Market Midday: Stocks Fall, Yields Rise, AI Leaders Sound Warning • 9/14/26

0:01See NBC Business News update market midday. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Artificial intelligence stocks are sliding worldwide. Leaders of the industry warning a slowdown is needed for the safety of humanity. A Fed interest rate increase looms large. And the yield on the 10-year Treasury hit 5%, its highest since October of 2023. It's ticked a little bit lower this afternoon. Let's check the major averages. The Dow is down 88 points off its earlier low. It's being led lower by shares of Caterpillar, which are down almost 4 % this afternoon. The S &P 500 index down 30 points. The Nasdaq down 124 points.

0:46Chipmakers in the red. Micron down 5%. Intel down 5%. AMD down 5 % this afternoon. Yardini Research's Ed Yardini tells CNBC that a 10-year Treasury yield at 5 % isn't a bad thing. I'm thinking that 4 % to 5 % bond yields on a 10-year is really a vote of confidence in the economy. It shows that the economy is doing fine and not only can withstand that kind of level of interest rates, but justifies it. So at 5%, I'm not terribly alarmed. I'd be more concerned if our estate quickly goes up to 6%. Mortgage rates do loosely follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury, and would-be homebuyers are facing a national average of 7.1 % today on a 30-year fixed home loan, according to Mortgage News Daily.

1:43Americans are paying more at the pump again today,$4.32 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA. That's up 15 cents a gallon just in the past week. diesel at a new record high today. Here's a take from One Point BFG's Peter Bookfar on CNBC. There's no sign that this ends anytime soon. The situation in the Middle East, we thought that there would be a deal back in April. And here we are in September, approaching October. And now we're getting to some major pain points, getting above four and a half in gasoline, getting now above six in diesel. We're reaching some pain points that I think are now really centering attention again.

2:21Oil prices are higher after Saudi Arabia shut down a pipeline that had been used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. It was attacked and damaged. It was carrying 7 million barrels of oil a day. Exactly a month ago on August 13, when oil prices were at$81, I said that the market was treating inventories and supplies from things like the SPR as though that was normal production. And the market just forgot to do math. They were listening to headlines out of Washington for President Trump saying everything's fine and not counting the barrels and not looking at the actual physical market. I think today's oil price at 107 brand, 103 WTI, is still the wrong price.

3:02It is still too low. That's TWG Global's Amos Hochstein on CNBC. Social Security recipients could see their biggest increase in monthly payments in three years because of inflation that's been rising. USA Today saying using August inflation data, next year's cost of living adjustment, or COLA, could be 3.5%. The final number for 2027 will come on October 14th after the September inflation data are released. Television's biggest night is tonight. The industry celebrates with the Primetime Emmy Awards. HBO's The Pit is the most nominated series. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus.

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