Top News Today: Stocks Rise as Long-Term Treasury Yields Plunge

MARKET WRAPS

STOCKS: Stocks rose despite volatility in the tech sector after a plunge in Treasury yields.

TREASURYS: Treasury yields fell and yields on 10- and 30-year Treasurys had their biggest drops in more than a year as traders reversed recent bets.

FOREX: The U.S. dollar fell against rivals as several broad market trends, including the yearlong rally in Treasury yields and tech stocks, reversed themselves.

COMMODITIES: U.S. oil futures rose after an unexpected drawdown in crude inventories.

HEADLINES

Wholesale Inflation Hit Four-Year High in September

The producer-price index rose by 1.3% last month, versus a 0.4%

increase in August. It's the index's largest advance since March 2022.

Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting a more modest

0.6% increase.

Over the 12 months through September, producer-price inflation was

6.3%, marking the fastest wholesale inflation rate since December 2022.

The September report bolsters the case for the Federal Reserve to

raise rates again when its rate-setting committee convenes later this

month.

U.S. Jobless Claims Edge Up, Snap 5-Week Skid

U.S. jobless claims increased slightly after sliding for five straight

weeks.

The number of people who filed for unemployment benefits was 199,000

in the week through Oct. 10, 1,000 higher than the revised 198,000 from a

week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by

The Wall Street Journal were expecting to see the figure rise to 200,000.

Continuing claims, which scale with the total size of the unemployed

population, totaled 1.71 million in the week through Oct. 3, falling by

4,000 from the downwardly revised total a week earlier. The data on

continuing claims lag the initial-claims data by a week.

U.S. Retail Sales Expanded in September

Sales at U.S. retailers rose in September, but at a slower pace than

in August, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday.

Retailers' sales rose by 0.8% last month to $745 billion, slowing from

the upwardly revised 1.3% pace recorded in August. September's reading

was higher than the 0.4% increase economists polled by The Wall Street

Journal expected.

Retail sales numbers are recorded in nominal terms and account for the

total number of dollars spent, regardless of inflation. In September, the

consumer price index accelerated more than expected to 3.7% on a 12-month

basis, from 3.4%.

Meta and Apple, Longtime Foes, Team Up to Put Open-Weight AI on Macs

Mark Zuckerberg has battled Apple ever since the early days of the

iPhone. Now artificial intelligence has brought the two fierce rivals

together.

Meta Platforms said Thursday that it was releasing a new open-weight

AI model and collaborating with Apple to run it locally on the company's

high-end Mac computers. The tech giants' partnership gives developers

another American-made AI option to power research projects, app

development, video production and more.

"This is an exciting moment for both companies, where we're finding

ways to work together that are productive," Meta's AI chief, Alexandr

Wang, said in an interview. "We think that a lot of the world will run on

open models, and they should be American."

Nvidia's Huang Says CoreWeave Doesn't Need a Backstop

CoreWeave and other cloud-computing stocks were falling Thursday as

fears about debt continued to ravage the artificial-intelligence sector.

But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says there's no need for his company to step

in.

CoreWeave shares were down 3.3% at $63.59 in Thursday trading. That

added to a 15% drop the previous day.

Other so-called neocloud stocks-providers of additional AI computing

power-were also suffering. Nebius Group was down 5.2% and IREN was

falling 8.7%, both adding to steep drops the previous day.

Penske Automotive Group to Be Taken Private by Penske, Mitsui

Penske Automotive Group has agreed to be taken private by the

transportation-services company's biggest investors for about $4 billion.

Penske Automotive on Thursday said privately held Penske Corp. and

Japan's and Mitsui & Co., which already own about 72% of the Bloomfield

Hills, Mich., company, have agreed to pay $212 in cash for each share

they don't already hold.

The deal, slated to in the first quarter of 2027, represents a premium

of 8.8% to Wednesday's closing price of $194.79 for Penske Automotive and

is 8.6% above the closing price of $195.19 on July 21, before Penske and

Mitsui disclosed an initial bid of $210 a share for the company.

Lyft Eyes Upscale Corporate Travel as Next Leg of Growth

Lyft is betting on luxury rides for C-suite leaders and other VIPs as

it looks to expand beyond its core business.

The ride-hailing company is establishing a new chauffeuring brand,

dubbed Alcove, that caters to demand for full days of executive travel

between client meetings, conferences and flights, Chief Executive David

Risher said in an interview.

"There is an enormous opportunity in executive travel, corporate

travel, events," Risher said. "Right now, it's just not very well

served."

Bank of New York Logs Higher Profit But Flags Market Volatility

Bank of New York Mellon recorded third-quarter growth with a hint of

caution, as falling stocks in recent days have put up a few red flags.

"It's been a constructive but uneven operating environment," Chief

Executive Robin Vince said on a media call Thursday. "Just the price

action of the past 24 hours, you can see there's a lot going on in the

markets."

During the quarter, stocks were bolstered by rising corporate earnings

and investments in the artificial-intelligence industry, Vince said. BNY

has been able to weather challenges including inflation, rising interest

rates and geopolitical tensions, he said.

PNC Revenue Rises on National Expansion

PNC Financial Services Group recorded higher revenue in the latest

quarter, boosted by efforts to push further into key markets and expand

its footprint.

However, the metric came in short of Wall Street's estimates, and

profit was dented by $36 million in integration costs tied to PNC's

acquisition of FirstBank.

PNC posted a third-quarter profit of $2.1 billion, or $4.97 a share,

compared with $1.82 billion, or $4.35 a share, a year earlier.

TALKING POINT A Popular Tax-Saving Trade is Juicing Wall Street's Borrowing Binge

The rip-roaring popularity of a strategy that helps individual investors lower their tax bills is powering an unprecedented borrowing binge.

Charles Schwab said Thursday that margin loan balances on its books had swelled to roughly $188 billion in the third quarter, nearly doubling year over year. A significant driver: Long-short tax-aware strategies that promise to beat the market without paying taxes on all of the capital gains.

Schwab's margin balance included roughly $61 billion related to long-short strategies, according to the company's report. On a call with analysts, Chief Executive Rick Wurster said adoption of the strategy had grown "exceptionally quickly" this year.

"Saving money on taxes is something our clients love to do," Wurster said. "That demand is likely to continue."

Margin debt, or investor borrowing from brokerages to buy securities, has hovered near record highs. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs each reported this week that their margin books have seen double-digit growth in the 12 months through September.

The tax-aware long-short strategy has been a key reason.

--Hannah Erin Lang and Miriam Gottfried, The Wall Street Journal

Expected Major Events for Friday 08:30/UK: Jul Card Spending statistics

09:00/ITA: Sep CPI

10:00/ITA: Aug Foreign Trade EU

12:15/CAN: Sep Housing Starts

12:30/US: Sep Import & Export Price Indexes

12:30/CAN: Aug International transactions in securities

12:30/US: U.S. Weekly Export Sales

13:15/US: Sep Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

18:00/US: Sep Monthly Treasury Statement of Receipts and Outlays of the U.S. Government

20:00/US: Aug Treasury International Capital Data

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October 15, 2026 16:45 ET (20:45 GMT)