Nasdaq-100 indicated 1% higher as Brent slips and the S&P 500 reconstitutes
Monday, September 21, 2026: the Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ was indicated 1.0% higher before the open, Brent crude was at $100.60 a barrel, and Bloom Energy, Everpure and Illumina join the S&P 500.
The S&P 500 that opens Monday is not the one that closed Friday. S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a Sept. 4 announcement, said the quarterly reconstitution takes effect before the open: Bloom Energy; Everpure, a storage and data-management company; and Illumina come in. Molson Coors, The Trade Desk and Builders FirstSource come out. Index funds that copy the benchmark have to trade that turnover this morning.
The S&P 100, the mega-cap slice, is the more lopsided swap. Dell, Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks and Sandisk, all classified as information technology, replace Honeywell Aerospace, Nike, Simon Property and Colgate-Palmolive: an aerospace supplier, a sneaker company, a mall landlord and a toothpaste maker. Mega-cap index holders will own that mix this morning without having chosen it. Sandisk closed Friday at $1,791.82, up 11.0%, and was indicated another 1.2% higher.
The S&P 500 tracker SPY and its peers have to buy Bloom Energy, Everpure and Illumina, and sell the three deletions, into the opening auction. Bloom Energy, after a 5.4% decline on Friday, was indicated 3.3% above Friday's close.
Broader bid in QQQ after Friday's narrow session
As of 7 a.m. Eastern, the Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ was indicated 1.0% higher. The semiconductor ETF SMH was indicated 1.7% higher, with Intel 5.6% above Friday's close in extended hours. Bitcoin was at $84,400, up 4.0%, and the iShares bitcoin fund IBIT was indicated 3.9% higher after a 6.3% Friday.
Friday's cash session was narrow. The Nasdaq-100 rose 0.7% on Friday, Sept. 18; the S&P 500 eked out 0.2% to close at 7,650.50; the Dow and the Russell 2000 both fell. Only 2 of 11 SPDR sector funds finished higher.
Only technology and industrials finished Friday higher
- +0.8%
- +0.4%
- −0.04%
- −0.2%
- −0.3%
- −0.3%
- −0.8%
- −1.0%
- −1.4%
- −1.4%
- −1.4%
This morning the bid is broader. The S&P 500 tracker SPY was indicated 0.7% above its own Friday close, the Dow tracker DIA 0.8%, and the Russell 2000 ETF IWM 0.7%.
Brent holds $100 after a 3% drop
West Texas Intermediate was at $93.06 a barrel before the U.S. open, down 3.1%. Brent, the global marker, was at $100.60, also down 3.1%. The oil fund USO was indicated 2.6% lower, extending a three-session decline through Friday; the energy-sector ETF XLE was indicated 1.3% lower.
USO gave back three sessions of a September climb
WTI had already dropped 6% below $100 into Friday's session. CNBC reported that crude was still falling Monday as traders watched for a recovery in Saudi shipments, even as Yemen's Houthis said they had attacked Riyadh with missiles and drones and the State Department told Americans to reconsider travel to the Middle East. Reuters, separately, said a diesel shortage tied to the wars in Iran and Ukraine is unlikely to ease before 2027.
A 3% decline that leaves Brent above $100 is cheaper oil. It is not abundant oil.
Gold slipped 0.8% to $4,387.80 before the U.S. open; the dollar index was little changed at 100.01. The long-Treasury ETF TLT was indicated 0.6% higher after Friday's 0.6% decline. The 10-year yield closed Friday at 5.01%.
Tokyo shut, Trump-Xi Thursday, a thin U.S. calendar
Tokyo's cash market is closed Monday through Wednesday for Silver Week, three sessions after the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate on Friday to 1.25% from 1.00%, the highest since 1995. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 1.2%, Shanghai's composite 1.0%, South Korea's KOSPI 1.6%. In Europe the Stoxx 50 was up 1.3%, the DAX 1.1% and the FTSE 100 0.9%. Japan-related price discovery for the next three days sits in futures, the yen, ADRs and U.S.-listed funds, not in Tokyo.
The Chicago Fed's August national activity index is due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, in prepared remarks for a London audience, said supply shocks have "come more frequently, hit harder and lasted longer," and that once they become persistent, some of the logic behind looking through them, treating the price spike as temporary, no longer holds. The Treasury auctions 13-week and 26-week bills today, the front end of a $183 billion week of supply.
The political calendar is heavier than the economic one. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after Sunday talks in New York with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, called the engagement "very successful" and said the two sides had discussed a U.S.-China AI dialogue. President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping are due to meet Thursday in Washington. Washington's suspension of heightened reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods is scheduled to expire Nov. 10. Semiconductors are bid this morning; those talks are this week. Last week the Fed lifted the funds-rate target to 3.75%–4.00%, the increase it made into this oil market.
Frequently asked
Which stocks are joining and leaving the S&P 500?
Bloom Energy, Everpure and Illumina come in; Molson Coors, The Trade Desk and Builders FirstSource come out.
Why does the S&P 100 swap matter more?
Dell, Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks and Sandisk, all information technology, replace Honeywell Aerospace, Nike, Simon Property and Colgate-Palmolive, tilting the mega-cap slice toward tech.
What is on the calendar this week?
The Chicago Fed's August national activity index and 13- and 26-week bill auctions today, with Trump and Xi due to meet Thursday in Washington.
What did the Bank of Japan do?
It raised its policy rate to 1.25%, the highest since 1995, on Friday: three sessions before Tokyo's cash market closed for Silver Week.