GS Mid Day Color US Equities

GS Color - US Equities 18 Sep 2026 Mid-Day Color · Goldman Sachs · Global Banking & Markets FICC & Equities Fri 18 Sep 2026, 1:19pm ET

Equities creeping lower as focus lies on the last 30min of the day as option expiry and the S&P rebalance are modeled to drive explosive volumes. Crude is front and center today following its spike higher this morning vs the softer price action from the past two days, and is subsequently driving bond yields higher... keep an eye on 10yr price action as it retests 5%.

The tech space is driving the bigger moves under the hood today. After a choppy week for the AI complex, we are seeing continued strength following yesterday’s move higher with GSTMTAIP +60bps. Our Software vs Semis pair (GSPUSOSE Index -3%) is getting traction today as software names lead the leg lower (GSTMTSFT Index -1.7%) with semis largely higher (GSTMTSEM +1.4%). NFLX -4.4% is also a standout following a downgrade away, desk saw LO selling and HF covering to start the day. — Ty Kamshad

Quadwitch: today is a triple witching expiration day and S&P rebalance. For stocks in S&P Large/Mid/Small indices, we model close auction volumes to increase 2-3x vs. regular days. $7trn worth of options are set to expire throughout today’s session which is one of the largest in history. Note that 11/15 of the past September expires have been down sessions and we have tended to sell off the week following. — Ty Brian Garrett

Soccer news shaking up consumer as Mbappé signs a deal with ONON +1.2%, while NKE trades down 1.6%. Team believes that this signing was generally expected and could center discussion around 2027 margin debate in ONON, hence the muted outperformance in the name today. — Ty Feiler

Technicals: liquidity is extremely challenged with Top of Book at just ~$1mm, one of the lowest readings that we see. ETF as percentage of the tape is tracking at 29%, 2% above its 20dma.

We are currently a 5 out of 10 in terms of overall activity levels and overall franchise flows are balanced.

LOs are skewed 4% better for sale with supply in communication services, healthcare, and information tech.

HFs are skewed 13% better for sale with supply in macro products, information tech, and consumer discretionary.

Yesterday, our panic index saw its largest 1d decline in the past 10 years and ranks as the third largest 1d decline in our dataset. This metric involves S&P vol, VIX vol, S&P term structure, and S&P skew. — Ty

Source: Goldman Sachs FICC & Equities, Marquee, 18 Sep 2026.