Tonight's Highlights: Treasury Yields Spike to 24-Year Highs; U.S. Equity Futures Advance as New Trading Month Kicks Off

U.S. stock index futures gained across the board on Thursday as Wall Street opened a new trading month, brushing off a sharp run-up in sovereign bond yields. Major European bourses traded predominantly lower.

 

Crude benchmarks extended gains, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbing 2% to $92.26 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude briefly breached the triple-digit threshold, up 2.13% on the day to trade near $100.12 per barrel.

 

Elevated energy prices reignited a broad-based sovereign debt selloff, sending yields to multi-decade peaks. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose 4 basis points to touch 5.33%, logging its highest level since 2002.

 

The 30-year long bond yield advanced to 5.677% to notch its eighth consecutive session of gains, also touching levels not seen since 2002. At the front end of the curve, the policy-sensitive 2-year yield inched up 2 basis points to 4.91%.

 

The bond rout resonated across global markets. The UK 30-year gilt yield crossed 6% for the first time since 1998, while France's 10-year sovereign yield jumped 10 basis points intraday to 4.96%, its highest reading since July 2002.

 

In Asia, the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield climbed to 3.11%.

 

Historically a turbulent month for risk assets, September saw the S&P 500 retreat 0.5% as investors grappled with persistent commodity pressures and soaring debt yields, which compounded fears of prolonged Federal Reserve tightening.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4.3% over the month, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite outperformed, logging a 1.9% advance.

 

As October gets underway, market participants are balancing sticky inflation expectations and elevated borrowing costs against policy ambiguity heading into the late-October FOMC rate decision, while keeping a close eye on the incoming corporate earnings season.

 

"While these macro dynamics remain clear headwinds, corporate earnings have shown remarkable resilience," said Tracie McMillion, Head of Global Asset Allocation Strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

 

"The pivotal question is whether this earnings momentum can be sustained against elevated financing costs."

Company News

Accenture Surges 20% Premarket on Top-Line Beat and Constructive Outlook

 

Accenture extended its rally into premarket trading, surging 20% following its fiscal fourth-quarter print. Revenue rose 6.3% year-over-year to $18.7 billion, topping consensus estimates of $18.04 billion, with adjusted earnings printing at $3.29 per share against $2.25 a year ago.

 

For the fiscal first quarter, the IT consulting major guided revenue between $18.95 billion and $19.60 billion, representing 2% to 6% growth in local-currency terms.

 

Broadcom to Extend Up to $42 Billion in Financing to Anthropic; AI Lab Eyes Top ASICs Client Spot by 2027

 

Broadcom has agreed to provide up to $42 billion in financing to Anthropic to fund infrastructure capex and custom silicon leases, according to disclosures in Anthropic’s IPO filing. The debt facility covers roughly one-third of the lab's $125.2 billion five-year TPU compute commitments.

 

Anthropic expects to become Broadcom’s largest custom silicon design customer by 2027, establishing an intertwined partnership spanning chip fabrication, compute infrastructure leasing, and capital backing.

 

The prospectus noted that Broadcom’s dual capacity as both core supplier and major creditor could introduce corporate conflicts of interest.

 

Micron Slips 1% Premarket Despite Blowout Q4 Print and Robust Guidance

 

Micron Technology shares dipped 1% in premarket trade to $1,053 following its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings release late Wednesday. Despite benefiting from insatiable AI data center demand and firming memory pricing, the beat-and-raise report failed to fully satisfy elevated Street expectations.

 

Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $54.23 billion, surpassing consensus expectations of $51.49 billion, with next-quarter revenue guided to approximately $61.5 billion against an expected $56.8 billion.

 

The core data center business accounted for roughly one-third of total revenue, generating $18.0 billion—up 56% sequentially and surging roughly 1,042% year-over-year—with gross margins reaching 90%.

 

SoftBank Completes Final $10 Billion Tranche of OpenAI Capital Injection, Total Commitment Reaches $64.6 Billion

 

SoftBank Group announced on October 1 that it has completed its third and final $10 billion tranche into OpenAI via SoftBank Vision Fund 2, fulfilling its previously announced $30 billion follow-on commitment.

 

The transaction brings SoftBank’s cumulative investment in OpenAI to $64.6 billion, representing an approximate 13% equity stake. The capital was financed via foreign-currency senior notes issued on September 24.

 

Apple Leak Reveals New 'Photo Face' Onboarding for Smart Home Displays and iPhone Duo

 

Uncovered setup workflows for Apple’s forthcoming smart home display show a new "Photo Face" feature. Leveraging iCloud Photos, the setup protocol deploys a batch of high-resolution curated portrait images upon initialization to provide instant display faces, synchronizing the broader library in the background.

 

The functionality is also designed for StandBy mode on the upcoming foldable iPhone Duo, expanding personalized ambient computing across Apple's hardware lineup.

 

Google Rolls Out Gemini 4 Argon to Catch Up with AI Rivals; Mixed Internal Feedback on Coding Benchmarks

 

Google has begun releasing its flagship Gemini 4 Argon foundation model, though internal skepticism remains regarding its real-world software engineering capabilities. Google granted access to a select cohort of cybersecurity enterprise partners on Wednesday, with plans to expand availability to paid tiers following further testing.

 

While Google stated that Gemini 4 leads multiple external industry benchmarks—including outscoring OpenAI’s Astra on defensive cybersecurity evaluations—insiders noted that synthetic benchmarks diverge from internal workflow performance, where engineers reported less impressive results in complex, production-level code generation tasks.