It is safer to read Thursday's jump as a reversal of excessive hike fear than as the start of a new trend. One Waller comment pushed September hike odds from 63% to 50%, but Chair Warsh's stance is unchanged and the probability is still a coin flip. The real test is Friday's jobs report. This is a regime where good jobs are bad news, so a strong number could hand back much of the day's gain. The encouraging parts: Snowflake's results re-confirmed that AI demand is real, and breadth was healthy, with even rate-sensitive sectors participating. The warning: gold's 3.5% one-day surge suggests this rally is not purely risk-on. Until the jobs report clears, a neutral stance — respect the rebound, resist chasing it — is the reasonable posture.
📊 Top Movers
🧭 Sector Performance
🇰🇷 Korean Investor Perspective
The won strengthened sharply, with USD/KRW falling 16.93 to 1,355.93. For Korean retail investors in U.S. equities without an FX hedge, Thursday was a rare double win: the S&P 500's +1.06% plus an FX gain pushed the won-terms return close to 2%. But a stronger won cuts both ways — it lowers the cost of new dollar purchases while shrinking the won value of existing dollar holdings and future conversion proceeds. In chips, Micron was barely higher (+0.22%) and ARM jumped 3.29%, a friendly read-through for Korea's memory and fabless names. Snowflake and Oracle, which led the software rally, are lightly held by Korean investors, so the felt impact was limited. Friday's U.S. jobs report is the pivot for both the won and the indexes.
📊 Market Overview
U.S. stocks jumped more than 1% across all three major indexes on Thursday, September 3, posting their best session since August 4. The S&P 500 rose 1.06% to 7,747.71, the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.40% to 26,584.06, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 624.16 points (1.18%) to 53,686.11. It was a second straight advance, and the indexes moved back toward their late-August highs.
The open was actually heavy. Risk aversion led early after the U.S. carried out "large and powerful" strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, lifting both oil and gold. The mood flipped mid-morning when Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he would lean toward holding rates steady barring a major inflation surprise — "give disinflation a chance, we can wait one meeting." The 10-year Treasury yield fell nearly 5 basis points to 4.76% and the dollar index dropped 0.57%. The point was not rate-cut hope but an easing of hike anxiety; peeling back the hike risk that had weighed on the market since late August was enough to send risk assets broadly higher.
Snowflake, which reported after Wednesday's close, then surged more than 16% in the regular session and pulled the entire software group up with it, while Tesla rose over 5% ahead of its Cybercab robotaxi reveal scheduled for that evening. Odds of a September hike (CME FedWatch) fell to 50.4% from 63.2% in a single day. Still, CNN's Fear & Greed Index remained at 33 (Fear), so investor psychology recovered only partially despite the rally.
🔑 Key Issues
1. Waller: "We can wait one meeting" — September-hike anxiety recedes fast Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he is "inclined to support" holding rates steady unless upcoming inflation data delivers a major surprise, adding that policymakers should "give disinflation a chance." The remarks contrasted with new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who has kept a hike on the table by stressing the fight against sticky inflation, and markets took Waller as dovish. Odds of a hike at the September 16 FOMC (CME FedWatch) dropped to 50.4% from 63.2% a day earlier. Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, said "commentary from Fed Governor Waller is providing a broad lift for markets writ large."
2. Snowflake blowout ignites a software-wide rally Snowflake reported adjusted EPS of $0.62 (vs. $0.45 expected) and revenue of $1.55 billion (vs. $1.48 billion) after Wednesday's close and raised its FY27 product-revenue outlook. After a roughly 22% after-hours pop, the stock surged another 16.55% in Thursday's regular session to close at $356.47. With management citing AI products for about half of the growth acceleration, ServiceNow (+6.49%), Oracle (+5.69%), Salesforce (+2.92%) and Adobe (+2.13%) rose in sympathy. Morgan Stanley (target to $470 from $300) and Wells Fargo (to $525 from $500) both raised price targets.
3. Tesla +5.4% into the Cybercab reveal Tesla closed up 5.42% at $376.36 ahead of its driverless Cybercab robotaxi event in Austin, Texas, that evening. With Q2 revenue up 26% year over year fueling hopes for an autonomy-based business, the sharp pre-event run also raised "sell the news" risk: a reveal lacking concrete production and pricing timelines could trigger a pullback.
4. Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion Nvidia said it agreed to acquire the open-source AI platform Hugging Face for about $12.9 billion. Hugging Face is a development hub where more than 18 million developers share over 3 million models; the deal was read as Nvidia reinforcing its ecosystem grip as closed-source AI firms work on their own chips to reduce dependence on its GPUs. Nvidia rose 1.80%.
5. Broadcom falls 2.7% despite a beat, on soft guidance Broadcom beat with fiscal Q3 revenue of $29.59 billion (vs. $29.36 billion) and adjusted EPS of $3.32 (vs. $3.24), but its Q4 revenue guidance of about $34.8 billion fell short of the $35.03 billion consensus, and the stock dropped 2.74%. Even with 86% year-over-year growth, missing the whisper number was enough to get sold — a reminder of how high the bar for AI mega-caps has become. Separately, with U.S.-Iran fighting re-escalating, spot gold surged 3.54% to a record $4,520.70 an ounce.
