S&P 500 Posts Weekly Gain, Led by Consumer Staples, Utilities

04:45 PM EDT, 10/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.2% this week as the consumer staples and utilities sectors led a broad climb ahead of the start of Q3 earnings season. The S&P 500 ended Friday's session at 7,811.54. The index is up 2.1% for the month and up 14% for the year. US consumer sentiment fell in October as the one- and five-year inflation expectations reached their highest levels since May, preliminary results of a University of Michigan survey showed Friday. The CME FedWatch tool showed the probability of the Federal Reserve leaving its target rate unchanged in October was 81% on Friday afternoon. Still, the market sees a 71% likelihood that the Fed will raise its target rate by 25 basis points in December and assigns a 45% probability of another quarter-point move higher in March to ease inflation back to the Fed's 2% target. All but two of the S&P 500's sectors rose this week. Consumer staples led the climb, up 4%, followed by a 3.9% increase in utilities, a 3.6% gain in energy and a 3.1% rise in consumer discretionary. Health care was also strong, up 2.8%, followed by a 2.3% gain in financials. Real estate, materials and communication services also rose. The consumer staples sector was boosted by shares of Constellation Brands (STZ), up 8.7% on the week. The beer and wine company reiterated its full-year adjusted profit outlook and reported an unexpected year-over-year increase in fiscal second-quarter earnings. Constellation Energy (CEG) led the gainers in utilities, jumping 16%. Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google has entered into a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to add 890 megawatts of nuclear power to the PJM interconnection grid, the companies said. The agreement will enable over $4.3 billion in investments in new equipment and technology at 11 Constellation nuclear facilities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, the companies said. The two sectors in the red were industrials, down 0.4%, and technology, down 0.3%. The decliners in industrials were led by shares of C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), which fell 9.8% on the week. The company unveiled an agreement to acquire RXO (RXO) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at roughly $5.8 billion. The deal, which requires approval from RXO's shareholders and clearance from regulators, is expected to complete in the first half of next year. The Q3 earnings season will kick off next week. Quarterly reports are expected from a number of financial companies including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), BlackRock (BLK) and Charles Schwab (SCHW). Other companies expected to release quarterly results next week include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and UnitedHealth (UNH). Economic data will include the September consumer price index, the producer price index, September retail sales, industrial production and capacity utilization.