Big Week Ahead: What's the Fed's Next Move? 14/09/2026
Market Wrap
U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak as oil prices pulled back and investors looked past an inflation report that reinforced expectations for another Federal Reserve rate increase.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 509 points, or 1%, to 52,573.29. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% to 7,656.98, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1% to 26,333.04.
August consumer prices rose 0.4% from the previous month and 3.4% from a year earlier, matching expectations. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3% on the month, slightly more than forecast and keeping pressure on the Fed ahead of this week's policy meeting.
Despite Friday's rebound, all three major indexes finished the week lower. The Dow lost 1.6%, the S&P 500 declined 0.8% and the Nasdaq fell 0.7%, marking its first negative week in three.
Oil remains a key risk heading into the new week. Crude prices jumped more than 2% Sunday evening after Saudi Arabia shut a major pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. crude had already broken above $100 a barrel last week for the first time since May as the Middle East conflict intensified.
Stock futures moved lower early Monday as investors monitored the latest rise in oil alongside developments in the artificial-intelligence IPO market. With no major earnings or economic releases scheduled, energy prices and geopolitical headlines are likely to remain the main drivers of sentiment.
Attention now turns to the Federal Reserve's September meeting, with futures markets pricing in roughly an 86% probability of a rate hike this week.
AI Leaders Back Slower Development as Safety Concerns Intensify
The artificial-intelligence industry is showing new signs of restraint as some of its most influential executives call for a more deliberate pace of development amid mounting concerns over increasingly powerful models.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said an IPO this year would be "ill-advised," effectively pushing one of the technology industry's most anticipated listings to at least 2027. His comments mark a shift from recent expectations that OpenAI could move toward the public markets sooner.
The change comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on leading AI companies to intentionally pace improvements in frontier models, arguing that additional time is needed to strengthen safety measures and allow independent testing before capabilities advance further.
The proposal received unusual support from two major rivals. Altman backed the idea and said OpenAI would adopt independent evaluations with employee-level access, while Elon Musk also endorsed Amodei's call for a more cautious approach.
Amodei stressed that pacing development would not mean stopping AI progress. Instead, his proposal calls for stronger third-party oversight, common safety standards among leading AI developers and eventually greater coordination between governments.
The debate is increasingly moving beyond Silicon Valley. Washington is facing growing pressure for tougher AI safeguards following concerns over autonomous cyberattacks, while opposition to the rapid expansion of power-hungry data centers is also becoming a political issue.
The emerging consensus highlights a growing tension at the heart of the AI boom: companies are racing to capture enormous commercial opportunities while acknowledging that increasingly capable models may require stronger safeguards and a slower, more coordinated path forward.
Stocks on the Move
- Dell Technologies (DELL): Shares rallied more than 10%, extending a strong run alongside the broader tech sector. RBC initiated coverage with an outperform rating, citing Dell's position as a major beneficiary of accelerating AI infrastructure spending by enterprises, governments and cloud providers.
- Shopify (SHOP): Shares gained nearly 4% after Bernstein initiated coverage with an outperform rating and a $160 price target, implying about 26% upside from Thursday's close. Analysts argued that AI should expand rather than disrupt Shopify's growth opportunity.
- Skyworks Solutions (SWKS): Shares jumped more than 8% after the chipmaker said it expects its acquisition of Qorvo (QRVO) to close before year-end. Qorvo shares advanced about 5%.
- Oracle (ORCL): Shares slipped slightly as an earlier post-earnings rally faded. The stock had climbed as much as 10% after Oracle reported adjusted earnings of $1.92 per share on $19.35 billion in revenue, both ahead of Wall Street expectations.
- RH (RH): Shares rose nearly 2% after second-quarter revenue of $922 million topped estimates. The home-furnishings retailer expects full-year revenue growth of 5.5% to 7%, compared with the 5.6% consensus forecast.
- NuScale Power (SMR): Shares tumbled 14% after UBS downgraded the nuclear-energy company to sell from neutral and cut its price target to $6 from $10, citing the lengthy timeline for deploying its small modular reactors.
- Oklo (OKLO): Shares dropped more than 7% after the nuclear-energy company entered into an at-the-market common-stock sales agreement, raising concerns about potential shareholder dilution.
Watchlist: QCOM, DELL, ORCL, OKLO, NVDA, SHOP, XOM, USO, MSTR, COIN, MU
Key Economic Events Today
Economic Data (EST)
No significant economic data today.
Earnings
Before Market Open: CoinShares Plc. (CSHR), Coda Octopus Group (CODA)
After Market Close: Kestra Medical Technologies (KMTS), Radiant Logistics (RLGT), Dave and Buster's Entertainment (PLAY)
