See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” – Ted Williams

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

Futures were sharply lower but recovered some of those losses as the opening bell approaches. The S&P 500 is on pace to open down 0.3% while the Nasdaq is down 0.55%. The culprits are energy prices and bond yields, which are both sharply higher in early trading. Gold prices are down close to 3% to the lowest level since early August.

Asian stocks started the week in the red for the same reasons US futures are lower. The Nikkei traded down 0.7%, while onshore Chinese stocks traded down more than 1.5%. The big loser of the day, though, was the Kospi, which fell 2.7%. Chinese Industrial Profits through August were up 15.7% versus the same period last year, but in July they were up 17.6% YTD.

In Europe, the STOXX 600 is bucking the trend and trading slightly higher. No major benchmark in the region is up or down by 0.5%, and Spain is the main laggard, down 0.3%.

Today’s economic calendar is quiet. The only report on the calendar is the September Dallas Fed Manufacturing report, and the headline index is expected to decline slightly from 11.6 to 7.8. While the week starts off quietly, though, it will be a busy week with Consumer Confidence, PCE, ISM Manufacturing, and the September Non-Farm Payrolls report.

With the decline in futures this morning, if you’re feeling a sense of déjà vu, you aren’t mistaken. Today’s downside gap in the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) will be the third time in the last six weeks that it gapped down at least 0.5% to kick off a week. This reverses a trend of positive starts to the week during the summer, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the tone earlier this year. In the first 10 weeks of 2026, QQQ gapped down on the first trading day of the week eight times, and the average opening gap across all 10 weeks was a decline of 0.54%.

The chart below shows QQQ’s average opening gap for each trading day of the week so far in 2026. Despite the recent weakness to start the week and the declines earlier this year, the first trading day of the week has been the second-best in terms of the average opening gap, with an average gain of 0.15%. Wednesday has been the only better day, with an average gain of 0.27%, while Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday have all experienced declines on average to kick off the trading day.

Not only have Mondays tended to start off the week on a positive note, but the average 0.24% gain from the open to close has been better than any other day of the week. Tuesday and Thursday have averaged gains of 0.09% and 0.08%, respectively. While Wednesday has been the best day of the week at the open, it has also experienced the most selling from the open to close, with an average decline of 0.12%.

Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to continue reading today’s full Morning Lineup.