Markets Fall As Losses Accelerate

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Rob Black (0:12)

Well, here we have September being September. Welcome in September 15th, 2026 The S&P 500 is down one half of 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 85 basis points, almost nine tens of 1%.

The Nasdaq is down three quarters of 1%. And the Russell 2000 sits down 90 basis points. Gold trending a little bit lower, sitting at 43.26 an ounce. Nothing too shocking in there. It's had a big run up. Bitcoin down 2.7% to 76,430. They too have had a big run up. Gold and Bitcoin could be moving higher based on US debt projections in the near term and how the markets are reacting to that. Taking a look at the 10 year treasury, it sits at 4.99% just a skosh under five, a day before the Federal Reserve meets. And there will be a lot of who do about that tomorrow. Many people now believe that Federal Reserve is going to push us into a recession by raising interest rates once or twice in the next six months. Instead of maintaining and or lowering interest rates, we're going to be able to do a lot of controversy around that right now. Take a look at some individual names. Micron's up three, Sandisk down 13 That's a play on AI memory plays. Apple's down three, Senate 329, Google down 1.6%.

So, I would say sloppy, not mixed. More on the lower side that I'm seeing versus on the upper side, seeing some rebound in some semiconductors from yesterday's pullback. This little bit of pull me, push you. Give and take going on right now. Of note, it was one, not one year ago. It was many years ago. It was back in 1997 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the google.com domain at Network Solutions. The company would go public seven years later at $85 a share and pass a $2 trillion market cap in 2024 Roughly 18 years ago, Lehman's board, Lehman Brothers Board of Directors, voted on a late Sunday afternoon to file for Chapter 11 protection, setting up the largest bankruptcy in US history, had a $619 billion in debt. Let's talk about some positive robot news. Let's start about a London named Nemo. Nemo Labs raised fresh funding to keep building its electronic nose.

Yes, you heard me correctly, electronic nose. The E-nose is an elaborate sensor tech that will feed AI smells in hopes that they'll be able to detect disease-related compounds. And Nemo expects it to classify up to 5,000 smells every day, a feat only matched by middle school gym teachers. Ha ha ha.

What I like about this story is I didn't grow up in fear, but there's always been stories about the Russians releasing a dirty bomb or the Russians releasing chemical warfare in a briefcase in New York City. More sensors, more robots, more detection, whether it be diseases or deadly materials, I think is a good thing.

And then there's a Kenyan startup company called Zero Bionic. They've developed a robotic hand that can translate a teacher's voice and sign language to help deaf or the hearing impaired children learn in the classroom. The hands are 3D printed from recycled plastic. They cost $350, and they can run for roughly three years without needing maintenance. The startup, which has already sold nearly 80 units, uses the robot's hands to have a 92% speech-to-sign accuracy rating, and could one day help 300,000 hearing-impaired children in Kenya access educational opportunities. I did not know that hearing-impairedness yield either in Kenya or the world. I have a friend that is an interpreter for the courts in Los Angeles with sign language. He also knows Spanish, so it's doubly remarkable what his skill set is. If I told him this story, he would be very sad, because that's coming directly for his craft. S&P 500 multiple contraction continues down to a 19 times PE. NASDAQ 100 is very close to its 20-year median of 24 times. Even though we're in the boom period of AI investments, being at the median could create an opportunity. The S&P mid-cap is about 15 times the equal weight S&P 500 16 times the overall S&P 500 market weighted is at 19 times. Russell 2000 is at 24 times. So the NASDAQ and the Russell 2000 look the most growthy, but also the ones with the highest risk.

Some people wish they could be part of the Trump administration so they can take a stake in companies that are trading. Post-announcement White House saying that they've taken a share in the companies, but get this, 14 of the 17 stocks that the Trump administration has taken a stake in are trading below their post-announcement price.