{"id":72220,"date":"2026-09-25T06:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/tech-and-ai-momentum-drive-gains-as-markets-eye-key-economic-data\/72220\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:07:12","slug":"tech-and-ai-momentum-drive-gains-as-markets-eye-key-economic-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/tech-and-ai-momentum-drive-gains-as-markets-eye-key-economic-data\/72220\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech and AI Momentum Drive Gains as Markets Eye Key Economic Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. equity markets are showing resilience during Friday's trading session, September 25th, 2026, as investors lean into technology and artificial intelligence sectors. Premarket<\/a> activity set a positive tone for the day, with futures trending higher across the board. This optimism has carried into the main session, fueled by a combination of cooling inflation expectations and robust demand for semiconductor hardware.<\/p>\n

Major Market Indexes Performance<\/h2>\n

The major indexes are largely trading in the green today, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ<\/a>), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, is leading the pack with a gain of 0.51%. Close behind, the State Street SPDR S&P 500<\/a> ETF Trust (SPY<\/a>) has climbed 0.31%, while the blue-chip focused State Street SPDR Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA<\/a>) is up 0.26%.<\/p>\n

Small-cap stocks are also participating in the rally, with the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM<\/a>) rising 0.25%. Market volatility, as measured by the iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX<\/a>), has retreated by 0.54%, signaling a decrease in investor anxiety.<\/p>\n

Sector Highlights and Commodity Movements<\/h2>\n

The technology sector is the clear standout today. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH<\/a>) has surged 1.18%, driven by heavy trading in major chipmakers. Similarly, the iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF (BAI<\/a>) is up 0.90%, reflecting sustained institutional interest in artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In the commodities space, precious metals are seeing significant gains. The iShares Silver<\/a> Trust (SLV<\/a>) has jumped 1.28%, and the SPDR Gold<\/a> Trust (GLD<\/a>) is up 0.59%. Conversely, the energy sector is under pressure; the United States Oil Fund (USO<\/a>) has tumbled 2.36%, dragging down the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE<\/a>) by 0.99%.<\/p>\n

Major Stock News and Corporate Developments<\/h2>\n

The semiconductor industry is dominating the headlines today. Micron<\/a> Technology, Inc. (MU<\/a>) is one of the most active stocks, rising 1.1% as investors position themselves ahead of its upcoming earnings report. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD<\/a>) has seen a significant boost of 2.0%, while Intel Corp (INTC<\/a>) is trading 1.6% higher.<\/p>\n

In the premarket<\/a>, several smaller companies made massive moves. INLIF LIMITED (INLF<\/a>) skyrocketed 91.6% on high volume, while Apimeds Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. (APUS<\/a>) climbed 33.5%. Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM<\/a>) also saw a substantial jump of 23.6%. On the losing side, Zscaler, Inc. (ZS<\/a>) fell 3.5%, and Twilio Inc. (TWLO<\/a>) dropped 2.3%.<\/p>\n

While the "Magnificent Seven" remain central to market sentiment, attention is also on Apple (AAPL<\/a>), Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>), and Nvidia<\/a> (NVDA<\/a>) as they continue to anchor the tech sector's gains. Tesla (TSLA<\/a>) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL<\/a>) are also being monitored closely for any shifts in consumer discretionary and communication services trends.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Market Events<\/h2>\n

Investors are keeping a close eye on the calendar as we approach the end of the month. Key economic data regarding inflation and consumer spending are expected to influence the Federal Reserve's next policy move.<\/p>\n

The earnings calendar is also heating up for next week. On Monday, September 28th, Carnival Corporation Ltd. (CCL<\/a>) is scheduled to report before the open. Tuesday, September 29th, will be a pivotal day with Paychex Inc (PAYX<\/a>) reporting in the morning and the highly anticipated results from Micron Technology, Inc. (MU<\/a>) following the closing bell. Later in the week, Factset Research Systems (FDS<\/a>), Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (JEF<\/a>), and Accenture PLC (ACN<\/a>) are all slated to release their quarterly figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. equity markets are showing resilience during Friday's trading session, September 25th, 2026, as investors lean into technology and artificial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,6824],"tags":[95,311,633,3710,4223,4380,5027,14986],"class_list":["post-72220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-update","category-featured","tag-nasdaq","tag-mu","tag-nvda","tag-federal-reserve","tag-inflation","tag-stock-market","tag-semiconductors","tag-ai-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}