Market Close: Stocks Gain, Can the Market Break? Mortgage Rates Keep Rising • 9/25/26

0:00See NBC Business News Update. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street opens Monday morning after a winning week for stocks, a winning Friday, too, even with a jump in Treasury yields. The 10-year was aiming for 5.2 percent at 5.16 percent on Friday. The Dow up 478 points Friday, almost 1 percent, led higher by shares of Microsoft, which were up 3.5 percent. The S &P 500 index added 39 points. That was a half percent. The Nasdaq Friday adding 129 points. That was just about a half a percent. Three trading days left in September and in the third quarter of the year. Treasury yields have been rising fast.

0:43That has some investors worried that the stock market could break. What breaks equities is the speed of the move. The last couple of days have been a bit more scary. But I think a lot of people look to compare things to 2022. when we saw the yields move significantly during that period. The big difference today is we have earnings growth. I mean, we are getting earnings at 25, 30 percent year and year. In 2022, earnings were declining. HSBC's Alistair Pinder on CNBC. Some investors say the Terra trade is back. There are reasonable alternatives to stocks because bonds are paying more. Heading into the weekend, there were reports saying that Iran had made a conditional offer to the U.S.

1:24to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz. And oil prices fell Friday, but looks like the same conditions that were in the failed June Memorandum of Understanding. We've seen these headlines before. Is this just another head fake? Helene McCroft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. Is anything different than what we saw in June? I mean, the Iranians continue to say They want the MOU fully implemented. That's what they're saying is a price of entry for reopening Hormuz. They want sanctions relief. They want billions of dollars in frozen accounts. And they want money and a pony.

1:59And they want a double blockade lifted. So it doesn't seem they have moved off the negotiating position that for now the White House says is unacceptable. That's RBC's Halima Croft with CNBC's Brian Sullivan. Meantime, U.S. crude oil on Friday above$92 a barrel. Brent crude above$103 a barrel. U.S. diesel prices a hair below all-time highs. Americans heading into the weekend paying nearly$4.50 for a gallon of regular at the pump, according to AAA. Tough weekend for would-be homebuyers if they didn't lock in a mortgage rate. Mortgage rates at a two-and-a-half-year high, costing a lot more each month.

2:38The average on the 30-year fix has had had quite the ride, hitting 7.49%, according to Mortgage News Daily. For anyone looking to buy a home, this is just making it that much harder. As a comparison, go back to the last low on the 30 year fixed, which was 5.99 % the day before the Iran war started. If you were buying a$450 ,000 home with 20 % down, your monthly payment, just principal and interest, was$2 ,156. Today, it would be just over$350 a month more than that. CNBC's Diana Olick. Tesla opened its first high-volume electric semi factory in Nevada. Now's not a bad time to introduce an all-electric big rig.

3:24Max range on the Tesla semi, 500 miles. They can certainly appeal to shipping companies, freight companies, and say, look, you want to get away from the problems with diesel fuel? This is the answer right here. And it's a compelling message right now. The question becomes how many companies want to make that commitment long term? Or do they look at the diesel fuel prices right now and say, yeah, it's not good. But is it going to be like this in three years? On the coming week's watch list, the third quarter ends Wednesday and we get the big September jobs report on Friday. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.

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