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Financial News September 3, 2026: Wall Street Surges as Fed Rate Fears Ease

Stocks rallied Thursday after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller opened the door to holding interest rates steady. Nvidia announced a $12.93 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, Snowflake soared on AI demand and oil reached fresh six-week highs.

By North American Talk Radio Staff | September 3, 2026

Market information current as of approximately 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, September 3. Thursday’s U.S. stock, bond and commodity sessions were still underway, so official closing levels may differ from the intraday figures below.

Wall Street rallied Thursday as investors reduced their expectations for a September interest-rate increase following new comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 600 points, while the Nasdaq gained approximately 1.5%. Big technology companies led the advance after Nvidia agreed to acquire artificial-intelligence platform Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion and Snowflake delivered results that strengthened confidence in corporate AI spending.

The market’s relief came despite another increase in oil prices and an economic report showing services-sector input costs at their highest level in three years.

The competing signals set up an unusually consequential August employment report Friday. Evidence of a weakening labor market could persuade the Fed to leave rates unchanged, while unexpectedly strong job creation would return attention to persistent inflation.

Wall Street Rallies as Rate-Hike Expectations Fall

The S&P 500 was up approximately 1.1% Thursday afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 631 points, or 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced approximately 1.5%.

Market-tracking ETFs showed similar gains shortly before 3 p.m. Eastern:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF gained approximately 1.1%.
• The Dow-tracking DIA ETF rose nearly 1.2%.
• The Nasdaq-100-tracking QQQ fund advanced approximately 1.3%.

Microsoft gained about 2.8%, Meta climbed 3.6% and Nvidia rose approximately 2.2%. Apple added 0.7%.

Software stocks also strengthened after Snowflake’s earnings report. Oil prices continued rising, but a retreat in Treasury yields reduced immediate pressure on stock valuations.

The Associated Press reported Thursday’s intraday index levels and leading stock movements.

Wednesday’s Completed Market Results

Wall Street also finished higher Wednesday, partially recovering from a three-session losing streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 295.01 points, or 0.56%, to close at 53,061.89. The S&P 500 rose 35.16 points, or 0.46%, to 7,666.63.

The Nasdaq Composite added 118.05 points, or 0.45%, to finish at 26,217.83. The Russell 2000 outperformed the larger indexes with a 1.1% gain.

Dell Technologies closed 15.8% higher after increasing its annual revenue and earnings forecasts. Nvidia rose 3.2%, Micron gained 2.4% and Qualcomm advanced 2%.

Materials led the S&P 500’s 11 sectors, while real estate produced the only sector decline. Reuters published Wednesday’s completed market results.

Waller Opens Door to Holding Interest Rates Steady

Waller said he would support leaving the federal-funds rate unchanged if forthcoming reports confirm that inflation is easing.

He also made clear that he would support an increase if price pressures fail to moderate.

The comments were notable because recent oil-price gains, elevated manufacturing costs and strong services demand have pushed markets toward expecting a quarter-point increase at the Fed’s September 15–16 meeting.

The estimated probability of a September increase fell from approximately 62% to 54% following Waller’s remarks.

The Fed currently maintains a target range of 3.50% to 3.75%. Chair Kevin Warsh warned last week that policymakers would still have work to do if inflation did not move convincingly toward the central bank’s 2% target.

Investors are now looking to Friday’s employment report, followed by the September 11 inflation report. Reuters reported Waller’s comments and Wall Street’s response.

Treasury Yields Ease but Mortgage Rates Reach 13-Month High

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell toward 4.76% Thursday after climbing as high as 4.818% Wednesday.

The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed policy, declined to approximately 4.33%.

Falling yields supported technology and other growth stocks. They nevertheless remained substantially higher than at the beginning of 2026.

The pressure has reached American homebuyers. Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6.71%, its highest level since July 2025.

Mortgage rates do not move directly with the federal-funds rate, but they generally follow longer-term Treasury yields. Concerns about inflation, government debt and intense competition for investment capital have pushed those yields higher.

Reuters reported the latest mortgage rate and Treasury-market developments.

