Stock market today: Oil rises, Nasdaq leads Dow, S&P 500 lower as chip stocks sell off Grace O'Donnell and David Hollerith Updated Thu, October 8, 2026 at 1:35 PM EDT 1 min read CL=F +4.15% ^GSPC -0.61% ^DJI -0.07% ^TNX -0.83% ^IXIC -1.35% US stocks pulled back on Thursday as oil prices jumped, reigniting inflation concerns and dragging down Treasury bonds, while chip stocks faced selling pressure.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) tumbled 1.6%, slipping further from record highs on Wednesday.
Go deeper with AlphaSpace 51,144.70 -35.17 (-0.07%) As of 2:14:51 PM EDT. Market Open. ^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC Tech stocks took a hit after the Financial Times reported that OpenAI's (OPAI.PVT) annualized revenue was $20 billion lower than previously estimated. Semiconductor giants such as Nvidia (NVDA), Micron (MU), and Intel (INTC) fell in afternoon trading.
Markets were already on edge as oil prices surged earlier Thursday, easing back after President Trump said the US "will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections." The president's comments came after an earlier report that the President was considering striking Iran before the midterm elections.
Brent crude oil futures (BZ=F) and US benchmark WTI crude (CL=F) eased back and remain above $103 per barrel and $91 per barrel, respectively.
Meanwhile, a global bond rout rolled on against that backdrop. Treasury yields remained near multidecade highs — with the 10-year yield (^TNX) at 5.29% and the 30-year yield (^TYX) at 5.67% — reflecting tightening financial conditions.
Investors are gearing up for the third quarter earnings season, with PepsiCo (PEP) quarterly results serving as the appetizer. FactSet estimates that the S&P 500 earnings grew 29.5% in Q3. If that figure holds, it would represent the third consecutive quarter with earnings growth above 25%.
On the economic data front, initial jobless claims ticked down for the week ending Oct. 3 to 197,000, signaling that layoffs remain low.
Oil prices trimmed gains on Thursday after President Trump said the US would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Brent crude (BZ=F) fell to $103 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) dropped to $90 a barrel.
The move came after Trump posted on social media, "We are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran."
He went on to say, "We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd."
The risk around rising bond yields isn't just higher borrowing costs. It's what happens when yields move too far too fast.
Macquarie strategists pointed out that "almost all of the high-profile financial blow-outs" over the past five decades have occurred in the immediate aftermath of rapid moves in bond yields.
"That is, in the past 50 years, sharp increases (or sharp decreases) in long-term yields have taken place every few years, and when they have taken place, another financial company, or heavy borrower has imploded," Macquarie global strategists Thierry Wizman and Gareth Berry wrote on Wednesday.
Palantir (PLTR) stock jumped 3% on Thursday morning, thanks to a vote of confidence from Goldman Sachs.
Goldman's research team, led by Gabriela Borges, upgraded shares of Palantir to a Buy rating from Neutral, with a 12-month price target of $230. At that target, the firm sees 18% upside in Palantir's stock from its Wednesday closing price.
"Our primary takeaway from our most recent set of industry conversations is that the stock is setting up for another phase of outperformance into 2027," the analysts wrote.
They note that Palantir's total addressable market "may be setting up for another step function change in depth, because of the shift to sovereign AI, bespoke applications, and Palantir's newer verticalization strategy."
At Thursday's levels, Palantir stock is trading 3% below its $207.18 record high reached on Nov. 3 of last year.
US stocks opened lower on Thursday after oil prices reversed course and government bond yields continued to rise.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) also opened lower for the second day in a row after closing at record highs on Tuesday. The Nasdaq fell 0.4%, and the S&P 500 declined 0.3%.
Go deeper with AlphaSpace 51,144.70 -35.17 (-0.07%) As of 2:14:51 PM EDT. Market Open. ^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC Rising borrowing costs remain the key worry for investors as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) remained at multidecade highs on Thursday morning.
Oil prices added another source of pressure on stocks. Brent crude futures (BZ=F) rose above $104 per barrel following reports that President Trump is considering plans for more strikes on Iran before the midterm elections, while oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico have cut back production in response to Tropical Storm.
Investors also got another read on the labor market earlier Thursday morning, with the Labor Department data showing weekly initial jobless claims fell as layoffs remained low.
Initial jobless claims for the week ended Oct. 3 fell to 197,000 as layoffs remained low. The figure, released by the Labor Department on Thursday morning, decreased by 2,000 from the week before.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits, increased by 17,000 to 1.71 million for the week ended Sept. 26.
