US Close 26 October 2026: S&P 500 +0.70% as Anthropic Filing Lifts Chips; Brazil ETF -19.82% After Lula Win

S&P 500 close: 7,676.77 (+0.70%) Sector breadth: 7 of 11 SPDR sector funds higher Sentiment: bullish

The S&P 500 closed at 7,676.77 on 26 October 2026, up 53.09 points or 0.70%, after Anthropic filed its IPO prospectus publicly and chipmakers rose: SMH.US +2.74%, NVDA.US +2.39%. Brazilian stocks listed in New York fell after President Lula won a fourth term, with XP.US -48.36% and the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ.US) -19.82%. The 10-year Treasury yield held at 4.99% and VIX fell 5.45% to 18.39 two days before the Fed decision.

What moved the index

The S&P 500 gained 70 bps on 26 October 2026, ending a two-week losing run, with technology supplying most of the rise.

• Technology (XLK.US +1.69%): about 34% of the index, worth about 57 bps. NVDA.US +2.39%, AVGO.US +2.33%, MU.US +2.98% and AMD.US +2.80% rose after Anthropic's S-1 showed $16.3 billion of revenue in the six months to June, against $4.6 billion in all of 2025, per Yahoo Finance. MSFT.US added 1.54%; AAPL.US fell 1.10%.
• Industrials (XLI.US +1.42%): about 8% weight, worth about 11 bps.
• Consumer discretionary (XLY.US +1.03%): about 10% weight, worth about 10 bps, with TSLA.US +5.21% after Barclays upgraded the stock to Overweight.
• Communication services (XLC.US -1.57%): about 10% weight, a drag of about 16 bps. META.US fell 1.88% after it announced plans to raise up to $95 billion for AI infrastructure, starting with $35 billion in common and preferred stock, per Yahoo Finance. GOOGL.US -1.06% and NFLX.US -2.96%.

Together, these four sectors account for about 62 bps of the 70 bps move; the residual sits in financials (XLF.US +0.21%), real estate (XLRE.US +0.54%) and energy (XLE.US +0.45%).

Session highlights

• 26,169.38 on the Nasdaq Composite, up 0.82%, while the Dow rose 0.28% to 52,361.58 and the Russell 2000 0.38% to 2,786.42.
• RRC.US +17.66% on an all-stock merger with EQT valued at about $50 billion, per Benzinga. Range holders receive 0.987 EQT shares each and will own about 27% of the combined company; EQT.US fell 1.40%.
• LITE.US +8.19% to $818.10 after StoneX started coverage, per Yahoo Finance. Optical peers COHR.US +5.83% and AAOI.US +6.56% followed, and TTMI.US gained 6.73% after third-quarter sales rose 60% to $1.2 billion.
• FICO.US -13.15% after Fair Isaac kept its mortgage score price at $10 for Preferred Program lenders, per Benzinga.
• CRCL.US -7.07% after Mizuho reiterated Underperform and warned that AI assistants could steer users away from USDC.
• $101.25 for December WTI, down 1.96%, as Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish officials prepared to meet Iranian leaders, per Benzinga. December gold rose 0.58% to $4,031.00 and DXY 0.19% to 102.00.

Brazil after the election

EWZ.US fell 19.82% on 26 October 2026 after Lula defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in Sunday's runoff, a result that reversed a rally in Brazilian assets earlier this month. The real lost more than 10%, its worst day since 1999, per Benzinga.

• XP.US -48.36%, more than double its previous worst day since its December 2019 listing.
• ITUB.US -20.37%, BBD.US -28.01% and NU.US -16.95% led the banks lower.
• PBR.US -13.99% and MELI.US -7.81%.

None of these names sits in the S&P 500, so the fall did not reach the index arithmetic above.

Sector scorecard

• Best: Technology (+1.69%)
• Worst: Communication services (-1.57%)
• Dispersion (best minus worst): 3.26 pts
• Health care (XLV.US) closed flat; consumer staples (XLP.US) -0.34% and utilities (XLU.US) -0.02% were the other decliners.

Top movers

After-hours earnings

Four companies reported after the 16:00 ET close on 26 October 2026, per Investing.com.

• CLS.US jumped 9% after hours after closing the regular session 5.14% lower. Celestica reported adjusted EPS of $3.30 against $2.99 expected on revenue of $5.83 billion, up 83%, and raised its 2026 outlook to $21.0 billion of revenue.
• WHR.US fell 8.5% after hours, on top of a 5.91% fall in the session. Whirlpool reported an adjusted loss of $0.21 a share against an expected profit of $1.04 and cut its 2026 outlook to a loss of $1.30 a share.
• CDNS.US gained 2.4% after hours on revenue of $1.63 billion, up 22%, and a raised 2026 outlook of $6.39 billion to $6.42 billion. Its backlog reached a record $8.2 billion.
• AMKR.US rose 5% post-market after a 6.34% session fall, despite revenue of $1.99 billion against $2.03 billion expected.

Notable announcements

• AVGO.US rose 0.7% after hours after Bank of America, Blackstone, Citi and Morgan Stanley committed $63 billion to a vehicle that will buy Broadcom accelerators and networking hardware for Anthropic, with deliveries from 2027, per Investing.com.
• MSFT.US offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, per Yahoo Finance.
• Anthropic reported a net loss of $80.7 billion through June, mostly from accounting charges, and agreements with SpaceXAI of up to $120.5 billion through 2029, per Yahoo Finance.

Next session catalysts (ET)

• Tue 27 Oct, 8:00am: Whirlpool results call.
• Tue 27 Oct: Celestica results call and investor day.
• Tue 27 Oct: the Fed's two-day meeting starts; the decision is due Wednesday afternoon, and markets widely expect a hold under Chair Kevin Warsh, per Yahoo Finance.
• Wed 28 Oct, after the close: Alphabet and Microsoft report.

Context only, not financial advice. Track your own trades with Swingfolio.