S&P 500 Snaps Four-Day Losing Streak as Dell Surges 11% and Oil Retreats

U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, September 11, ending a four-session slide that had been the Dow's longest consecutive losing streak since late April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained roughly 530 to 596 points, or about 1.2%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1% and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.2%, with the S&P 500 reaching approximately 7,671.

Dell Technologies led the session, jumping more than 11% to a record high after beating top and bottom line estimates and raising its fiscal 2027 forecast. HP gained around 7% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose nearly 10%, with analysts linking the technology hardware strength to strong results from Oracle, whose shares climbed roughly 7%. Apple also moved higher, approaching all-time highs, while GameStop and Snap were among other notable movers on the day.

The relief rally came despite a hotter-than-expected inflation reading: the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in August after a 0.1% gain in July, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise rates again. Investors largely looked past that data, instead drawing comfort from a pullback in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3% to $99.44 per barrel and Brent dropped 2.74% to $104.68, though both remained on track for weekly advances of around 8% amid escalating Middle East tensions. Despite Friday's gains, the Dow was still on course for its steepest weekly decline since March, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were set to snap two-week winning streaks.

Elsewhere in markets, the iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF saw unusually heavy options activity, trading over 1.1 million shares against a three-month average of roughly 243,000. Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund was reported by CNBC to be active in options, buying call options of significance in CoreWeave, AMD, Bloom Energy, SanDisk and other names.