The weekly update on unemployment applications lands as companies aren't slashing jobs as much as they did last year in aggregate.
Still, a few notable layoff announcements have cropped up. On Thursday, Amazon (AMZN) confirmed that it eliminated fewer than 1,000 roles, primarily in its retail business. PepsiCo (PEP) also hinted on Thursday that it could target layoffs as part of broader cost-cutting measures.
When you are talking about Crocs (CROX) on the internet, you are usually talking about nurses, a fashion faux pas, some Gen Z trend incomprehensible to the over-28 crowd, or whether the wearer was in sport mode.
But this is the other side of the petrochemical business — it's not just about diesel and gas tanks. While a lot of companies are exposed to oil volatility because of shipping costs, Crocs has traditionally seen additional exposure because of the raw materials it uses to construct its footwear.
Croslite, the signature foam its clogs are made of, accounts for more than 80% of the materials used across Crocs product lines, according to the company. Since Croslite is mostly derived from oil, this has made the company doubly vulnerable to the rising costs of crude.
PepsiCo (PEP) posted third quarter results that beat Wall Street's expectations on Thursday but lowered its profit outlook as the company works to regain momentum in the US market.
"We continue to operate with a high sense of urgency to sustainably improve the company's financial and marketplace performance (most notably in North America)," PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said in prepared remarks.
PepsiCo's revenue grew 5.6% year over year to $25.27 billion, just beating the Street's expectations of roughly $25 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.34, slightly higher than the $2.29 per share expected, per Bloomberg consensus data. Tariff refunds amounted to $178 million in the third quarter.
For fiscal year 2026, the company now expects net revenue to come in at the high end of its range, up approximately 6%. But PepsiCo lowered its forecast for core earnings per share growth to 2.5%-3% growth, down from the low end of a 5%-7% range.
Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX) may soon face more competition in the public markets — from fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Speaking on Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Bret Baier," Bezos said his space company Blue Origin would seek an IPO in the coming years.
"I think, someday, Blue Origin will have an IPO," Bezos said. "It would be several years from now. But it probably makes sense for Blue Origin to be a public company at some point."
Bezos's remarks come after Musk's SpaceX went public in June, raising $75 billion in its IPO. Other much-discussed upcoming IPOs include AI companies Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT). However, market uncertainty have caused others, like smart ring maker Oura, to postpone their debuts.
Blue Origin just raised $10 billion from outside investors in its latest funding round, which valued the company at $140 billion, per the Wall Street Journal. Bezos personally contributed $2 billion in the round.
Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes in today's Morning Brief newsletter:
For a subset of young workers, the name of the game is to squirrel away enough savings and investments so retirement can come early, substituting strategic personal finance for a lifetime of labor. (FIRE!)
It turns out that the post-pandemic boom and explosion of stock prices has already gifted many older Americans with a version of that lifestyle, according to Bank of America — and it's affecting the economy.
Labor force participation — which measures the share of people employed or seeking work among the total population — never recovered after the shock of the pandemic.
According to BofA's economics team, led by Aditya Bhave, the biggest driver behind the decline in overall labor force participation has been workers over age 55 leaving the workforce.
"This debunks a popular bearish narrative on the labor market: 'the u-rate would have been higher if participation hadn't fallen,'" Bhave wrote.
Economic data: Initial jobless claims, week ended Oct. 3 (197,000 prior); Continuing claims, week ended Sept. 26 (1.701 million prior); Wholesale inventories, month-on-month, August final reading (+0.7% prior)
Catch up on top stories from overnight:
Oil edges higher on Iran strike options report and storm impact
US consumer borrowing moderates on drop in revolving credit
Michael Dell defends Trump Accounts' shift to individual company stocks
Wealthy investors view rates and yields as the biggest growth risk, says Deutsche Bank
Bezos says Blue Origin likely to pursue IPO in coming years
Oil prices rose on Thursday on persistent worries about supply from the key Middle East producing region amid an increase in attacks on shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Prices settled lower on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency agreed to accelerate the release of oil stocks and to prioritize diesel supplies under a plan launched in March, as governments seek to tackle record fuel prices and supply disruptions caused by the Iran war.
However, threats to oil shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, which carried shipments equal to about 20% of global oil and fuel before the war, have increased in October as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran enters its eighth month.
Attacks on tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz hit their highest last week of any week since the Iran war began as Gulf producers increase exports. The increase in attacks is occurring as more crude is flowing out of the Gulf but at higher costs and risk to cargoes and crew.
