Opening Comment — Friday, October 16, 2026
DJIA: 52,177.69, up 556.21
S&P 500: 7,744.06, up 25.12
NASDAQ: 26,713.03, up 20.16
Stocks flat before import price data
Stock futures are little changed Friday morning as investors assessed Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Kevin Warsh’s comments and await today’s economic releases, including September industrial production, import prices, and export prices. Next week, investors will look for preliminary October purchasing managers’ indexes from S&P Global on Friday. As of 7:20 AM ET, the Dow is little changed, while the S&P 500 is up 0.1%. The Nasdaq 100 is falling 0.1% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were higher on Thursday as retail sales showed a stronger-than-expected increase of 0.8% month-over-month (MOM) in September, following an upwardly revised 1.3% increase in August. The headline Producer Price Index (PPI) for September rose 1.3% MOM and 6.3% year-over-year (YOY), well above expectations, following upwardly revised prior readings of 0.5% MOM and 5.6% YOY. The core PPI increased 0.7% MOM and 5.0% YOY, also exceeding expectations, with the prior YOY reading revised higher to 4.8%. Initial jobless claims picked up, though continuing claims for the week prior fell. The Dow was up 1.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%. The S&P 500 increased 0.3% with eight of 11 sectors finishing in positive territory. The Health Care sector was the top performer, rising 1.8%, while the Energy sector was the bottom performer, falling 1.6%.
Technical Analysis
As of midday Thursday, the S&P 500 is still in an uptrend. Resistance is at the recent high of 7,819, while support lies at the 50- and 200-day moving averages of 7,707 and 7,268, respectively.
On the data front, import prices are expected to have increased 1.0% MOM and 8.2% YOY in September, versus the prior month’s increases of 0.7% and 7.0%, respectively. Meanwhile, export prices are expected to have increased 0.9% MOM and 9.6% YOY in September, versus the prior month’s 0.6% and 8.6%, respectively. Industrial production is expected to have expanded by 0.4% MOM in September, compared to the prior month’s little change, while capacity utilization is forecasted to rise to 76.5% from the prior month’s 76.3%. The New York Fed will release their Business Leaders Survey for October, with the headline business activity index expected to rise to -4.1 from the prior month’s -8.7.
Across the pond, European stocks are higher in mid-day trading as the eurozone’s finalized September headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6% MOM and 3.8% YOY, both in line with expectations and unchanged from the prior readings. Meanwhile, the eurozone’s seasonally adjusted trade balance posted a deficit in August, following a downwardly revised surplus in July.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were higher as South Korea’s unemployment rate declined to 2.6% in September. The country’s export prices fell 0.8% MOM and rose 40.9% YOY, while import prices rose 1.7% MOM and 17.6% YOY, following the prior month’s upwardly revised readings.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is lower ahead of today’s U.S. import and export price data.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 0.3% lower at $97.71/barrel and Brent crude oil is up 0.2% at $106.10/barrel.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.1% higher at $4,175.01/ounce following a weakening U.S. dollar