GS MidDay Color US Equities Mid Day Color

GS Sharkey - US Equities Mid Day Color 22 Sep 2026 Ryan Sharkey · Goldman Sachs · Vice President, FICC & Equities Tue 22 Sep 2026, 1:10pm ET

Key Focus: • Index dispersion is the story today with SPX flat vs NDX +38bps. NDX making new highs on the back AI strength while the DOW is down -50bps dragged lower by Financials. Breadth is evenly split - AAPL, MU, and NVDA the largest contributors to the upside while MSFT, AMZN, and JPM are the biggest detractors.

• Iran headlines in focus, crude up small on the day but still < $100. Drivers = UN hope, report Iran offered to reopen SoH within 7 days if US dials back military pressure, and Saudi’s restart of the East- West Pipeline. Trump did comment at UNGA a US/Iran a deal not expected until after midterms.

• AI trade extending: Semis + memory + big tech mostly higher. Agentic AI still the biggest focus post META Muse. Observations from our TMT team (Bartlett)

• Thematic Trading seems to dominate price action across the market, with Consumer Agentic AI still clearly the dominant trade. We’re seeing different expressions of the trade being implemented today with shorts in our Consumer Intertia (GSXUSWCH Index) basket with 45 of 55 names lower today.

• GOOGL in focus and expected to launch its consumer agent product Gemini 4.0 in next few weeks

• Software leg lower as potential AI losers, more broadly, back in focus today

• Negative AI spillover: Fins, Insurance, consumer touch points (personal insurance, wealth, anything subscriptions based). In Fins specially, Agentic at risk // Fed hikes + flatter curve // Dem sweep in focus, but AGENTS are driving all conversations today.

• Tech catalyst to watch: Zuckerberg’s META connect keynote Wed night, OpenAI Dev day 9/29, and MU earnings on 9/30

• Overall activity levels remain subdued – our desk is a 3 out of 10.

• LOs are -10% better for sale led by macro products and Semis

• HFs are -8% better for sale with a noticeable increase in software shorts today.

Agents remain the topic of the week and Mag7 continues to benefit. Hedge funds took net exposure in the group to ~95th percentile on a 3-year lookback at ~20% vs a YTD trough of 14% in June. We now have 3 straight months and counting of Mag7 strength from the local June lows.

Source: Goldman Sachs FICC & Equities, as of 22 September 2026. Authors: Ryan Sharkey, Jason Klein, Jack McKeon, Ryan Bailey, Katherine Reynolds. Chart of the Day source: bbg as of 9/22.