Daily News 14th Sep 26
Daily News
Dow Jumps 509 Points to Snap Four-Day Slide as Oil Rallies Toward $103 on Saudi Pipeline Shutdown; Gold Holds Near $4,300; AI Stocks Slump After Safety Warnings From Amodei, Altman and Musk
14 September 2026
Today in Brief
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.59% and the Topix off 0.15%, while the Kospi tumbled 3.45% and the Kosdaq fell 2.30%; Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was flat, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.33% and the mainland's CSI 300 declined 0.66%. U.S. stocks rebounded Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak as oil prices retreated and traders looked past growing Fed rate-hike expectations — the Dow advanced 509.19 points (0.98%) to 52,573.29, the S&P 500 climbed 0.86% to 7,656.98, and the Nasdaq jumped 0.96% to 26,333.04. Gold struggled near $4,300 an ounce after three straight weekly declines, weighed down by surging oil and bets on tighter Fed policy, while crude rose toward $103 a barrel — a four-month high — after Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline following drone attacks; markets are pricing an 86% chance of a 25-basis-point Fed hike on Wednesday, with August CPI steady at 3.4% annually.
In other news: President Trump said the U.S. may end up keeping Iranian oil "like Venezuela" as Gulf-Iran talks on a Hormuz shipping corridor stalled, and separately called his proposed $5,000 payouts to U.S. adults "easy" to fit into the federal budget; China's Xi Jinping urged BRICS nations to work toward peace in the Middle East; AI-linked Asian stocks slumped after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk called for slowing AI development, sending SoftBank down as much as 13.2% and Kioxia down 9.8%, with Altman also saying OpenAI would not pursue an IPO this year; Anthropic told investors it expects to be profitable for a second straight quarter; Boeing and its engineers' union reached a tentative contract agreement; and the U.S. Commerce Department finalized steep anti-dumping and countervailing duties on solar imports from India, Indonesia and Laos.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.59% while the Topix inched 0.15% lower
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.59% while the Topix inched 0.15% lower. The Kospi dropped 3.45%, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 2.30%. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was flat. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.33%, while mainland China's CSI 300 declined 0.66%. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview published on Saturday that the AI startup would not go public this year. Altman said an IPO for the ChatGPT maker would now would be "ill-advised," just one month after OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said it would go public by 2027 at the latest.
Dow rises 500 points to snap 4-day slide as oil cools, traders look past inflation report
Stocks rose Friday, rebounding after four straight days of declines, as oil prices retreated. Traders also looked past growing expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike following the latest U.S. inflation reading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 509.19 points, or 0.98%, to close at 52,573.29. The S&P 500 climbed 0.86% to 7,656.98, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.96% to end at 26,333.04. The three major averages had fallen for four consecutive sessions. For the Dow, it was the longest daily losing streak since late April. Week to date, the Dow fell 1.6% and the S&P 500 declined 0.8%. The Nasdaq fell about 0.7%, marking its first negative week in three sessions.
Gold struggled near $4,300 an ounce on Monday after declining for three straight weeks
Gold struggled near $4,300 an ounce on Monday after declining for three straight weeks, weighed down by surging oil prices and bets on tighter Federal Reserve monetary policy. Oil prices jumped toward four-month highs on Monday after Saudi Arabia closed a key pipeline that was used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz following drone attacks. The protracted Middle East crisis has delivered an inflationary jolt to the global economy, reinforcing a hawkish outlook on interest rates. Markets are currently pricing in around an 86% chance that the Fed will raise its policy rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday. Data on Friday showed US consumer inflation steadied at 3.4% in August, the same as in July and in line with forecasts, while monthly CPI rose 0.4%, the strongest increase in three months.
Crude oil rose toward $103 a barrel, a 4-month high, after rallying over 9% last week
Crude oil rose toward $103 a barrel, a 4-month high, after rallying over 9% last week, as Saudi Arabia shut a major crude pipeline following drone attacks, disrupting a key route used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia suspended operations on the East-West pipeline as a precaution after Thursday's attacks, with no indication yet of when the pipeline will resume operations. Meanwhile, talks between Iran and several Gulf nations on establishing a temporary shipping corridor through Hormuz were postponed, Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said. Reports suggested Saudi Arabia had concerns over the proposal, while Bahrain said it would not participate.
