Week in Review: Oil Up, Interest Rates and Tech Lower as Volatility Rises

PUBLISHED 17 Oct 2026 | UPDATED 1 hour ago | 4 min read

Dimitra DeFotis

Senior Editor

The moves in S&P 500 sectors told the story of the week as traders and investors sought safety while earnings season unfolded: Information Technology tumbled, while Consumer Staples and Health Care rose.

For the week, the Nasdaq-100 (NDX) slumped about 5.5%, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 11.4%. The S&P 500 (SPX) slipped 1.95%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT) was also in the red, down more than 3%. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) rose 0.67% on the week.

There were several big themes in the week that was. Earnings took center stage, and despite mostly beating expectations in third quarter results, some financial stocks still came under pressure. Stubborn inflation increased market expectations for another Federal Reserve rate hike in December. And the threat of higher corporate debt costs sent shivers into the AI trade, with the SOX showing the brunt of the pressure.

Here are some Schwab Network discussions that unfolded on those topics:

Earnings: Kicking off earnings season last week, big banks largely met expectations, with Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C) among the banks reporting stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings per share, while J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) missed analyst expectations. Regional banks PNC Financial Services (PNC), US Bancorp (USB), and First Horizon (FHN) reported 3Q EPS ahead of Wall Street estimates. For some banks, weakness in capital markets and/or fixed Income trading pressured shares.

This coming week, the earnings docket includes a number of big technology and industrial names with GE Aerospace (GE), General Motors (GM), and Netflix (NFLX) reporting Tuesday, and Meta Platforms (META), Tesla (TSLA), IBM, Lam Research (LRCX), and Texas Instruments (TXN) reporting Wednesday.

Interest rates, the Fed, and Tech: With government data showing stubbornly high consumer and producer price inflation last week, and heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and between Russia and Ukraine, oil prices shot up 8% last week to near $99 per barrel.

Despite near-term inflation worries, the likely timing of a Federal Reserve rate hike still sits in December, with a roughly 72% probability of a 25-basis-point increase, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The rate on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury moved lower during the week, to near 5.098%, but worries about corporate debt burdens, especially in the tech sector, gripped Wall Street.

Some CoreWeave (CRWV) debt traded at distressed levels Wednesday, sending the stock sharply lower, despite comments from CEO Mike Intrator that the market was behaving “irrationally.” CoreWeave is a “neocloud” company that provides computing power and invests heavily in chips and infrastructure. It had roughly $35.6 billion in debt and $16.3 billion in lease liabilities as of June 30, according to its 2Q2026 SEC filing. Rising rates have resulted in higher financing costs for some bonds, but Intrator told employees and the media this week that CoreWeave deal backlog more than covers debt obligations. CoreWeave shares were down 25% for the week. Other AI-related names with significant debt also traded lower, including Oracle (ORCL), which fell more than 9% last week.

Read: Weekly Wrap: Bond Buyers Return as AI Leadership Fractures

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