Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

With Monday’s drop, Boeing shares are down nearly 15% since the start of the year.
Credit: Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Boeing shares dropped Monday after news of a 737 MAX software glitch raised worries about a potential safety risk.
• The Federal Aviation Administration said it is reviewing the issue and will take action if it identifies a safety concern.

A Boeing 737 MAX software glitch is sending shares of the plane maker down sharply Monday.

Boeing (BA) shares were down 5% Monday afternoon, leading Dow decliners, after The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the company identified a 737 MAX software glitch “that could cause an automated navigation feature to fail, prompting concerns about a potential safety risk while planes are landing.”

Boeing confirmed the report. “Last month, we informed all 737 operators about a software issue where pilots may not have access to automated flight guidance during a specific landing scenario,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Investopedia. “We shared information with operators that reinforced existing pilot procedures for safely handling such cases. Our engineers are working on a software update to permanently address the issue.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it “is aware of a potential issue in a software update for the flight computers on certain Boeing 737 MAX airplanes and is working closely with Boeing and the airlines.” The agency added that it “will convene a Corrective Action Review Board (CARB) and will take immediate action if it identifies a safety concern.” 

Boeing has been hoping its final two 737 models, the MAX 7 and MAX 10, would enter commercial service soon, as it has a big backlog of orders for the narrowbody planes. The MAX 7 was approved by the FAA last month with the new software.

Industry officials told the Journal that Southwest Airlines (LUV) and United Airlines (UAL) “have told Boeing that they don’t want to receive new 737 MAX planes equipped with the flawed software, and instead requested an earlier version of it.” 

With Monday’s drop, Boeing shares are down nearly 15% since the start of the year.

Oppenheimer called Microsoft a top software pick, along with ServiceNow and Braze.
Credit: Riccardo Milani / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Oppenheimer analysts said software stocks could be set to get a boost from AI-driven revenue growth.
• They identified Microsoft, ServiceNow, and Braze as top picks.

Oppenheimer has ideas about how to play an expected wave of fresh support for software stocks.  

Evidence that software companies are driving revenue gains from AI could ease disruption fears, leaving the sector primed for a boost, Oppenheimer analysts wrote Monday—though they see some stocks as bigger “AI winners” than others. 

Companies that can claim they serve as a “system of record” for their enterprise clients’ data, and have pricing models that combine seats with charges for rising consumption offer the “clearest path to AI-driven upside and stock outperformance,” the firm wrote. 

Cloud giant Microsoft (MSFT), workflow automation software provider ServiceNow (NOW), and customer engagement platform Braze (BRZE) were Oppenheimer’s top three picks based on that criteria. 

Microsoft offers “unmatched distribution across a massive installed-base,” while ServiceNow combines “best-in-class growth” with “durable automation and security tailwinds,” according to the analysts. Braze, which has seen its stock lose nearly a third of its value this year, offers “one of the most attractive risk/rewards in our universe,” Oppenheimer wrote.  

Shares of ServiceNow have lost about 15% year-to-date, while Microsoft has climbed around 6%, underperforming the broader S&P 500’s roughly 13% gain over the same period. 

Credit: Investopedia

Key Takeaways

• Investopedia identified 211 U.S. Starbucks closures across 33 states and Washington, D.C.
• California has the most closures at 64 stores, nearly a third of the U.S. total.
• The closures come after Starbucks posted strong U.S. sales growth, suggesting they’re about pruning, not distress.

Starbucks is closing stores for the second September in a row.

Starbucks (SBUX) closed about 250 stores across the U.S. and Canada this past week, about 1% of its North American footprint, but declined to list the closures. Starbucks picked locations where it doesn’t “see a path to acceptable financial performance,” Mike Grams, the company’s operating chief, told employees Thursday.

Investopedia checked the hours listed for every U.S. company-operated store and identified 211 stores in 33 states and Washington, D.C., that have gone dark. The remaining closures are in Canada or among licensed locations.

The closures cluster in the country’s most populous states: California has 64, followed by New York with 15 and Texas with 14. Colorado and Florida have nine apiece.

The pattern within states is less obvious. Starbucks shut five Manhattan stores, including 99 Wall St. and 11 Penn Plaza, along with downtown locations in Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia. It also closed stores in towns like Corrigan, Texas; Gunnison, Colo.; and Two Rivers, Wis., where they were the only Starbucks for miles.

Nearly all the closures, about 200 of the 211, took effect this past weekend, the last of the company’s fiscal year.

Why This Matters to You

Starbucks still expects to grow this fiscal year. What’s changing isn’t the size of the chain but the stores it’s keeping—remodeled, higher-traffic locations.

