GS MidDay Color US Equities Mid Day Color

GS Sharkey - US Equities Mid Day Color 21 Sep 2026 Ryan Sharkey · Goldman Sachs · Vice President, FICC & Equities Mon 21 Sep 2026, 12:32pm ET

Key Focus: • Green tape to start the week spurred by geopolitical optimism ahead of UN General Assembly this week + reports of “very successful” discussions between the US/ China this weekend ahead of the Trump/Xi summit Thursday. Tech leading the tape higher with NDX +237bps > SPX 124bps > RTY +66bps. Breadth improving since the open with 325 names in the SPX now green, but notably SPX ex AI is only +20bps on the day .

• META +8.9% most talked about name today (now +16% over the past 9 sessions) and currently accounting for ~15% of SPX move higher. Stock marching higher as Meta Muse momentum continues (reached No. 1 on the U.S. App Store on Friday, averaging roughly 73,000 U.S. downloads per day over its first 10 days). CPUs who benefit from accelerating Inference demand trading higher in unison INTC +14%, AMD +9%, ARM +15% (TY Bartlett)

• AI themes green across the board to start. Top of the leaderboard NeoClouds GSXUNEOC +580 bps, optical GSXUOPTI +490bps, Agentic AI GSXUAGNT +450bps, AI Semis +GSCBSMHX +432bps, Data centers GSTMTDAT +340bps. Mag 7 performing alongside +250 bps. Retail pockets of the market also surging in this tape with Bitcoin sensitive GSCBBTC1 +5%, Memes GSXUMEME +366bps, retail favorites GSXURFAV +275bps.

• Squeezier pockets of the market continue to rally post Fed meeting. Watching high beta 12m losers +183bps, rolling most short GSCBMSAL +185bps. Price action broadly pointing to a continuation of what our PB data showed last week: US equities saw the largest net buying in five weeks (+0.9 SDs 1-year),

driven by short covers in Macro Products (60% of total $net buying) and long buys in Single Stocks (40% of total $net buying). GSPB

• Volumes/ Liquidity: Overall market volumes are +7% versus the 20DMA. ETFs are 26% of the tape, in line with its 20DMA. Top of Book liquidity a standout to the upside, currently sitting at $13M

• Activity levels remain quiet and currently at a 3 out of 10 with the floor skewed evenly buy versus sell

• LOs are skewed better buyer with notable demand com serv and info tech vs supply in cons disc, cons staples, and macro products

• HFs are skewed better to buy with demand in com serv, fins, and cons disc

Breadth has become another pretty clear indication of how much harder the tape has been than the headline index suggests. Less than 30% of S&P stocks are now above the 50-day moving average. (H/T Lee Coppersmith)

Source: Goldman Sachs FICC & Equities, as of 21 September 2026. Authors: Ryan Sharkey, Jason Klein, Jack McKeon, Ryan Bailey, Katherine Reynolds.