Wall Street ends lower as higher yields, rising oil prices mark shaky start to September

Wall Street ends lower as higher yields, rising oil prices mark shaky start to September

By Stephen Culp and Niket Nishant

Tue September 1, 2026

It was another great rout today as escalating hostilities in the war since Friday have further dampened any prospects for an end to the crisis and as oil continues to spike, inflation concerns deepen. The consensus grows closer every day to a September rate hike, today the odds at 68.2% vs 65 yesterday and 39.6 a week ago. The day was awash with bad news from climbing Treasury yields after hitting a 19-month high yesterday to a slowing job market and factory activity losing momentum, all triggered by uncertainties created by the war.   

The war continues to escalate with Bessent announcing likely bank sanctions against Iran to “asphyxiate” the leadership and Iran responding by threatening to prevent any oil from leaving the Gulf. The biggest sentiment damper is our own very long history since 1926 of September being by far the worst month of each year for the stock market and especially bad in mid-term years. The Dow Transportation Average, down 2.5% today is widely considered a barometer of overall economic health. The chip index also suffered a 2.1% loss. Volume at 14.38 billion remains further below the 15.35 average than yesterday. 

DJ: 53,185.90  -374.09       NAS: 26,370.89  -31.53        S&P: 7,686.14  -25.62               8/31

DJ: 52,766.88  -419.02       NAS: 26,099.77  -271.12      S&P: 7,631.47  -54.67               9/1

Tue 9-1-26 4:29 pm Wall Street ends lower as higher yields, rising oil prices mark shaky start to September | Reuters