US Market Wrap 2 September: Wall Street snaps a three-day slide as 10 of 11 sectors rise and small caps beat the megacaps
United States equities rose on Wednesday 2 September 2026, ending a three-session decline on a day when overseas equities fell broadly. Asian benchmarks dropped in 9 of the 10 gauges on this series and Europe closed lower for a second day. Wall Street did not follow.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.56 percent, the S&P 500 0.46 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 0.45 percent. The Russell 2000 led at plus 1.13 percent.
The bond selloff stalled, and that was the story
The advance followed a pause in the run that had carried Treasury yields to multi year highs. The 10 year touched 4.818 percent during the session, its highest since November 2023, then faded, on CNBC’s reporting.
The Treasury’s own par yield curve, struck at about 15:30 in New York, records how little was left of that move by the time the curve was set. It put the 10 year at 4.79 percent, unchanged from Tuesday. The 3 and 5 year each came down a single basis point, to 4.45 and 4.54 percent. The 2, 7, 20 and 30 year did not move.
That is the shape of the session. An intraday spike to the highest yield since November 2023, then a full retreat, leaving almost no trace of the selloff by the time the Treasury’s official par curve was set. For equities, the relief was not a meaningful fall in borrowing costs but the fact that they stopped climbing.
Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Advisors told CNBC the driver was crude: “The key driver is oil. That’s why the market is able to get a little rally today, because oil’s topping out.” He expects the S&P 500 to bottom at 7,500 and oil to trend lower over 6 months as non OPEC production ramps up and alternative routes develop.
Breadth was the tell
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose. Materials led at plus 1.53 percent and real estate was the only decline at minus 0.79 percent, a spread of 2.32 percentage points across the board.
The rally also ran against the year’s usual leadership. The Russell 2000 beat the Nasdaq 100 by 0.90 percentage points and the Dow beat it by 0.33. Taken with 10 of 11 sectors rising, that says Wednesday’s rebound reached well beyond the megacap technology names that have carried much of the year’s advance. It does not say the buying was concentrated in rate-sensitive stocks: real estate, the most rate-sensitive sector on the board, was the only one that fell.
Information technology added just 0.33 percent, matching energy, even with Nvidia and several semiconductor names higher.
The labour market data came in soft
ADP reported private employers added 38,000 jobs in August, its slowest pace of job creation since January, against 47,000 expected in a Dow Jones consensus and an upwardly revised 46,000 in July.
The headline also overstates the breadth of hiring. Education and health services alone added 45,000, which is 7,000 more than the entire private sector’s net gain, so every other industry combined shed a net 7,000 jobs, on our calculation. Goods-producing employment fell 10,000 while service-providing employment rose 48,000. Manufacturing lost 17,000, professional and business services 16,000 and information 4,000. Employers with 500 or more staff added 34,000.
The Federal Reserve published its Beige Book, prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on information collected on or before 24 August. Economic activity increased modestly since early July, with 10 of 12 districts reporting slight to moderate growth and 2 reporting no change. Employment rose very slightly overall. Prices increased moderately in 8 districts, modestly in 2, slightly in 1 and robustly in 1. On the outlook the report says sentiment was mixed across sectors, “with contacts reporting heightened uncertainty surrounding the effects of higher energy prices, policy, and international conflict.”
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams, a permanent voter on the rate-setting committee, said in an interview that the rise in long-term yields reflected economic strength rather than market dysfunction: “It’s not really about financial conditions affecting the economy. It’s more about the economy affecting financial conditions.” On policy he committed to nothing, saying there are no clear signs yet whether current policy is sufficient to return inflation to target or whether further action is needed.
Traders put the probability of a 25 basis point increase at the 15 and 16 September meeting at about 66 percent on Wednesday morning, on CME Group’s measure. The August employment report is published on Friday 4 September at 08:30 in New York.