The company expects about $300 million in restructuring charges, including roughly $200 million in “cash charges primarily related to lease exit costs and employee separation benefits,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It also cut its forecast for net new stores this fiscal year to about 440 from a previous range of 600 to 650.

Starbucks Workers United told Investopedia that 20 of the store closures across the U.S. and Canada are unionized, about 8% of the closures, while about 700 of the 11,000 company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada, or about 6%, are unionized. Among them: the Eugene, Ore., store that in 2022 became the first in the state to organize.

Starbucks said it’s offering transfers “wherever possible” and severance to those it can’t place. The union said it negotiated an enforceable agreement covering transfers and severance for member baristas.

The closures this time last year, which Investopedia counted at 467 U.S. stores, came amid falling sales. That’s not the case now.

U.S. same-store sales rose 7.9% in the quarter ended June 28, with transactions up 4.2%, the company’s best showing since CEO Brian Niccol took over in 2024. Starbucks has remodeled more than 1,000 stores this year and expects to reach 1,500 by fiscal year-end.

The near-ubiquity of Starbucks locations isn’t changing. While Starbucks ended fiscal year 2025 with fewer stores for the first time in a decade, it still expects to end this fiscal year with about 440 more stores worldwide than it started with, even after this week’s closures.

Update—Sept. 28, 2026: This article has been updated to include the information from Starbucks Workers United.

Bitcoin recently traded at around $83,000.
Credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Strategy added 1,665 bitcoin last week, increasing its holdings to 847,666 coins.
• Bitcoin has gained over 40% in the past three months, reaching around $83,000.
• Spot bitcoin funds saw $2.4 billion in net inflows last week, reversing year-long outflows.

The crypto market’s turnaround has fattened a bitcoin whale.

Strategy (MSTR) bought 1,665 bitcoin last week for roughly $143 million, pushing its stockpile up to 847,666 coins—more than the digital asset treasury had before it started to sell them earlier this year. 

The overall value of its stockpile, however, remains below what it was worth in early October, when the cryptocurrency hit its all-time high of more than $126,000 per coin. The world’s largest cryptocurrency appears to have shaken off its winter doldrums, gaining more than 40% in the past three months to around $83,000 as of Monday morning. 

Strategy wasn’t the only buyer last week. Some $2.4 billion in net flows rushed into spot bitcoin funds from Sept. 21 to Sept. 25, pushing year-to-date inflows to over $1 billion, according to Farside Investors. In other words, fund investors have flipped the switch and flows are now in the positive in a year long marked by falling prices and sideways action.

Crypto-linked stocks, including Strategy and Coinbase (COIN), are down so far Monday, with the price of bitcoin off a little over 2% in the past 24 hours. That said, the cryptocurrency is down just about 5% year-to-date.

Gas prices at a Shell gas station above $6 a gallon for regular gasoline and $8 a gallon for diesel are displayed across from a US flag outside of the Marathon Petroleum Corp. Los Angeles Refinery in Carson, California on September 22, 2026.
Credit: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• President Donald Trump is reportedly considering banning exports of diesel fuel.
• Experts say a diesel ban could reduce diesel prices by 25 cents per gallon each week the export ban remained in effect, while raising gasoline prices by 30 cents per gallon.
• Oil and business groups urged Trump not to ban diesel exports.

President Donald Trump has access to a “make diesel cheaper” button, but experts say there are good reasons he might not want to press it.

Record-high diesel prices, driven by wars in Iran and Ukraine, are a major problem for household budgets and the economy. They are threatening to stoke inflation by raising transportation costs for nearly everything consumers buy.

Trump is reportedly considering measures to bring those prices down, including by banning exports of the critical fuel. Analysts predict an export ban would lower diesel prices temporarily while raising them for gasoline and other fuels, and pushing up diesel prices in the long run. The trade-off would be diesel prices falling by 25 cents per gallon each week of the ban, while gasoline prices increasing by 30 cents per gallon, economists at Goldman Sachs estimated.

“We’re thinking about it very seriously,” Trump said Sunday at a golf tournament near Chicago, in response to a question from a FOX News reporter.

Talk of the diesel ban swirled last week, first reported Wednesday by Politico,  which said the White House was preparing for a 90-day export ban.  Later, Energy Secretary Christopher Wright told reporters Trump wasn’t going to ban exports altogether, but told the Wall Street Journal he was considering some other form of restriction.

What This Means For The Economy

An export ban could relieve some of the upward pressure on inflation stemming from record-high diesel prices, but could push up prices in other areas, experts say.

