Monday, September 21, 2026 Opening bell

Oil slides, futures jump before Trump-Xi week

Overnight

Friday ended quietly, with the S&P 500 up 0.17 percent at 7,650.50 and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.39 percent at 26,522.55, while the Dow slipped 0.18 percent to 51,682.64 and booked its third straight weekly loss. Japan was shut for a holiday, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 291 points to 25,042 and the Shanghai Composite rose 38 points to 3,949, and Europe opened firmly higher, with Germany's DAX up 283 points to 25,587 and the FTSE 100 up almost 100 points to 10,756. US futures are well bid this morning, with S&P 500 futures up about 0.7 percent at 7,766 and Nasdaq futures up 1.1 percent, helped by a slide in oil, as Brent crude fell 3.40 to 100.47 a barrel and the 10 year Treasury yield eased to 4.95 percent from 5.00 percent on Friday.

What to watch

The only US data release is the Chicago Fed national activity index for August at 8:30am Eastern, a single number built from 85 monthly indicators that shows whether the economy is growing faster or slower than its long run trend, expected at minus 0.06 after minus 0.08. The bigger event is the speaking list, because Austan Goolsbee of the Fed, Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank and Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada all appear today, and Goolsbee is among the first Fed officials to talk publicly since last week's rate increase, so any hint about whether another hike is coming would move bond yields. Traders are also starting to position for Thursday's Trump-Xi summit, where tariffs and cooperation on artificial intelligence are expected to be on the table.