Services Sector Expands as Input Costs Reach Three-Year High

The Institute for Supply Management’s services index increased to 55.4 in August from 54.1 in July. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The result demonstrated continuing strength across the sector that accounts for more than two-thirds of American economic activity.

New orders jumped to 60.9, their highest level since February 2023.

The strength came with a serious inflation warning. ISM’s services input-price index increased to 72.6 from 70.3, reaching its highest level since August 2022.

The increase suggests inflation is spreading beyond manufacturing and physical goods. Businesses are facing higher expenses connected to labor, energy, artificial-intelligence infrastructure and constrained supplies.

The combination of robust demand and elevated costs gives the Fed conflicting signals. The economy appears capable of handling tighter policy, but an increase could create additional strain in weaker areas of the labor market.

Jobless Claims Remain Low Ahead of Employment Report

Initial applications for unemployment benefits increased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 206,000 during the week ended August 29.

Economists expected 205,000 claims. The level remains near the lower end of this year’s range and indicates that widespread layoffs have not begun.

Continuing claims rose by 8,000 to 1.779 million during the week ended August 22.

A separate report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that planned job cuts increased 58% during August to 52,881. Even so, that was the lowest August total since 2022, and announced cuts for 2026 remained 41% below their year-earlier level.

The figures support the description of the labor market as “slow hire, slow fire.” Employers are limiting recruitment but remain reluctant to dismiss existing workers.

Economists expect Friday’s report to show that nonfarm payrolls increased by 56,000 in August after falling by 23,000 in July. The unemployment rate is forecast to remain at 4.1%. Reuters reported the claims data and payroll expectations.

Trade Deficit Widens 24% Despite Tariffs

The U.S. trade deficit widened 24.4% to $88.6 billion in July.

Imports rose 2.8% to $399.3 billion, while exports declined 2.1% to $310.7 billion.

Capital-goods imports surged by $14.4 billion to a record $140.3 billion. Computers, semiconductors and related equipment contributed significantly, reflecting continued spending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

Goods imports rose to $320.6 billion, while goods exports declined to $201 billion.

The inflation-adjusted goods deficit increased 12.7% to $106.4 billion. The widening shortfall could reduce third-quarter economic growth after trade already subtracted 1.14 percentage points from second-quarter GDP.

The United States recorded goods-trade deficits with Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia despite the administration’s extensive tariff policies. Reuters provided the complete July trade figures.

Nvidia Buys Hugging Face for $12.93 Billion

Nvidia announced that it will acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion in one of the chipmaker’s largest transactions.

Hugging Face operates a widely used platform through which developers obtain artificial-intelligence models, datasets, software libraries and deployment tools.

Nvidia will pay approximately $11.9 billion to the company’s investors and provide as much as $1 billion in equity-based incentives to employees who join Nvidia.

The acquisition moves Nvidia beyond selling processors and deeper into the software and developer ecosystem. By controlling a platform used to select and deploy AI models, Nvidia could form closer relationships with organizations that later purchase computing hardware.

CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face will remain an open platform and will not require developers to use Nvidia chips or specific cloud providers.

Some developers nevertheless expressed concern that Nvidia could eventually provide technical advantages to its own hardware over competing processors from AMD or other companies.

The purchase price represents an enormous increase from Hugging Face’s $4.5 billion valuation during its 2023 funding round. Reuters reported the transaction’s financial terms and strategic implications.

Snowflake Soars as AI Demand Accelerates Growth

Snowflake shares surged nearly 25% after the cloud-data company raised its fiscal 2027 product-revenue forecast.

The company now expects product revenue of approximately $6.07 billion, up from its earlier projection of $5.84 billion.

Management attributed about half of its recent growth acceleration to artificial intelligence. Snowflake has added thousands of customers for tools including its Cortex Code programming assistant and CoWork enterprise chatbot.

At least 34 brokerages increased their price targets following the report. Snowflake’s results also lifted ServiceNow, Salesforce, Adobe and other software stocks.

The response marked a notable shift from recent concerns that generative AI could undermine established software companies. Snowflake’s results suggested that businesses with valuable data platforms can also benefit from rapidly expanding AI usage. Reuters reported Snowflake’s results and revised outlook.

