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Rates, Regs, and Resilience: A Wild Week on Wall Street · The SPY Trader

• 0:00
  Good morning and welcome to the Spy Trader podcast .
• 0:03
  It is 6 am on Saturday , September 19th , 2026 , here on the Pacific coast .
• 0:10
  I am your host , Sunny Sideup , and I am so glad you are joining me this morning to make sense of a wild week on Wall Street .
• 0:18
  We have seen everything from the first interest rate hike in years to some surprising news from the giants of artificial intelligence .
• 0:27
  It has been a bit of a bumpy ride , so let us dive right into what happened and what it means for your portfolio .
• 0:33
  Looking at the scoreboard for the week , the major indices were a bit of a mixed bag .
• 0:38
  The S&P 500 , which we track via the SPY ETF , finished the week down just slightly by pointone percent , closing at 7,650.50 .
• 0:50
  It is still hanging out near its alltime high , but we definitely felt some pressure midweek .
• 0:56
  The Nasdaq , or the QQQ , managed to pull off a weekly gain of pointseven percent , finishing at 26,522.55 , mostly thanks to a nice recovery on Friday .
• 1:08
  On the flip side , the Dow Jones Industrial Average , the DIA , struggled with a onepointseven percent decline , and the small caps in the Russell 2000 , known as IWM , dropped onepointfive percent .
• 1:22
  The big story was the Federal Reserve meeting on September 16th .
• 1:27
  Under the new Chair , Kevin Warsh , the Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points .
• 1:34
  This brings the federal funds rate to a range of threepointsevenfive to four percent .
• 1:39
  This was the first hike since way back in July of 2023 !
• 1:43
  Chair Warsh pointed out that since inflation is still stuck at threepointfour percent , the Fed is putting its focus squarely on price stability .
• 1:53
  The market reacted by pushing the 10year Treasury yield to five percent , which is the highest we have seen in years .
• 2:00
  That move is putting a lot of pressure on stock valuations and making mortgage rates climb too .
• 2:06
  In the tech sector , we had a bit of a scare on Monday .
• 2:10
  Leaders from Anthropic and OpenAI suggested they might slow down AI development to focus more on safety .
• 2:17
  This caused the semiconductor index to plunge nearly six percent in a single day .
• 2:23
  However , NVIDIA , ticker NVDA , showed some serious resilience and actually gained onepointthree percent on Friday .
• 2:31
  It looks like investors are starting to see this slowdown as a temporary regulatory hurdle rather than a loss of longterm demand .
• 2:39
  For banks , it is a bit of a doubleedged sword .
• 2:43
  While rising rates can help bank margins , the speed of the shift has people worried about loan demand .
• 2:50
  U.S.
• 2:50
  Bancorp and Capital One both reported that while consumers are still spending , those high rates are creating an economic divide .
• 2:58
  We also saw some struggle in real estate , with Lennar reporting a miss because seven percent mortgage rates are making homes less affordable .
• 3:06
  Meanwhile , Northrop Grumman in the defense sector is seeing record backlogs due to international tensions .
• 3:13
  So , where does that leave us for trading ?
• 3:16
  Our strategy right now is shifting toward highquality and defensive growth .
• 3:21
  We recommend looking at the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF , ticker VTI , for broad exposure beyond just the topheavy tech stocks .
• 3:30
  For those looking for growth , the Invesco QQQ Trust remains a strong choice to add on the dips , especially with leaders like Microsoft and NVIDIA .
• 3:39
  If you are looking for income , the iShares 20plus Year Treasury Bond ETF , TLT , is very attractive now that yields are at five percent .
• 3:49
  It also serves as a great hedge if the economy slows down .
• 3:53
  For a defensive play , we like the Health Care Select Sector SPDR , or XLV .
• 3:59
  Healthcare is less sensitive to rate hikes , and we saw companies like Amgen rise on Friday while other sectors were nervous .
• 4:07
  Finally , consider the Energy Select Sector SPDR , XLE .
• 4:12
  With crude oil over a hundred dollars , companies like Exxon are generating massive cash flow , which helps if inflation stays high .
• 4:21
  To wrap things up , keep an eye on the Fed , but do not be afraid to find those quality spots in the market .
• 4:28
  I am Sunny Sideup , and this has been Spy Trader .
• 4:31
  Have a wonderful weekend !