Gasoline prices would rise because of how oil refineries are set up, according to an analysis by Martijn Rats, a commodities strategist at Morgan Stanley.

If diesel exports were banned, the extra fuel would have to be stored, and U.S. refiners would run out of storage space in about three weeks. At that point, they’d have to cut production of both diesel and gasoline.

“This would require higher gasoline imports, from a global market that is already tight,” Rats wrote. “Hence, a diesel export ban could have the counterintuitive effect of an increase in gasoline prices if U.S. refiners cut runs.”

If the ban were limited in time, diesel prices in the U.S. would rebound after it was lifted and likely be higher than they would have been without the export ban. And it would also push up diesel prices elsewhere in the world.

Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, raised similar concerns on Wednesday, speaking at an event hosted by The Economist magazine.

“The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work,” he said, according to the magazine. “That same refinery that produces diesel also produces gasoline and jet fuel, so if you can’t export the diesel that comes out of our refineries, you run out of places to store it, and you have to reduce U.S. refining, which would put upward pressure on gasoline prices and jet-fuel prices.”

Trump acknowledged the potential for higher gas prices in his interview Sunday.

“That can oftentimes lead to a little bit of an increase on gasoline for cars, so we’re looking at it very seriously—we may do it,” he said.

A slew of business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, warned Trump against any export restrictions in an open letter. They contended a ban “would lead to less fuel production, tighter supplies, and rising costs for American families, farmers, and truckers.”

The U.S. has never outright banned diesel exports before, but it did ban crude oil exports between 1975 and 2015. When the ban was lifted, domestic oil production rose but did not drive up gasoline prices for U.S. consumers, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

Nevertheless, analysts expect the government to take some action on diesel, even if it’s not a complete export ban.

Angst over high fuel prices is leaving the public in a gloomy mood about their own finances and the broader economy, according to a University of Michigan consumer survey released Friday.

The university’s long-running index of consumer sentiment dipped to near historic lows in September after diesel prices surged at the end of the month.  And with midterm elections approaching in November, the president has political as well as economic reasons to alleviate high fuel prices, even if it’s only a short-term measure.

“An outright ban still seems unlikely,” Rats wrote. “However, a partial and/or time-limited export restriction appears possible.”

Nvidia spent about $26 billion on buybacks and dividends in its most recently completed quarter.
Credit: ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP via Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Nvidia increased its stock buyback program by $150 billion, bringing the total to $235 billion.
• The current buyback program extends through Nvidia’s 2028 fiscal year.

Chip giant Nvidia on Monday raised its buyback program to nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Nvidia (NVDA) this morning said its board approved a $150 billion boost to its buyback program, lifting the authorized total to $235 billion. The program runs through the end of its 2028 fiscal year; the first half of its 2027 year ended in late July.

“NVIDIA’s growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a written statement. “Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders.”

The company in August said it spent about $26 billion on buybacks and dividends in its latest quarter, leaving it with approximately $99 billion authorized remaining. It called its current approval “the largest share repurchase authorization increase in history,” in a press release.

Shares of Nvidia were recently up about 2%. Read Investopedia’s full coverage of today’s trading here.

Nvidia shares are one of the few bright spots in the AI trade Monday.
Credit: LONG WEI / Feature China / Future Publishing via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Nvidia introduced a new software platform that it says can prevent AI agents from breaching testing limits.
• The announcement follows a string of recent incidents where AI agents escaped their testing environments and hacked outside websites.

Nvidia says it has a new software system to prevent AI agents from breaking outside of their testing limits, after a series of high-profile hacks.

Nvidia (NVDA) said Monday that its Open Agent Safety Platform can set boundaries for agents, monitor actions taken, and shut agents down if they try to “move outside its software boundary.”

The announcement follows a string of recent incidents where agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) escaped their “sandbox” testing environments and hacked into outside websites in an effort to complete their tasks. Recently, OpenAI agents accessed limited data from a trio of federal government websites: the Education Department, Commerce Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, per The New York Times.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement that the platform “brings together industry, researchers and public-sector organizations to share best practices, align on evaluation methods and foster international cooperation.”

Nvidia announced partnerships with dozens of AI firms that are using the platform in Monday’s release, including Anthropic, SpaceX (SPCX), Oracle (ORCL), and Salesforce (CRM).

Shares of Nvidia climbed about 3% in early trading Monday following the news, at a time when the broader tech sector lost ground. The shares may also be getting a boost from the AI chip giant’s announcement of a $150 billion stock buyback approval, bringing its current buyback plan to a total of $235 billion.

With Monday’s gains, Nvidia shares have climbed about 25% since the start of the year. 