Trump says U.S. may keep Iranian oil 'like Venezuela' as Gulf-Iran Hormuz talks stall
President Donald Trump said the U.S. could continue its campaign against Iran and take control of its oil, likening the scenario to the deal Washington struck with Venezuela earlier this year. "We'll ultimately get out (of the war), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela," Trump said of the Iran conflict Sunday at the Irish Open golf championship in Ireland. He added that U.S. revenue from the Venezuela arrangement, which granted Washington access to roughly a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves, has "paid for the war many times." Under the agreement reached in August, Venezuela ceded majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves — more than double America's own reserves — in exchange for $209 billion to Venezuela's state treasury.
Trump calls $5,000 payouts 'easy' to fit into federal budget
President Donald Trump said on Sunday the United States can afford his promise to send $5,000 to every U.S. adult should his Republican Party keep control of Congress in this year's elections. "I don't know but it's easy if the Republicans win. $5,000 to all adults in the country and we can easily handle that because we're taking in so much money," Trump told reporters when asked if Congress would need to approve the payments, adding that trillions of dollars were coming into the country. Trump unveiled the idea of $5,000 payouts during a speech at the Republican Party convention last week. Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Ireland, where he was attending a golf tournament at his club in Doonbeg, the president said the U.S. government has the funds to pay for it.
China's Xi urges BRICS nations to work towards peace in the Middle East
The BRICS bloc should work towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, adding that his country is willing to play a key role. "The situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region continues to evolve in a complex manner. This conflict has caused severe losses to the people of the region and is not in the common interest of the international community," Xi said in a speech at the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday. "All relevant parties should adhere to the direction of a political solution and promote a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. We must attach importance to addressing the root causes of the problems," Xi said in a Google translation of a transcript of the speech provided by the Chinese government.
Washington scrambles to meet calls for AI guardrails while the window to act closes
Washington is scrambling to address renewed fears over artificial intelligence, as leading U.S. companies sound the alarm over technology, they say is advancing beyond their control. "Dr. Frankenstein is telling us the monster is escaping; help us stop this," said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "The method that we're answering [with] is not meeting the moment." The push for action on AI safeguards comes after a researcher resigned from Anthropic and warned that the technology could "kill us all by the end of the decade." Stunning pledges to slow development from the leaders of top AI frontier companies Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI followed the warning, and calls for lawmakers to act toward regulating the industry came soon after.
AI-linked Asian stocks slump after top lab CEOs call for slowing down technology's development
AI-connected stocks fell sharply in early Asian trading on Monday after the CEOs of the companies developing the most advanced AI models warned the pace of development must slow to prevent threats to humanity. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence. Both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that they agree with Amodei. Altman later said OpenAI would not proceed with an IPO this year, citing safety concerns. Shares in OpenAI investor SoftBank tumbled as much as 13.2% as trading began in Japan alongside an initial 9.8% plunge for memory chipmaker Kioxia and a 3.7% decline for chip supply chain company Tokyo Electron. In Taipei, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slipped 1.2%, while in South Korea SK Hynix slid 5.3% and Samsung Electronics fell 3.7%.
Anthropic tells investors it will be profitable for second straight quarter
Anthropic has told shareholders that its adjusted operating income will be positive for a second straight quarter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing multiple people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic's gross margins are above 80% before accounting for revenue shared with distribution partners, including Amazon, and the cost of training its model, the newspaper said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.
Boeing and engineers' union reach tentative contract agreement
Boeing and its engineering union reached a tentative contract agreement on Friday, union officials said. The four-year offer includes higher general wage increases than the first offer, which members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) overwhelmingly rejected in an August 21 vote. If approved, the roughly 17,000 members of SPEEA's professional and technical units would get a 10% wage raise on October 16, followed by 4% raises plus merit-based increases in 2027 through 2030. "Our final contract offer addresses the top priorities identified by our employees and SPEEA's bargaining teams, including an immediate wage increase and larger wage pools with guarantees," Boeing's Ben Nimmergut, vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering, said in a statement.
US Commerce Department finalizes steep duties on solar imports from India, Indonesia, Laos
The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday finalized steep duties on imports of solar cells and panels from India, Indonesia and Laos, finding that producers in those countries dumped cheap products in the United States and benefited from unfair government subsidies. The agency assigned anti-dumping margins of 123.04% for Indian producers, 94.36% for Indonesian producers and 65.43% for producers from Laos. The Commerce Department also set countervailing duty rates of 126.09% for Indian producers, between 73.2% and 173.7% for Indonesian producers and between 82.03% and 153.67% for Lao producers. The trade investigation was brought by the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, whose members include U.S. solar manufacturers First Solar, Hanwha Qcells and Mission Solar Energy.
