Meta's 11% jump carried communications 3.5% higher as energy fell 2.9%
Monday, September 21, 2026: the communications fund XLC rose 3.5% as Meta gained 11.3%, while the energy fund XLE fell 2.9% with WTI crude down 4.4% to $91.90 in a 4:23 p.m. ET quote.
Crude sat near $92 a barrel and the 10-year Treasury yield was 4.96%. Neither set the session. The S&P 500 fund SPY rose 1.6% while the equal-weight S&P 500 fund RSP rose 0.2%, a 1.4 percentage-point gap. The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ rose 2.8%; the Russell 2000 fund IWM rose 0.5%.
Cap-weight beat equal-weight by 1.4 points
- +2.8%
- +1.6%
- +0.5%
- +0.2%
Seven of eleven sector funds closed higher. Energy is still up 42% year to date. Communications is still down 1.6%.
Meta and Warner Bros. Discovery lift communications
The communications-services fund XLC rose 3.5% on 1.9 times average volume, and it was not a sector move. Meta Platforms, the social-media company and a 20% holding, rose 11.3% and contributed 2.3 percentage points, about two-thirds of the fund's gain. Muse, Meta's new AI app, had already reached the top of Apple's U.S. App Store on Friday. Monday added a Wells Fargo price-target raise to $796 from $640, and Connect, the company's product conference, two days out.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 10.8% after WBD rises 9.9% as Paramount is said to settle states' Warner Bros. suit, the next-largest lift, from a 4.4% weight. AppLovin, the mobile-advertising software company, added 7.2%. Those three stocks produced 3.1 percentage points of the 3.5% rise.
Alphabet's two share classes are 21% of the same fund, a touch more than Meta, and added 0.36 percentage points. T-Mobile, Verizon, and Charter all fell.
AMD and Intel outpace Nvidia in technology
The information-technology fund VGT rose 2.6%, a third session of gains after A 5.01% 10-year yield hits utilities and materials as four chipmakers lift technology. Nvidia, an 18% holding, rose 2.3% and contributed 0.41 percentage points. Advanced Micro Devices rose 9.9% to $615.52, a $1.00 trillion market value, from a 3.0% weight. Intel rose 12.1% from a 1.5% weight. Together they contributed 0.48 percentage points, more than Nvidia, from 4.5% of the fund.
Apple and Microsoft, 28% of the fund together, added 0.31 percentage points. The day's technology fund was a second-tier chip move sitting on top of a three-session climb, not a broad book of software and hardware moving as one.
Oil pulls energy down; utilities keep falling
President Trump told Fox News on Sunday he would "probably be open" to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at this week's UN General Assembly.
West Texas Intermediate crude was at $91.90 a barrel, down 4.4%, as of 4:23 p.m. ET. Brent was at $99.97, down 3.8%. The energy fund XLE fell 2.9% on 1.3 times average volume, the second sharp drop in a week after Energy fund falls 2.8% as oil reverses; Fed delivers first hike since 2023. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest holdings, contributed -1.2 percentage points. Marathon Petroleum and Valero fell 5.3% and 4.8%.
The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.96% on Monday, down from the 5.01% that weighed on defensives Friday. It was not enough. The utilities fund XLU fell 1.1% and closed 0.2% above its 52-week low. The consumer-staples fund XLP fell 1.1%. The U.S. real-estate fund VNQ rose 0.9%, led by Equinix, the data-center landlord, and Welltower, the senior-housing landlord that is the fund's largest holding. Digital Realty added less than Welltower.
Financials were unchanged. Industrials rose 0.1%. The consumer-discretionary fund XLY rose 1.1%, Tesla and Amazon.com producing 0.97 percentage points of it. Outside communications, technology, energy, and that pair, the board barely registered.
Communications gained 3.5%; energy fell 2.9%
- +3.5%
- +2.6%
- +1.1%
- +0.9%
- +0.4%
- +0.1%
- +0.02%
- −0.5%
- −1.1%
- −1.1%
- −2.9%
The communications fund XLC returned 0.04% over five sessions. Monday replaced last week.
Frequently asked
Why did the communications fund jump?
Meta, Warner Bros. Discovery and AppLovin alone produced 3.1 of the fund's 3.5 percentage points, with Meta contributing about two-thirds of the gain.
What pushed energy lower?
WTI crude fell 4.4% to about $92 a barrel after Trump said he would "probably be open" to meeting Iran's president this week, and Exxon Mobil and Chevron alone took 1.2 percentage points off the energy fund.
Was the technology gain about Nvidia?
No: AMD and Intel, together 4.5% of the fund, contributed more than Nvidia did.
Did the rally reach the whole market?
No; the cap-weighted S&P 500 fund beat its equal-weight version by 1.4 percentage points, and small-caps rose just 0.5%.