New York, September 15, 2026 U.S. stocks rose to the edge of their all-time high on Monday, after a couple of buyout announcements helped lift the market. The S&P 500 climbed and pulled within a small percentage of its record, which was set during the summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added points, while the Nasdaq composite rallied to set its own record.
PTC helped lead the market after leaping. Schneider Electric of France said it would pay cash for each of the software company’s shares in a deal valuing it at about a large amount.
The proposed deal helped lift prices for other stocks in the software industry, and Autodesk rose. RXO jumped after C.H. Robinson Worldwide said it would buy the truck brokerage business in a deal where RXO investors could get cash for each of their shares.
C.H. Robinson fell for the largest loss in the S&P 500.
Both Schneider Electric and C.H. Robinson mentioned the promise of artificial-intelligence technology when announcing their deals, and stocks across the AI industry were strong. A gain for Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, was a strong force lifting the S&P 500.
Broadcom also climbed. Trading was otherwise relatively quiet as the wait continues for the start of the latest earnings reporting season. Analysts have big expectations for how much profit companies made.
They’re forecasting growth for companies in the S&P 500. If they’re correct, it would be the third straight quarter of growth above a high percentage for the index.
Monday’s moves came as the oil market continued to swing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global crude industry to return to normal. The price for a barrel of Brent crude veered between a high and low price before settling at a lower price. Worries about high oil prices have helped push up yields in the bond market, and the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose.
High yields can slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while also making investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments. Another factor pushing up yields is the strength of the U.S. economy, which is benefiting from big spending by businesses on AI data centers.
U.S. consumers also continue to spend and drive the economy, even though they’re getting more frustrated by the high inflation that’s squeezing their finances. A report on Monday gave a mixed update on the strength of the U.S. economy. It said that activity for real estate, transportation, finance and other businesses in the services industries grew in September for a long period.
But the growth was not as strong as economists expected. The report from the Institute for Supply Management also said that prices U.S. services businesses are paying for materials and services grew at a faster rate, which could be a discouraging signal for upcoming inflation. The general expectation on Wall Street is that the Federal Reserve will hike its main interest rate at least once by the end of the year in hopes of reining in the fast increases for the cost of living.
In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 fell for one of the world’s bigger losses.