MongoDB shares sank Monday.
Credit: Timon Schneider / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• MongoDB shares fell after its CEO resigned to join Meta.
• The company appointed its former CEO its interim CEO and president.

Shares of data platform company MongoDB dropped Monday on news that its CEO is leaving.

MongoDB (MDB) was down more than 20% in morning trading after the company said CEO and president Chirantan “CJ” Desai stepped down, effective immediately, to “pursue a senior role at Meta Platforms.”

Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg separately wrote that Desai would be joining the Facebook parent as chief enterprise platform officer, “reporting directly to me.”

“We are starting the next major pillar of our business, Meta Enterprise Platform, to help businesses use AI to grow and transform in new ways as well,” Zuckerberg wrote.

MongoDB’s board appointed Dev Ittycheria as interim CEO and president. Ittycheria served as the company’s CEO and president from 2014 to 2025.

MongoDB shares entered Monday down 2% this year. Despite today’s decline, they remain above year-to-date lows seen in April. Meta shares, which have risen 14% in 2026, slipped 1% before the bell.

News of the day for Sept. 28, 2026

Stocks rose on Friday, pushing all three of the major indexes higher for the week.
Credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Stocks are pointing to a lower open to kick off a week that will include inflation data and a new jobs report; crude oil prices are rallying again after President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Iran over the weekend; Treasury yields are climbing amid fears of higher-for-longer inflation and interest rate hikes; the August PCE report, September jobs report, and earnings from Micron and Nike are on deck this week; and Nvidia is launching a software platform to rein in AI agents following recent hacking incidents.

Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Fall Amid Fears of Iran War Dragging On Further

Stock futures are falling ahead of a busy stretch of earnings reports and economic data, with oil prices and Treasury yields on the rise to start the week. Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were down more than 0.5% in recent trading, while futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were down nearly 1%. The major indexes all rose Friday, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq higher for a second straight week, while the Dow managed to snap a three-week losing skid. Gold futures are down 3% to near $4,190 an ounce, while bitcoin is trading just under $83,000, well below its nine-month peak of $87,000 set at the start of last week.

Oil Surging After Trump Rejects Iran Deal

Crude oil futures are back on the rise following the weekend’s Iran war developments. On Friday, an Iranian official told reporters at the United Nations that Iran would be willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the U.S. would end its naval blockade of Iran’s ports, lift sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil, and commit to a ceasefire that includes a halt to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon. Trump on Saturday said he would like to make a deal with Iran, but called that proposal “not acceptable.” As the war looks set to drag into an eighth month with the strait still closed, WTI crude oil futures, the U.S. benchmark, are up 4% to about $96 a barrel.

Treasury Yields on the Rise

Surging oil prices, which have fueled fears of higher-for-longer inflation, are powering a bond sell-off. The 10-year Treasury yield, which impacts a range of consumer interest rates including mortgages, is rising to 5.23% from 5.17% late last week. That marks a high since June 2007. The 10-year yield peaked that month at 5.29% on June 13. If the 10-year manages to climb as high as 5.3%, that would mark a new high since April 2002. The 30-year yield is at 5.53% from 5.50% late Friday. Inflation fears are also making investors more confident that the Fed will again raise interest rates at its meeting next month. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool puts a 70% chance on a rate hike next month, up from 57% a week ago and 18% a month ago.

Economic Data, Micron and Nike Earnings Due This Week

Investors have a busy week of earnings reports and economic data ahead as the third-quarter earnings season approaches and the calendar flips to October. The latest Conference Board consumer confidence survey is set to be released on Tuesday, with the August Personal Consumption Expenditures index slated for Wednesday. Investors will also get a look at the employment landscape with the September jobs report on Friday. Tuesday will see cruise operator Carnival (CCL) and CarMax (KMX) report, followed by results from Conagra Brands (CAG), Cal-Maine Foods (CALM), and Micron (MU) on Wednesday. Accenture (ACN), McCormick (MKC), and Nike (NKE) are the big names rounding out the week with reports on Thursday.

Nvidia Releases ‘Safety’ Platform; Tech Trade Points Lower

Nvidia (NVDA) on Monday announced the Nvidia Open Agent Safety Platform, a software environment companies can use when running AI agents. The AI chip giant said the platform can set boundaries and runtime limits for agents, and includes software that monitors the actions taken by an AI agent and can shut it down if it tries to “move outside its software boundary.” The announcement follows recent incidents where agents testing new models have hacked into outside websites in an effort to complete tasks. The AI trade looks set to start this week on a slow note, with Nasdaq 100 futures down about 1% and a number of the biggest hardware makers including Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Micron in the red premarket. Nvidia’s shares pointed higher in early action.

