Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Jones Futures Dragged By Financial Stocks—American Express, CSX Corp, Standard Lithium In Focus (UPDATED)

Editor’s note: The future prices of benchmark tracking ETFs, the lede, and the earnings were updated in the story.

U.S. stock futures trimmed some losses but were still lower on Friday following Thursday’s declines.

Banking and financial stocks plunged on Thursday after Zions Bancorporation NA (NASDAQ:ZION) announced that it had incurred a sizable charge due to bad loans of a couple of borrowers. Meanwhile, Western Alliance Bancorp (NYSE:WAL) alleged on Thursday that a borrower had committed fraud.

This follows JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon‘s comments after Tricolor Holdings’ bankruptcy, saying "When you see one cockroach, there’s probably more," raising red flags across the sector.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 3.95% and the two-year bond was at 3.38%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 100% likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting the current interest rates in its October meeting.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, dropped in premarket on Friday. The SPY was down 0.0076% at $660.59, while the QQQ declined 0.14% to $599.17, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Stocks In Focus

CSX Corp

• CSX Corp. (NASDAQ:CSX) rose 3.45% in premarket on Friday as it posted better-than-expected results for the third quarter, with revenue of $3.59 billion, beating analyst estimates of $3.58 billion and adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 43 cents per share.

• CSX maintained a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, with a moderate growth ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings. Additional performance details are available here.

Standard Lithium

• Standard Lithium Ltd. (NYSE:SLI) plunged 18.55% following the company’s Thursday announcement of a $120 million underwritten public offering of common stock.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SLI had a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms. Additional performance details are available here.

Newsmax

• Newsmax Inc. (NYSE:NMAX) was up 1.57% after it announced it authorized a $5 million purchase of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Trump Coin (CRYPTO: TRUMP).

• NMAX maintained a weaker price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, which are available here.

American Express

• American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP) rose 1.05% after reporting third-quarter revenue of $18.426 billion, beating the analyst estimate of $18.05 billion and diluted earnings of $4.14 per share, above the expected  $4.00, as per Benzinga Pro.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AXP maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, with a moderate quality ranking. Additional performance details are available here.

Oracle Corp

• Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) shares were down 1.84% as the company said it expects cloud infrastructure revenue to grow to $166 billion in fiscal 2030, which was below the analyst estimates of $198.4 billion, according to LSEG data.

• ORCL maintained a stronger price trend over short, medium, and long terms, with a moderate value ranking, with a poor value ranking. Additional performance details, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, are available here.

Cues From Last Session

Financial, utilities, and energy stocks recorded the biggest losses on Thursday, with most sectors on the S&P 500 closing on a negative note, while information technology stocks bucked the trend to finish higher.

This performance contributed to U.S. stocks settling in the red, with the Dow Jones index falling more than 300 points.

The Dow Jones index ended 0.65% lower at 45,952.24, whereas the S&P 500 index rose 0.63% to 6,629.07. Nasdaq Composite declined 0.47% to 22,562.54, and the small-cap gauge, Russell 2000, tumbled 2.09% to end at 2,467.02.

Insights From Analysts

Renewed U.S.-China trade tensions are weighing on the stock market. Scott Wren, Senior Global Market Strategist for the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, noted the decline was a “harsh reminder that the United States and China… had yet to really nail down a solid trade deal.”

While Wren anticipates near-term impacts like “somewhat higher inflation and slower domestic GDP” from the tariff dispute, he sees a stronger economic picture ahead. “As we move through 2026, there are several positive factors to consider that we believe will be more important than the transitory impacts of tariffs,” he wrote. These factors include continued interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, major capital spending related to artificial intelligence, deregulation, and impactful tax cuts.

Given the potential for short-term volatility, Wren advises investors to look past the turbulence. “We view pullbacks as opportunities to add equity exposure in our favored sectors,” he concluded. His favored sectors include Financials, Information Technology, Utilities, and Industrials.

See Also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming Economic Data

Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Friday;

• September’s housing starts, building permits, import price index, industrial production, and capacity utilization data will be delayed because of the impending government shutdown.

Commodities, Gold, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 1.06% to hover around $56.85 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.35% to hover around $4,341.20 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $4,379.29 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.11% lower at the 98.2220 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin was trading 5.6% lower at $104,914.97 per coin.

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, except South Korea's Kospi, India’s NIFTY 50 indices. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index. Australia's ASX 200, China’s CSI 300, and Japan's Nikkei 225 indices fell. European markets were lower in early trade.

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