US Equity Markets End Lower as Bond Yields Rise After July's Inflation Rate Accelerates

04:20 PM EDT, 08/26/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes ended lower Wednesday as most government bond yields rose after the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge rose and investors awaited Nvidia's (NVDA) quarterly earnings. * The personal consumption expenditure price index rose by 0.2%, following a 0.1% decline in June, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Wednesday. That's above the consensus for a 0.1% gain in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. * The Fed's preferred core measure, which excludes food and energy, climbed 0.2% in July, as expected. That's faster than the June print of 0.1%. The annual core gauge held steady at 3.3%, as projected. * US economic growth, measured by gross domestic product, rose by 1.5% in Q2, unrevised from the advance estimate released last month, as expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. GDP rose by 2.1% in Q1. * October West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell $0.40 to settle at $81.96 per barrel, while October Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen down $1.13 at $87.45. * Western Digital (WDC) shares were up roughly 4%, the second-best performer on the Nasdaq, after the company said Wednesday it executed private transactions to swap roughly $191 million of its 3% convertible senior notes maturing in 2028 for a mix of cash and stock. * GoDaddy (GDDY) shares were down about 4.3%, the third-worst performer on the S&P 500, after Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to underweight from equalweight and lowered its price target to $76 per share from $80.