Weekly Market Update – September 29, 2025

Price Return Last Week

S&P 500 (0.3%)   S&P Mid Cap (0.5%)    Russell 2000 (0.6%)   

MSCI EAFE (0.4%)    MSCI EM (1.1%)  

10 Yr US Treasury Rate – rose from 4.14% to 4.19%

Source: Refinitiv Eikon

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Recent News

New Tariffs – President Trump announced a 100% tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product unless the manufacturing company is building a manufacturing plant in America.  Generic drugs are not expected to be impacted by the proclamation.    It’s also unclear how much of an impact this will have on foreign pharmaceutical companies as many have factories in the U.S. already.  In addition to the drug tariffs, Trump also announced a 25% tariff on heavy trucks, a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets, and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

New Semiconductor Policy – The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering 100% tariffs on any semiconductor chips manufactured overseas in excess of the number of semiconductor chips manufactured in the U.S. by each chip manufacturer. 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Core PCE Inflation – Aug: 0.2% (Reuters Poll est. 0.2%) Jul: 0.2%

Core inflation was in-line with economist expectations and was reported to be up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis.  Annual core inflation has risen at an increasing rate in three of the last four months since hitting a low of 2.5% in April 2025.

Source: Refinitiv Eikon

New H-1B Visa Policy – President Trump announced a change to H-1B visa policy, raising the application fee from approximately $5,000, up to $100,000.  H-1B visa applicants typically vastly exceed the number of visas available.  The most recent period had over 300,000 applicants vying for just 85,000 H-1B visas.  H-1B visas are only supposed to be granted to skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations where there is a critical workforce need in the United States.  In recent years, over half of the visas granted were to those with computer-related jobs.  While the Trump administration hopes to increase new hires of American citizens for these specialty roles, some fear that companies may choose to outsource more operations instead.

Source: BBC, NBC News

Baseball Goes High-Tech – Major League Baseball approved the use of a new automated strike system for the 2026 season.  Umpires will still call every ball and strike but hitters, pitchers, and catchers will now have the ability challenge the call from the ump.  Each team will receive two challenges at the start of the game with extra challenges granted if the game goes into extra innings.  The system was tested throughout the Minor Leagues in 2025 with a challenge success rate of 50%.

Source: MLB.com

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Upcoming Events

9/30 – Consumer Confidence, Notable Earnings Reports: Nike

10/1 – ISM Manufacturing PMI

10/3 – Jobs Report, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI        

Source: Refinitiv Eikon