Update: US Equity Indexes Mixed as Higher Spending, Soft Inflation Print Split Moves in Treasury Yields

01:22 PM EDT, 09/30/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.) US equity indexes traded mixed as August spending growth and a soft inflation report left government bond yields searching for direction while bets favoring a back-to-back monetary policy tightening slumped. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1% to 27,071.4, the S&P 500 advanced 0.5% to 7,713, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 51,304.4 after midday Wednesday. The personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index grew 0.3% in August, as expected, keeping the year-over-year move at 3.4%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis Wednesday. The index edged up 0.1% month-over-month in July. Core PCE climbed 0.2%, below the 0.3% expected and a 0.1% gain in July. The year-over-year rate remained at 3.0%. However, personal consumption expenditures jumped 0.9%, as expected, after a 0.1% move in July. Real PCE, which excludes inflation, advanced 0.6%, following a 0.1% gain in July and compared with expectations for a 0.5% increase. US Treasury yields traded mixed, with maturities below two years declining. The two-year yield leaned slightly higher to 4.89% after hitting a 52-week high on Tuesday. The 10-year yield rose 3.8 basis points to 5.29%, its strongest level since 2007. Traders priced in a 42% probability that the Federal Reserve will raise its target rate by 25 basis points in October, down from 51% a day ago and 71% a week earlier, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Technology and communication services topped the gainers after midday. In further economic news, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's Nowcast Q3 GDP growth estimate fell to 3.7% from a previous forecast of 5.0%. The Institute for Supply Management's Chicago PMI rose to 58.8 in September from 47.1 in August, above the 51.0 anticipated in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. Iran said on Wednesday it had received a US response to its latest proposal to resurrect the collapsed ceasefire in the Gulf, days after President Donald Trump said he had rejected it, Reuters reported without providing any details. Seven months after the Strait of Hormuz closed, Middle East Gulf crude exports excluding Iran have returned to pre-war levels, reaching at least 16.5 million barrels per day in September, according to Kpler. The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract jumped 1.8% to $90.99 per barrel, and the global benchmark North Sea Brent rose 1% to $103.62 per barrel. In company news, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) raised its fiscal 2027 revenue growth outlook for its networking segment while securing a $1.2 billion order from Vultr. Shares jumped nearly 6%, one of the top gainers on the S&P 500. Salesforce (CRM) signed an agreement to acquire AI-powered client research platform Listen Labs to expand its user understanding capabilities, it said late Tuesday. Salesforce shares advanced 2%, among the Dow's leaders. Gold futures edged up 0.2% to $4,186.90, while silver futures declined 1% to $60.58.