Where the moves were
Dell Technologies rose 15.81 percent, the best performer in the S&P 500, after reporting record quarterly revenue of 47.0 billion dollars, up 58 percent from a year earlier, and record diluted earnings a share of 6.34 dollars, up 273 percent. The artificial intelligence numbers explain the scale of the reaction. Dell recognised a record 16.4 billion dollars of artificial intelligence server revenue in the quarter, equivalent to about 35 percent of the company’s total quarterly revenue on our calculation, booked 60.9 billion dollars of AI server orders and closed the quarter with a 95 billion dollar AI server backlog, roughly twice Dell’s entire quarterly revenue on our calculation. It raised full-year revenue guidance to 192.0 billion dollars, a rise of 69 percent.
Palo Alto Networks was the worst at minus 9.28 percent despite reporting better than expected fourth quarter results. Datadog fell 6.53 percent, Edison International 6.14 percent and Palantir 5.83 percent.
Nvidia rose 3.21 percent and was among the largest contributors to the Dow’s advance. Meta added 2.47 percent. Semiconductors did not move as a block: Micron rose 2.43 percent and Qualcomm 2.01 percent, while Advanced Micro Devices fell 0.55 percent, Broadcom 0.66 percent and Marvell 1.86 percent.
Separately, Uber said it would cut about 10 percent of its workforce, roughly 3,300 roles, and shrink management layers by 20 percent. About 1 percent of employees will remain fully remote; the rest fall under a hybrid policy requiring three days a week in the office.
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Russell 2000 | 2,953.18 | +1.13% |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 53,061.95 | +0.56% |
| S&P 500 | 7,666.60 | +0.46% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,217.83 | +0.45% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 29,143.33 | +0.23% |
Closes for Wednesday 2 September 2026, ranked by change, captured at 20:17 GMT after the 20:00 GMT cash close and confirmed on a second reading. Each change was checked against this series’ published close for 1 September and all 5 reconcile to the displayed percentages.
| S&P 500 sector | Change |
|---|---|
| Materials | +1.53% |
| Communication Services | +1.16% |
| Health Care | +0.79% |
| Financials | +0.78% |
| Energy | +0.33% |
| S&P 500 sector | Change |
|---|---|
| Information Technology | +0.33% |
| Consumer Discretionary | +0.19% |
| Consumer Staples | +0.19% |
| Utilities | +0.19% |
| Industrials | +0.02% |
| Real Estate | -0.79% |
All 11 S&P 500 sector indices from the same 20:17 GMT capture, ranked by change and split across 2 tables for legibility on a phone. Energy and information technology both round to plus 0.33 percent and are ranked on their unrounded values.
| Maturity | 2 Sep | 1 Sep | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 year | 4.39% | 4.39% | 0bp |
| 3 year | 4.45% | 4.46% | -1bp |
| 5 year | 4.54% | 4.55% | -1bp |
| 10 year | 4.79% | 4.79% | 0bp |
| 30 year | 5.27% | 5.27% | 0bp |
The official daily par yield curve published by the United States Department of the Treasury. The Treasury derives it from indicative bid side quotations at or near 15:30 each trading day in New York, which is half an hour before the equity close, and the changes shown are ours, computed by subtracting the prior trading day’s row. It is a derived par curve rather than a closing market yield. The 7 and 20 year, omitted here to hold the table to 5 rows, were unchanged at 4.66 and 5.27 percent.
| Instrument | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| CBOE Volatility Index | 15.20 | -6.98% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 99.539 | -0.14% |
Quotes captured at 20:17 GMT. Both instruments continue to move beyond the 20:00 GMT equity cash close, so these are timestamped readings rather than end of day values.
Sources: CNBC, the session report and closing entry of 2 September 2026, the John Williams interview, the biggest movers and sector tables, and index, volatility and currency quotes captured at 20:17 GMT on 2 September 2026; the United States Department of the Treasury, the daily par yield curve for 2 and 1 September 2026; ADP, the National Employment Report for August 2026; the Federal Reserve, the Beige Book published 2 September 2026 and the Federal Open Market Committee calendar; the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September 2026 release schedule; Dell Technologies, its second quarter fiscal 2027 results released 1 September 2026; The Edge, the Asia, Europe, Middle East and Commodities Market Wraps covering the 2 September 2026 session.
