GS Equities Color US EQUITIES COLOR RELIEF RALLY

GS Jeter - US EQUITIES COLOR RELIEF RALLY 17 Sep 2026 Mitch Jeter · Goldman Sachs · Analyst, FICC & Equities Thu 17 Sep 2026, 5:01pm ET

S&P +114bps closing @ 7,637 w/ a MOC of $4.3B to BUY. NDX +173bps @ 29,446, R2K +55bps 2,874, and Dow +61bps @ 51,778. 17.697bn shares traded across all US equity exchanges vs ytd daily avg of 18.703.bn shares. VIX -1282bps @ 15.44, WTI Crude -113bps @ $101.26, US 10YR -0.088bps @ 4.9344%, gold +189bps @ 4,344, dxy -1bps @ 100.24 and Bitcoin +72bps @ $76,649

Equities finished higher with the S&P having its second-best daily performance for the month of September. Breadth was strong with 292 names in SPX green on the day with AI/Mag7 the biggest upside contributors. Rates taking a bit of a breather (US10YR @ 4.94%) as markets continue to digest the Fed hike yesterday. GIR now expecting the Fed to hike again at its October meeting but still think the neutral rate will be 3.25-3.5% and add a third rate cut in March 2028 (in addition to cuts in September and December 2027). We also saw some relief in oil (WTI @ $101/bbl) after reports of China asking Iran to rein in the Houthis. Trump could meet Middle East leaders as soon as next Tuesday in hopes the Saudi pipeline may return soon.

MegaCap Tech (GSTMTMEG) +168bps led the way and continues to be the high conviction trade. Per GS PB yesterday: TMT stocks are the most net bought among all US sectors in the past month, led by long buys in hyperscalers – net allocation to Mag 7 has risen to ~20% (95th percentile 3-year) from a YTD low of 14% in June. High velocity pockets of the market worked today: Momo (GSPRHIMO) +304bps, AI Semis (GSCBSMHX) +348bps, AI Leaders (GSX1AIL1) +197bps, 12M Winners +376bps. Squeezier tilt today with Most Rolling Short (GSCBMSAL) +360bps and High Beta 12M Losers (GSCBLMOM) +73bps.

Our desk was a 4/10 from an activity level perspective, finishing +586bps better to buy. Asset managers finished $396mm better to buy with demand in macro products, tech, and industrials vs. small supply in consumer discretionary and energy. Hedge Funds finished $658mm better to buy with demand in tech, consumer discretionary, industrials, and financials vs. supply in macro products and communication services.

DERIVS: The market staged an impressive relief rally post-yesterday's rate hike as oil came in. In the vol space, we saw gamma tenors offered - aggressively in the front - while pure vega tenors were bid and exhibited positive spot vol correlation. Today's skew crush completely reversed yesterday's steepening. Interestingly, despite the moves, we saw little customer activity around the risk parameter. NDX and RUT saw similar moves and RUT fixed strike vols were aggressively offered across the curve as spot underperformed. Flows wise, we saw a notable amount of 2Oct prints go up in both the index and singles spaces. In index, we saw a GS cust buy 11k QQQ 2Oct26 690 puts for 2.96 while the market saw a large program of call buying in AI infra names such as MRVL, MU, and SNDK. Right before the close, GS cust bought 8k SMH 2Oct26 530 puts. SPX rallied above our short-term CTA threshold level (7633) which we

expect will shift our current estimates in the near-term and begin to dry up some systematic supply. We put dealer gamma positioning at 6/10 here and think dealers will become longer gamma to the topside - 8/10 on an up +1% move and 3/10 on a -1% move. The S&P implied move through options expiry tomorrow is 0.57%. (TY Gail Hafif) Source: Goldman Sachs FICC & Equities, as of 17 September 2026. Authors: Mitch Jeter, Ariana Contessa, Lilly Belt, Mike Washington.