S&P 500 Closes Down 0.76% as Nasdaq Leads Broad Market Decline
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on September 23, 2026.
- S&P 500-0.76%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average-0.64%
- Nasdaq Composite-1.21%
Growth stocks took the brunt of it: the Nasdaq's 1.21% drop was nearly double the Dow's decline, a sign higher rates are hitting the most expensive corners of the market first.
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The S&P 500 settled at 7,705.60, shedding 59.04 points on the session. Losses were in place from the opening bell and deepened through the afternoon, with the index never making a meaningful push back toward flat.
The Nasdaq Composite was the hardest hit of the three major averages, dropping 1.21%. That was nearly double the Dow Jones Industrial Average's decline of 0.64%, a gap that points squarely at higher rates weighing on the most richly valued growth stocks before broader pressure spreads.
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When growth names slide at a faster clip than the blue-chip index, it often reflects investors trimming positions in stocks whose valuations depend most heavily on expectations of future earnings, since higher rates reduce what those future earnings are worth today.
For investors with exposure to tech and other high-multiple sectors, the session's pattern matters more than the headline loss. A broad index decline of under 1% can feel routine, but a Nasdaq that drops nearly twice as fast signals that the rotation out of expensive corners of the market still has room to run.