📊 Sector Performance
| Sector | Change | Key Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Financials | +1.56% | Goldman Sachs (+3.34%), Morgan Stanley (+2.52%) lead; risk appetite returns |
| Consumer Discretionary | +1.39% | Tesla (+5.42%) Cybercab anticipation drives the group |
| Technology | +1.29% | Software rally (Oracle, ServiceNow) offsets Broadcom weakness |
| Real Estate | +1.19% | 10-year yield retreats to 4.76%, lifting rate-sensitive names |
| Industrials | +1.03% | GE (+1.21%), Caterpillar (+0.99%) cyclicals advance together |
| Communication Services | +0.85% | Meta (+3.01%) strength, Alphabet (+1.59%) in sympathy |
| Utilities | +0.84% | Dividend buying as yields fall |
| Health Care | +0.18% | Gains capped by weakness in Lilly and AbbVie (-0.58%) |
| Consumer Staples | -0.32% | Rotation out of defensives (P&G -0.49%) into risk |
| Materials | -0.62% | Cyclical materials profit-taking despite a weaker dollar |
| Energy | -0.74% | Exxon (-1.18%), ConocoPhillips (-1.08%) fall even as oil rises |
🌍 Global Markets
- Europe STOXX 600: Up 0.49% to 649.10. Easing U.S. rate pressure spread warmth to European equities.
- Dollar Index (DXY): Down 0.57% to 99.00. Waller's comments capped expectations for further yield gains and turned the dollar decisively lower.
- U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield: Down about 3 bps to 4.76%, after dipping to 4.75% intraday and paring slightly. A second straight decline from the prior day's 4.818% (highest since November 2023).
- WTI Crude: Up 0.77% to $91.71 a barrel. The renewed U.S.-Iran strikes re-added a geopolitical premium, but hopes for a short-lived episode limited the gain.
- Gold: Up 3.54% to $4,520.70 an ounce, a record high, on geopolitical risk, a weaker dollar and central-bank buying.
🚀 SPCX (SpaceX) Watch
SpaceX (SPCX) surged 6.42% to $149.74, far outpacing the indexes. Anticipation for Starship Flight 14 (its first orbital attempt), scheduled for no earlier than September 15, drove buying, while previously disclosed Q2 revenue of $7.81 billion (vs. $6.82 billion expected) and the $1 billion APR Energy acquisition also helped. Up 23% over the past month, the stock lifted its level from around $140 in late August toward $150 and widened its premium to the $135 IPO price. This is the classic pattern of event anticipation pushing a stock higher into a launch date — watch for elevated volatility around the test-flight outcome.
⚠️ Investor Cautions
Thursday's jump combined easing hike anxiety with earnings momentum, but the foundation is not yet solid. Waller is one governor, and Chair Kevin Warsh is still leading with the inflation fight, leaving September 16 FOMC hike odds near a coin flip at around 50%. Above all, Friday's August jobs report is the key hurdle. In the current regime the math is inverted: strong jobs are hawkish (re-igniting hike risk), a soft print eases it. The re-escalation of U.S.-Iran fighting and gold's 3.5% one-day jump — a sign safe-haven demand is alive — are also warning signs. It remains to be seen whether the Snowflake-led software rally is a one-day event, and whether names that fail to clear the bar, like Broadcom, keep getting punished.
👁 What to Watch Tomorrow
- August jobs report (8:30 a.m. ET): Consensus is roughly +53,000 nonfarm payrolls, unemployment holding at 4.1%, and average hourly earnings up 0.2% month over month. With June and July combined essentially negative, a rebound is expected; a large upside surprise (say, +100,000 or more) re-ignites September hike talk and points to higher yields and dollar, lower stocks. A weak print of +20,000 or below removes much of the hike risk.
- S&P 500 attempt at 7,750-7,800: Thursday's 7,747 close sits just below psychological resistance at 7,750. Clearing 7,800 after digesting payrolls sets up a retest of the August high; losing 7,700 signals the bounce was a one-day affair.
- 10-year yield 4.75% support: A break below 4.75% extends the rebound, but a jobs surprise back above 4.85% brings renewed selling in real estate, utilities and high-multiple software.
- Snowflake and software follow-through: Whether SNOW holds its 16% gap-up, and whether ServiceNow and Oracle keep their gains, determines how far the software rotation can run.
- Fallout from Tesla's Cybercab event: The evening reveal will set direction at the open. Concrete production timelines and pricing would extend the gains; anything underwhelming risks unwinding the 5% already priced in.
💡 Upcoming Events
- 2026-09-04: August jobs report — Nonfarm Payrolls (est. +53K), Unemployment Rate (est. 4.1%)
- 2026-09-09: Oracle (ORCL) fiscal Q1 2026 results
- 2026-09-10: Adobe (ADBE) results
- 2026-09-15: SpaceX Starship Flight 14 test (planned)
- 2026-09-16: September FOMC rate decision
📚 Sources
- Stock Market Today (Sept. 3, 2026): Nasdaq, S&P 500, Dow updates — TheStreet
- Stock market on Sept. 3, 2026 — CNBC
- Stocks Rally, Yields Retreat after Waller Signals a September Hold — Yahoo Finance
- Stock Market Midday, Sept. 3: Stocks Rally as Treasury Yields Fall — The Motley Fool
- Services PMI at 55.4%; August 2026 ISM Services PMI Report — PR Newswire
- US Initial Jobless Claims came in at 206K, above forecasts — FXStreet
- NVIDIA to Acquire Hugging Face — NVIDIA Blog
- Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for almost $13 billion — CNBC
- Why Is Broadcom Stock Falling Thursday? — Benzinga
- Tesla Advances 6% as Traders Await Cybercab Event — 24/7 Wall St.
- SpaceX Rises 7% as Starship Test 14 Approaches — 24/7 Wall St.
- August 2026 jobs report: Payrolls projected up 53,000 — CNBC
- Gold price today, Thursday, September 3, 2026 — Yahoo Finance
- U.S. has launched 'large and powerful' strikes on Iran, Trump says — NBC News