By Heard on the Street Staff

This is an edition of the Markets P.M. newsletter, a recap of the day's most important markets moves, delivered after the closing bell. If you're not subscribed, sign up here.

What Happened in Markets Today

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years, reversing cuts it made last year and implicitly countering the White House's position that inflation isn't a concern. The increase, approved unanimously, will raise the benchmark federal-funds rate range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%. Most officials penciled in one more hike this year. The Fed's rate-setting committee cited elevated uncertainty due in part from geopolitics. A White House spokesman said the rate decision was "rather unfortunate."

Treasury yields moved higher after Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh began his post-decision press conference. The two-year yield rose 6.5 basis points to 4.725%, the highest yield since July 2024. The 10-year yield rose slightly to 5.003%, its highest point since July 2007.

OpenAI has held early discussions with investors about a new funding round that could value it at more than $1.2 trillion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ChatGPT developer was valued at $852 billion after a financing round in March. If completed, the new round would precede the company's initial public offering, now expected next year.

Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, said it is partnering with Anthropic to use artificial intelligence for drug research. Novo said Wednesday it would use Anthropic's Claude Science platform to discover and produce medicines more quickly.

Major stock-market indexes fell. The Dow industrials declined 1.2%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.5% and the Nasdaq lost less than 0.1%. Brent crude dropped about 3% to just under $106 a barrel.

Markets at a Glance

One Big Story

The highlight of (Apple's) new smartphone software, released Monday, is a redesigned Siri that works like ChatGPT, Claude and other chatbots. It can have a conversation, draft an email, search through texts and photos, and respond to complex search queries.

But in the time Apple's been working on that, a new class of AI assistants has emerged that can do all of that and more. They can book travel, fill out online forms, cancel appointments, even file a complaint with customer service. In other words, they can act like the personal secretary that so many people want from artificial intelligence, completing the mundane but necessary tasks of modern digital life. That keeps the pressure on Apple's new chief executive, John Ternus, to have Siri make the leap from chatbot to agent.

What's Coming Up

-- Economic reports due Thursday include housing starts, pending home sales and weekly job claims. The Philadelphia Fed is scheduled to release its monthly manufacturing business outlook survey.

-- Thursday's earnings calendar is light. Companies reporting quarterly results include VinFast Auto and Hub Group.

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About Us

Markets P.M. catches you up on the day's most important markets moves, delivered after the closing bell. This email was written by Jonathan Weil, a columnist for Heard on the Street, The Wall Street Journal's home for financial analysis and commentary. To send us your feedback, reply to this email. Got a tip for us? Here's how to submit.

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2026 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)