The Midday Tape
Stocks are drifting lower into midday as a stronger dollar and rising yields squeeze the same trades that worked all summer, gold, crypto, and small caps, while traders wait on the Fed's next word.
Yields and the dollar are doing the damage.
The S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq (QQQ) are both off 0.4%, but the real stress is underneath: the Russell 2000 (IWM) is down 1.3%, long bonds (TLT) are down 0.5%, and the dollar (UUP) is up half a percent. The New York Fed's September survey didn't help the mood, three-year inflation expectations ticked up to 3.3% from 3.2%, one-year expectations hit their highest since May 2023, and households turned more downbeat on their financial situation. That's landing ahead of this afternoon's September FOMC minutes, and it's the reason the tape feels defensive rather than panicked. The Treasury's announcement of a preliminary coupon buyback of up to $6 billion is a technical footnote but adds to the bond-market noise.
Gold and crypto are the clearest casualties of the rate move.
Precious metals miners (AEM, AU, GFI, HL, WPM) are all lower as gold (GLD, down 1.5%) gets hit by the firmer dollar and higher yields. Crypto is following the same script, bitcoin is down and dragging the entire digital-asset complex, Coinbase, MARA, RIOT, MSTR, HOOD (down 3%) and the miners all red. Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) is the standout faller, down 6.6% after Tom Lee said the company will stop buying ether. IREN is also getting hit, down 5.8%, compounding the crypto-linked selloff with a separate trader note circulating about site reliability complaints from data-center customers.
Mega-cap tech is quiet but not immune.
Nvidia (NVDA) is off slightly, Marvell (MRVL) down over 1%, and Meta (META) down 2% after Florida's attorney general filed for a temporary injunction against the company. Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) is little changed even as Google taps Unity for AI game-creation tools, and commentary comparing SpaceX and IREN's AI chip economics is making the rounds without moving either stock much. This is rotation out of momentum, not a tech rout.
Single names are where the real action is.
Caribou Biosciences (CRBU) is the session's biggest mover, collapsing after a downgrade to Hold. Booking Holdings (BKNG) is under pressure on news the FTC is preparing action over misleading ads from an affiliate, with potential penalties north of $500 million. Wells Fargo (WFC) is facing a fresh regulator probe tied to its Black homeownership initiative. Levi Strauss (LEVI) is lower ahead of its results due after the close.
Still ahead this afternoon:
the September FOMC minutes, plus earnings from Levi Strauss and Applied Digital after the bell.
Bottom line: this is a rates-and-dollar story first, crypto-and-gold casualty second, with the Fed minutes this afternoon holding the key to whether the defensive tilt turns into something sharper.