The latest monthly U.S. jobs report, closely watched by investors and economists, is due this week.
Credit: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

Wall Street will get updates on several vital topics this week. The state of the U.S. economy is at the top of the list.

Officials will release the first inflation reading since the central bank raised rates on Sept. 16. The latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data will reflect the pre-hike environment in August. Still, the reading may influence future interest-rate decisions, given that PCE is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.

Investors will get a sense of how Americans are reacting to inflation, which has been above-target for five years, when the latest Consumer Confidence Index data comes out. The index slipped in August, though Americans felt somewhat better about the labor market.

New jobs data is also due. The jobs report for September comes after employers hired more than anticipated in August, though not enough to disrupt the low-hiring, low-firing dynamic.

Car prices have risen enough that an activist investment firm earlier this year urged CarMax to consider price cuts. The used car company is slated to hand in its latest quarterly results, which could provide a snapshot of pricing pressure amid tariffs and a U.S.-Canada trade war. Meanwhile, Tesla is asking people to pay $50,000 to attend an event promoting its new Roadster.

Tourism and food companies are also due to report, along with Accenture, a consulting firm that’s partnering with Anthropic on AI safety, and Micron Technology, which makes memory chips. With AI fueling demand for memory and data storage, Micron and its peers have become a proxy for the health of the data center boom and key drivers of earnings growth in the tech sector.

Market Recap

All three of the major stock indexes logged gains last week, as oil prices eased and tech stocks got a boost from a string of high-profile partnerships and growing optimism around Meta’s (META) Muse AI agent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished Friday’s session near a record high reached earlier in the week, and the Dow snapped a three-week losing streak. Shares began to trend downward Wednesday when yields on 10-year Treasury notes hit a 19-year high, but stocks rallied as yields slid to close out the week. For more, read Friday’s market recap here.

Here’s a look at the biggest events on tap this week. TradingView publishes a more detailed calendar, but clicking the link will take you off the Investopedia site.

• Tuesday, Sept. 29: CarMax (KMX) is set to release its fiscal second-quarter (ended Aug. 31) results before the opening bell and host a conference call at 8 a.m. ET.
• Tuesday: Carnival Corp. (CCL) is slated to hold a conference call on its fiscal third-quarter results at 10 a.m. ET, with the numbers expected beforehand. Spending on cruise ships held steady this summer despite lower-income consumers cutting back on other travel expenses, such as airfare and lodging. Ski resort operator Vail Resorts (MTN), which cut its outlook this summer, also reports this week.
• Tuesday: The Conference Board is scheduled to update its Consumer Confidence Index at 10 a.m. ET.
• Wednesday, Sept. 30: The Bureau of Economic Analysis is set to publish the August reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index at 8:30 a.m. ET. The index rose 3.7% year-over-year in July, matching the pace in June.
• Wednesday: Conagra Brands (CAG) is scheduled to release its fiscal first-quarter results and then host a live Q&A session at 9:30 a.m. ET. The parent company of Slim Jim and Duncan Hines met expectations last quarter, but shares dipped after it reported. Egg giant Cal-Maine Foods (CALM) also reports this week, along with spice and sauce company McCormick (MKC), which plans to merge with Unilever (UL).
• Wednesday: Micron Technology (MU) is slated to hold a conference call on its fiscal fourth-quarter results at 4:30 p.m. ET, with the figures expected before then. The memory chipmaker outperformed expectations last quarter.
• Thursday, Oct. 1: Accenture (ACN) is set to release its fiscal fourth-quarter results, followed by a conference call at 8 a.m. ET. The consulting firm reported fewer bookings than expected last quarter, sending its stock downward. The company launched a segment focused on AI products, and recently signed a five-year, AI safety partnership with Anthropic.
• Thursday: Nike (NKE) is slated to publish its fiscal first-quarter results at 4:15 p.m. ET, followed by a conference call at 5 p.m. The athleticwear company beat expectations last quarter, but reported declining revenue, including a 12% drop in sales in China. Nike has been struggling amid what some analysts call a “fragmented” sportswear landscape.
• Friday, Oct. 2: The Bureau of Labor Statistics is due to report September job numbers at 8:30 a.m. ET.

More Investopedia Reads

Mortgage rates topped 7% last week for the first time since early 2025, Diccon Hyatt wrote. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices’ market cap surpassed $1 trillion for the first time as tech stocks soared, David Marino-Nachison reports. A rebound in software development roles is benefiting experienced rather than entry-level workers, Elizabeth Guevara writes. And here are the six main sources of income for Americans 65 and older, courtesy of Daniel Liberto.