead of its print.
Watchlist:
• MU $926.55 (-0.11%)
• NVDA $213.90 (+0.82%)
• MSFT $490.30 (-1.37%)
• GOOGL $342.87 (-0.61%)
• META $673.31 (+0.46%)
• AMZN $245.96 (-0.99%)
• AAPL $332.41 (+0.32%)
• AMD $512.50 (+1.65%)
• TSLA $358.08 (+0.42%)
• PLTR $174.34 (+1.03%)
• ARM $243.98 (+0.89%)
• SMCI $36.85 (+3.40%)
• ORCL $143.20 (+2.03%)
• SOUN $5.93 (-3.58%)
• IONQ $36.84 (-0.57%)
• BBAI $2.73 (-3.19%)
• AVGO $339.51 (+0.07%)
• CRM $250.54 (-2.00%)
• ADBE $250.50 (-2.82%)
• IBM $237.49 (-4.38%)
• SNOW $331.02 (+2.49%)
• MDB $376.34 (-0.35%)
• NET $324.62 (-0.80%)
• CRWD $241.36 (-0.47%)
• TSM $417.72 (+1.23%)
• ASML $1,602.22 (+0.68%)
Macro:
• FOMC hiked 25bp, unanimous, to 3.75%–4% — first hike in three years. Dots show at least one more in 2026, then a hold through 2027.
• Warsh: "The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long." Markets read the presser as more hawkish than the statement.
• 10-year yield settled at 5.01%, up marginally but firmly above the 5% line. Crude above $100.
• IPO watch: OpenAI reportedly in early talks at a $1.2T–$1.5T valuation with Altman ruling out a 2026 listing; Anthropic reportedly could begin marketing an IPO as early as mid-October. Neither is publicly traded.
Tomorrow: Weekly jobless claims, housing starts and building permits, and the Philly Fed manufacturing survey all hit at 8:30 ET. First post-decision Fed speakers are the real event — the market wants to know whether Warsh's tone was consensus or theater.