Trading Week Wrap Up! - 09/25/26
TraderMerlin · Sep 25, 2026 · 55:34
TraderMerlin · Sep 25, 2026 · 55:34
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Another week in the books—and there was definitely no shortage of market-moving headlines.
Interest rates are moving higher. Treasury yields are hitting levels we haven't seen in years. Economic data continues to challenge the idea that the economy is slowing dramatically. Tesla has fresh news out of Europe. And after all the anticipation surrounding the Trump-Xi meeting, the United States and China have bought themselves a little more time with another extension of their trade truce.
So what actually matters to traders?
On today's TraderMerlin, we're cutting through the noise and breaking down the biggest stories of the week, what they mean for the markets and, of course, updating some of my own trades along the way.
Perhaps the biggest story remains interest rates.
The Federal Reserve raised rates last week, and Fed officials are projecting another hike before the end of the year. Meanwhile, Treasury yields have continued pushing higher, with the long end of the curve reaching levels we haven't seen in decades.
That's important because higher yields ripple through virtually everything—mortgages, corporate borrowing, consumer credit, stock valuations and ultimately the economy.
And the economic data isn't necessarily giving the Fed a reason to back away.
Initial jobless claims remain historically low, business investment has remained resilient and inflation continues to be the wild card.
What happens if the economy stays strong enough that the Fed has to keep tightening?
That's one of the big questions hanging over this market.
We'll also dig into Tesla, where European regulators have delayed a broader decision on Tesla's supervised Full Self-Driving system. For a company increasingly valued not simply as an automaker but as an AI, robotics and autonomous-driving story, regulatory approval matters.
Then there's China.
After months of tariffs, threats and negotiations, President Trump and President Xi met in Washington this week. The result was another two-month extension of the U.S.-China trade truce, pushing the deadline to January 10.
That's good news in the sense that another escalation has been avoided—for now.
But many of the biggest issues remain unresolved.
We'll discuss:
