Stock Market Live September 18: S&P 500 (VOO) Spikes After Fed Rate Cut
Key Points
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The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25% yesterday, and predicted two more rate cuts this year.
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Nvidia is investing $5 billion in archrival Intel.
Live Updates
Thursday Wrap-up
Coinbase Stock Lands Heads Up
Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev raised his price target on S&P 500 component company Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN | COIN Price Prediction) to $305 with a neutral rating today.
Bank processors, consumer lenders, and exchanges are best positioned to benefit from interest rate cuts, in Dolev’s opinion. Trading activity tends to rise when rates are lower, and with the Fed promising to lower rates as far as 3% this year, that’s good news for Coinbase.
CSX Choo-Choos Higher
RBC Capital also upgraded train operator CSX (Nasdaq: CSX) today, with analyst Walter Spracklin assigning an outperform rating and a $39 price target.
“The company is well-positioned regardless of what happens with the UNP/NSC merger,” argues Spracklin. “Moreover, we have the added kicker that operations have improved meaningfully in recent months despite the company still working through ongoing construction on the Howard Street Tunnel and the Blue Ridge projects – both of which are currently constraining CSX’s network and which we expect to further improve fluidity when complete over the coming months.”
Nike Laces Up
RBC Capital analyst Piral Dadhania upgraded Nike (NYSE: NKE) stock to outperform with a $90 price target this morning.
“Nike is taking the right steps, with clear improvement in Running Footwear offer, positive channel checks, survey findings,” says Dadhania. “We anticipate steeper revenue recovery shape supported by World Cup driving narrowing of relative performance gap, which could lead to beat/raise cycle with limited downside.”
Nike stock is up 0.7%, but the Voo’s gain has been cut to 0.3% as trading gets underway today.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate by 0.25%, to a range of from 4% to 4.25%, yesterday — and indicated it’s prepared to make two more such cuts through the end of this year — moving its near-term target as low as 3.5%.
Longer term, of course, the Fed noted it’s only planning to cut interest rates once each in each of the next two years, and only by 0.25% each time. For investors, that’s a less propitious prospect, but still better than the Fed saying it doesn’t expect to cut interest rates after this year — or worse, thinks it might start raising again.
Ultimately, today investors seem to be thinking that a three-quarter bird in the hand (this year) is worth two quarter-birds in the 2026/27 bush. They’re happy enough with the Fed’s decision, and as markets prepare to open Thursday, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is up 0.6%.
Intel and Nvidia: Better Together?
Perhaps even more than the interest rate news, though, an alliance between two of America’s biggest tech giants and S&P 500 components is fueling investor optimism today. This morning, Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) announced it will invest $5 billion in one-time archrival and now ward of the state Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). Piled on top of President Trump’s decision to have the United States government take a 10% stake in Intel, this is fueling investor confidence in Intel’s future, and driving up Intel stock by 30% premarket.
Nvidia says in addition to the investment, it will work together with Intel to co-develop data center and new semiconductor chips for personal computers, as well as x86 central processing units for AI systems.
Nvidia’s own stock is getting a more modest bump this morning, up less than 3%.
Earnings
Finally, two S&P 500 component companies reported earnings today.
Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) missed by three cents with $1.97 earned in its fiscal Q1 2026 (and missed slightly on sales as well — $3 billion).
FactSet (NYSE: FDS) missed by eight cents on its own fiscal Q4 2025 report, earning $4.05 per share. FactSet did beat on revenue however, with $596.9 million collected in the quarter.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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