Broadcom’s Long-Term AI Forecast Fails to Satisfy Investors

Broadcom raised its fiscal 2027 AI-chip revenue forecast from more than $100 billion to approximately $115 billion. The company expects that figure to double to roughly $230 billion during fiscal 2028.

Third-quarter AI-chip sales more than tripled to $16.7 billion. Total revenue reached $29.59 billion, exceeding analysts’ $29.36 billion estimate, while adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share also surpassed expectations.

Broadcom nevertheless declined Thursday because its immediate forecast disappointed investors. The company projected fourth-quarter revenue of $34.8 billion, slightly below the $35.03 billion consensus estimate.

The contrast between Broadcom’s decline and Snowflake’s rally demonstrated the extraordinarily high expectations surrounding AI companies. Impressive long-term growth may not support a stock when near-term guidance misses Wall Street’s target. Reuters reported Broadcom’s results and AI-chip forecasts.

Oil Reaches Fresh Six-Week Highs

Brent crude rose $1.66, or 1.7%, to approximately $97.29 per barrel Thursday afternoon. West Texas Intermediate increased $2.03, or 2.2%, to $93.04.

Both benchmarks reached fresh six-week highs as renewed American strikes against Iran and escalating Israeli threats increased supply concerns.

Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains far below normal. Iran has warned that vessels it considers noncompliant could face fines, seizure or detention.

Iraq exported approximately 2.34 million barrels per day during August, providing some relief to a market struggling with impaired Persian Gulf supplies. American crude inventories also declined by 4.5 million barrels last week, considerably more than analysts expected.

Oil prices have now risen for four consecutive sessions. Reuters reported Thursday’s crude prices and Middle East supply risks.

Gold Jumps More Than 2%

Spot gold rose approximately 2.3% to $4,488.54 per ounce after Waller’s comments reduced expectations for an immediate Fed increase.

U.S. gold futures gained 2.8% to $4,539.90.

Lower Treasury yields and a weaker dollar supported bullion by reducing the opportunity cost for investors holding assets that do not pay interest.

Silver climbed 2.8% to approximately $67.13 per ounce. Platinum increased 4.2%, while palladium surged 5.9%.

Gold’s rally demonstrated the sensitivity of commodities to even small changes in the anticipated rate path. Reuters reported Thursday’s precious-metals movements.

Bitcoin Rallies Above $81,000

Bitcoin traded near $81,156 shortly before 3 p.m. Eastern, up approximately 5% from its previous close. It reached an intraday high near $81,322.

Ethereum climbed almost 4.9% to approximately $2,508.

Cryptocurrency rallied alongside technology stocks and gold as Treasury yields and the dollar declined. Bitcoin remained below an important area of technical resistance near $82,800 but moved farther above recent support near $75,700.

The sharp increase reinforced Bitcoin’s current sensitivity to monetary-policy expectations. Reduced rate-hike probabilities generally encourage investors to hold speculative and non-yielding assets.

Bank of England Official Supports Earlier Rate Increase

Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill argued that an earlier interest-rate increase could prevent inflation from becoming entrenched.

Pill was one of three policymakers who supported an increase during the central bank’s July meeting. Most members voted to wait for clearer evidence concerning the U.S.-Iran conflict’s lasting inflation effects.

Markets assigned only about a 15% probability to a September increase but more than a 70% probability to a move by November.

British policymakers face a difficult combination of elevated energy prices, rising government-bond yields and pressure on household finances. Reuters reported Pill’s monetary-policy argument.

Financial Market Outlook

Thursday’s rally rested on two powerful developments: Waller’s willingness to consider holding rates steady and continuing evidence that artificial-intelligence spending is producing genuine corporate revenue.

Those developments do not resolve the inflation problem.

Services input costs reached a three-year high, oil approached $100 per barrel and mortgage rates climbed to 6.71%. At the same time, hiring has slowed, the trade deficit has widened and some companies are announcing larger job reductions.

Friday’s employment report could determine whether Thursday’s rally continues. A moderately weak number may reassure investors that the Fed can wait without creating fears of a recession. A stronger-than-expected report could send Treasury yields and rate-hike expectations higher again.

The market’s ideal result would be evidence of controlled cooling—enough to restrain inflation expectations but not enough to suggest that the economy is contracting.

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