23rd September 2026 – (New York) US equities edged lower on Wednesday as rising Treasury yields and firmer oil prices pressured risk appetite against a backdrop of renewed uncertainty surrounding US‑Iran tensions. The S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent, the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.5 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 159 points, or 0.3 per cent.
Losses were led by utilities and consumer discretionary shares, each down around 1 per cent, while materials also lagged with a pullback of nearly 1 per cent. The drift reflected a broader rotation as investors weighed the impact of higher funding costs and energy prices on earnings and consumption.
Benchmark yields nudged higher, adding to the headwinds for equities. The 10‑year US Treasury yield rose a little over 2 basis points to about 4.994 per cent, while the 2‑year yield climbed to roughly 4.81 per cent. The move extended the recent grind higher in rates as markets reassessed the policy and growth outlook.
Crude benchmarks advanced. Brent futures for November traded about 1 per cent higher near $100 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate hovered just under a 1 per cent gain around $91 per barrel, reinforcing concerns about input costs and inflation persistence.
At the opening bell, all three major indices started in the red, with the S&P 500 down 0.1 per cent, the Nasdaq off 0.2 per cent and the Dow lower by 0.3 per cent. The mixed tone followed Tuesday’s session in which the Nasdaq notched a fresh intraday record and closed at a new high, the Dow finished lower and the S&P 500 was little changed, remaining about 0.8 per cent below its record.
Geopolitics remained in focus during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Donald Trump said on Tuesday that US and Iranian officials held a three‑hour meeting and characterised the discussion as very good, while also signalling he faced a major decision on whether to pursue a deal with Tehran or take a far tougher line.
In company news before the bell, Worthington Enterprises surged about 16 per cent after leadership pointed to strong demand, including for engineered American Society of Mechanical Engineers‑standard tanks used in data‑centre liquid cooling, with first‑quarter adjusted results beating LSEG consensus. KB Home slipped more than 1 per cent after forecasting fourth‑quarter deliveries below expectations and guiding housing gross margins to 16.0–16.6 per cent versus analysts’ 17.2 per cent. IonQ jumped 12 per cent after announcing it had tested what it called the industry’s first real‑time quantum error decoder, enabling error correction without adding execution time.
