11/08/2026
Following a robust earnings week, U.S. stocks steadied on Monday as investors continued to assess the Federal Reserve’s interest rate trajectory and navigate market uncertainties stemming from the Iran conflict. With the earnings season entering its final stage, the financial results of chipmakers are set to offer critical evidence for the long-running debate over the sector’s valuation.
The S&P 500 Index closed flat after modest intraday declines. Last Friday, the benchmark briefly returned to its all-time high, fueled by a weaker-than-expected U.S. July jobs report that raised expectations for a delayed Fed rate hike. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3% on the day.
Sector performance was mixed across the market, with six of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors posting slight gains. Energy stocks led the rally, boosted by rising oil prices. Amid ongoing stalemates in the plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the energy sector notched its biggest single-day gain since April 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly rejected Iran’s demand for war reparations and called for economic pressure on Iran to push for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
With fewer market catalysts scheduled for the week, investors are turning their focus to upcoming earnings releases from major enterprises including Applied Materials, Lumentum Holdings and Cisco Systems, seeking fresh clues for AI trading trends and chip valuation debates. SanDisk is set to hold an investor day on Thursday. Additionally, market participants will closely monitor the U.S. CPI and PPI inflation data due out this week to gauge the Fed’s monetary policy outlook.
Strong corporate earnings have bolstered bullish sentiment in the U.S. stock market. A team of strategists at JPMorgan Chase, led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, raised the year-end target for the S&P 500 Index for 2026, citing solid quarterly earnings and forward-looking guidance from AI companies that exceeded market expectations.
Ellen Wang, an analyst at JPMorgan, noted that inflation remains a persistent factor shaping corporate earnings outlooks. She observed that management teams increasingly describe the current operating environment as “higher inflation alongside higher growth”, with headwinds from tariffs and commodity costs set to ripple through supply chains with a lag, a trend that is likely to persist through the first half of 2027.
In contrast, Andrew Hollenhorst, an analyst at Citi, believes the upcoming CPI print could counter the prevailing high-inflation narrative. He pointed out that monthly inflation has cooled for a second consecutive month, and the core CPI year-on-year reading due on Wednesday is set to narrow its gap with the Federal Reserve’s inflation target, effectively easing widespread concerns about persistently above-target inflation.
Among individual stocks, Nvidia shares dropped 2.9%. The chip giant announced a $500 billion financing deal with leading Wall Street investment institutions.
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