Finance briefing

Stocks finish week higher as Microsoft's Copilot overhaul lifts tech; 10-year yield hits new 19-year high

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% Friday to 7,743.41 and gained 1.2% for the week, led by a 3.7% jump in Microsoft after its biggest Copilot overhaul. The 10-year Treasury yield hit another 19-year high near 5.2%, and traders now put the odds of an October Fed rate hike at about two in three.

By US Brief desk · Updated 2026-09-26T16:10:00-07:00

One Microsoft Way street sign at Microsoft's headquarters campus in Redmond, Washington (file photo)

Editor’s note: Index closes, weekly changes, stock moves, the yield, FedWatch odds and valuation follow Reuters (Noel Randewich, Johann M Cherian), Sep 25, 2026, 4:19 p.m. EDT. Point changes follow AP's Sep 25 index table. Copilot feature details follow Mint, with inputs from Reuters. Sentiment figures follow Reuters and University of Michigan coverage of the final September reading. Oil settlements follow CNBC and Reuters. Akamai deal terms follow the company's Sep 24 announcement and 8-K as summarized by Reuters. No Monday futures are included.

Wall Street closed out a volatile week with gains on Friday as Microsoft and other AI stocks rallied. Still-high oil prices and another rise in Treasury yields kept investors cautious.

The numbers: The S&P 500 rose 39.28 points, or 0.51%, to 7,743.41, according to Reuters and AP. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 478.64 points, or 0.93%, to 51,828.62, and the Nasdaq Composite added 129.34 points, or 0.48%, to 27,068.72. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq about 2%, after the Nasdaq set a record close on Tuesday. Seven of the 11 S&P sectors rose, led by information technology.

Microsoft leads: Microsoft rose 3.7%, bringing its 2026 gain to about 7%, after unveiling what Mint called its biggest overhaul of Copilot. The redesigned app has three main pieces. Home brings chat together with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Code lets users build apps and dashboards from natural-language prompts. Autopilot, formerly called Scout, is an always-on agent that works in the background. Microsoft also added FinOps tools to help companies track AI spending. CEO Satya Nadella called it a "new OS for work."

Other movers: Qualcomm gained 4% and Dell 5%. Akamai rose 3.2% after a seven-year, $11.6 billion cloud services agreement with Anthropic that includes a warrant that could give Anthropic up to 5% of the company. Meta fell 3.3% on Friday but was still up about 13% for the week on a strong reception to its Muse AI agent, Reuters said. People Inc. jumped 11% on a report that MGM Resorts was discussing a bid.

Bond pressure: The 10-year Treasury yield hit a fresh 19-year high and was last up 3.4 basis points at 5.196%, Reuters reported. Traders now see a 66% chance the Federal Reserve raises rates by at least a quarter point in October, up from about 50% earlier in the week, according to CME's FedWatch tool. The University of Michigan's final September consumer sentiment reading was 48.1, a four-month low, and year-ahead inflation expectations rose to 4.6%.

Oil and Iran: Crude fell as U.S. and Iranian negotiators explored a phased path out of the war. Brent settled at $104.32 a barrel, down 2.1% on the day and roughly flat for the week, and West Texas Intermediate fell 2.3% to $92.41, down 7.9% for the week, CNBC reported. On Saturday, Trump said he had rejected Iran's latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which could put that relief at risk when markets reopen.

Why it matters: Stocks are within about 1% of record highs even as long-term borrowing costs sit at their highest since 2007. Reuters noted the S&P 500 traded just under 19 times expected earnings this week, its lowest valuation since 2023, as AI-related heavyweights drive much of the rise in profit forecasts. August orders for key capital goods, lifted by AI-related spending, beat expectations.

Uncertainty: Trading volume was light, at 14.9 billion shares versus a 20-day average of 16.8 billion, and the Nasdaq posted far more new lows than new highs. Rising odds of a Fed hike, a fragile Iran track and 5%-plus yields all argue against reading one good week as a trend.

What's next: Watch how oil and Treasuries react Monday to Trump's rejection of Iran's plan, what Fed officials say before the October meeting, the September jobs report, and whether the Copilot rollout keeps momentum in megacap tech.

Method note: US Brief digests are AI-assisted from the US Brief desk. We synthesize reputable reporting with cited sources; we do not invent quotes, figures, or forecasts.

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Stocks finish week higher as Microsoft's Copilot overhaul lifts tech; 10-year yield hits new 19-year high

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% Friday to 7,743.41 and gained 1.2% for the week, led by a 3.7% jump in Microsoft after its biggest Copilot overhaul. The 10-year Treasury yield hit another 19-year high near 5.2%, and traders now put the odds of an October Fed rate hike at about two in three.

By US Brief desk · Updated 2026-09-26T16:10:00-07:00

AI-assisted digests from the US Brief desk. Synthesizes reputable reporting with cited sources; not a wire service. Corrections welcomed.

One Microsoft Way street sign at Microsoft's headquarters campus in Redmond, Washington (file photo)

Wall Street closed out a volatile week with gains on Friday as Microsoft and other AI stocks rallied. Still-high oil prices and another rise in Treasury yields kept investors cautious.

The numbers: The S&P 500 rose 39.28 points, or 0.51%, to 7,743.41, according to Reuters and AP. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 478.64 points, or 0.93%, to 51,828.62, and the Nasdaq Composite added 129.34 points, or 0.48%, to 27,068.72. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq about 2%, after the Nasdaq set a record close on Tuesday. Seven of the 11 S&P sectors rose, led by information technology.

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