Stocks Rebound Early, Awaiting Fresh Jobs Data

Published as of: June 26, 2026, 9:15 a.m. ET

(Monday market open) The final two days of the quarter are here with stocks up early as tech shares rebound slightly from their pullback. Though June has been a tough month, the S&P 500 Index is just 3% off all-time highs, and there've been glimmers of strength in non-tech areas.

"Some of the selloff in the tech space may be related to quarter-end rebalancing by major market players such as pensions and sovereign wealth funds," said Nathan Peterson, director of derivatives research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR), in his Weekly Trader's Outlook. The focus this week could turn slightly away from tech and toward the U.S. economy ahead of Thursday's June nonfarm payrolls report. That's a day earlier than usual ahead of Friday's U.S. closure for Independence Day.

Major indexes fell Friday and the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite's losing streak reached five sessions. Choppiness returned as the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) flirted with 20. Any move above that early this week might signal more weakness for the market, with investors focused again on Treasury yields and oil as the Middle East remains unsettled. The status of the ceasefire is a fresh wildcard after several weekend skirmishes, though the U.S. announced Sunday that hostilities are paused. This appeared to underpin early Wall Street gains.

1. Manufacturing, job openings ahead: Jobs aren't the only reports on the near horizon. Wednesday brings the June ISM U.S. manufacturing index, an important metric for an industrial economy that appears to be recovering in a trend that's supported sectors beyond those heavily exposed to tech. What the Federal Reserve decides could be influenced by that and other data, starting with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) due soon after Tuesday's opening bell. The April reading was 7.6 million, well above expectations, and May's is expected to be in that area as well. These are the highest levels in more than a year, suggesting companies are starting to emerge from the "no hire, no fire" climate that's prevailed. That's not completely clear, of course, but U.S. jobs growth is also up three months in a row. Analysts expect the June nonfarm payrolls report Thursday to show lower gains than the 172,000 seen in May. Early consensus is 110,000, which would still be adequate to keep pace with population growth.
    
2. Yields set tone: Last week's rotation out of tech and into sectors like industrials and health care could get a second wind in coming days, but it depends partly on the path of Treasury yields. Which means, to some extent, it depends on crude oil. Treasury yields seemed less correlated with crude earlier this month than they were back in May, but they tracked crude down last week as the price of oil dipped to nearly pre-war levels. If oil rises, the 10-year Treasury note yield could, too, possibly hurting chances for a non-tech rally. When the yield has been below 4.5% lately, money has gone into sectors beyond tech. When yields climb to 4.5% or higher, money gravitates back toward tech. Jobs data could have an impact on the path of yields, which are down over the last week despite growing expectations of a possible Federal Reserve rate hike sometime this year. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh speaks at a forum in Europe Wednesday.
    
3. Line in the sand for indexes: Technically, both the S&P 500 Index and the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) trade near key junctures that could determine where they head prior to earnings season starting in mid-July. The S&P 500 closed Friday just below its 50-day moving average for the first time since early April.  Several closes under that line, now at 7,363, lasting more than a few days could represent a signal change. The Nasdaq-100^® rests just above its 50-day moving average to start the week. And the SOX closed Friday below the closely watched 21-day moving average. The SOX also drifted below that earlier this month for a couple days but regained its footing, seen as technically positive at the time. Now it's losing steam and at one point last week was down nearly 10% intraday from last Monday's peak, the definition of a correction. "While the broadening of the rally appears to be intact, and lower oil prices and yields are net bullish, I'm concerned about tech in the near-term," my colleague Peterson said. "The sector may be susceptible to some additional deleveraging." Margin debt in the U.S. hit a record $1.42 trillion in May.

• Comcast (CMCSA) surged almost 22% ahead of the open. The company announced plans to separate its media and technology businesses into independent public companies, spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky. NBCUniversal is the company's global media and entertainment company, and includes the company's theme parks division and NBC. Sky is the European media business. Comcast will focus on wireless, broadband, and connectivity businesses.
   
• Rocket Lab (RKLB) soared more than 11% in early trading after the launch and space systems firm announced it would buy Iridium Communications (IRDM) for approximately $8 billion. Iridium is a provider of global voice, data, positioning, navigation and timing satellite services. Shares of Iridium climbed 22% on the news.
   
• SpaceX (SPCX) made an early 2% gain on news its shares will become a component of the Nasdaq-100 prior to the market open on Tuesday, July 7. Since many investment products track the Nasdaq-100, they'll likely be adding shares of SpaceX to their assets under management.
   
• Charter Communications (CHTR) surged almost 20% in early trading after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX and Charter have discussed a U.S. mobile phone partnership.
   
• Nike (NKE) added 1% in early trading as investors laced up for its earnings report due after tomorrow's close. Shares are down 24% this quarter, and analysts expect annual revenue to fall about 2.1% for the fiscal fourth quarter. Earnings per share are seen down 5.7% from a year ago.
   
• Chip and AI-related stocks generally tracked higher early Monday after stumbling last week. Applied Materials (AMAT) and Oracle (ORCL) led the pack with gains of more than 3%. Palantir (PLTR) also surged in what's been a very tough month for the stock. A report that OpenAI might consider delaying its initial public offering (IPO) was one source of recent weakness. So were concerns about the pace of hyperscaler spending.
   
• Despite wobbles in the headline indexes, six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors gained Friday, with health, real estate, and consumer staples leading. Technology and industrials were the laggards.
   
• Last week saw the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index (SPXEW), the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the small-cap Russell 2000^® (RUT) gain even as the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq fell. "The divergence has to do with a combination of selling pressure in the tech sector and money rotating into non-tech areas of the market," Peterson said.
   
• Korean stocks, dominated by tech and memory chip giants, dove last week, reflecting de-leveraging of speculative positions. The corresponding sell off last week in U.S. tech stocks "likely wrung some of the leverage out of the system, but it's too early to say whether a sufficient washout has occurred on a near-term basis," Peterson said.
   
• Nvidia slipped 1.4% Friday and was nearly 9% lower for the week, its worst week in more than a year. Its struggles reflect competition from memory stocks and worries about the pace of AI spending, Barron's reported. Technically, things looked soft for Nvidia as it failed to hold support at the psychological $200 per share level. Shares inched up about 1% this morning.
   
• Last week, the DJIA gained around 0.6%, while the S&P 500 lost roughly 2%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq dropped nearly 5%. For the month, the Nasdaq is on track for a more than 6% loss while the DJIA is up more than 1%. The S&P 500 is down 2% in June.

Midyear money checkup: For anyone hoping to check in on their finances midyear, Schwab's latest personal finance column offers five steps to assess whether you're on track or veered off course.

Over the last three months, shares of hyperscaler AI buyers Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META) (blue line) have lost significant ground versus shares of AI chip makers Micron (MU) and Nvidia (NVDA) (orange line). While "buyers" are still up slightly since late March, by about 10% combined, the sellers are up about 60% even with Nvidia's recent struggles.