Stocks close flat as the 10-year yield climbs to 5.18%; Akamai jumps 17% after hours on Anthropic deal

Stocks finished Thursday almost exactly where they started, even as Treasury yields kept rising. The S&P 500 dipped 1.90 points to 7,704.13, the Nasdaq Composite added 3.33 points to 26,939.37 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 161.61 points to 51,349.98, according to Yahoo Finance closing data.

Bonds did the moving

The Treasury's official closing curve put the 10-year yield at 5.18%, up 7 basis points from Wednesday, and the 30-year at 5.47%, up 7 (Treasury data). Intraday, CNBC reported, the 30-year touched 5.501%, its highest since June 2004. New York Fed President John Williams said it would be "reasonable" to expect another hike by year end, and CNBC cited CME FedWatch odds of an October hike above 75%, against about 49% a week earlier. Oil added pressure: November WTI futures traded near $95, up about 3%, late in the day. Chart: 10-year T-note.

Under the flat index, the day was mixed by sector. Going by SPDR sector fund closes, communication services rose 1.27% and health care 0.63%, while materials fell 1.19%, utilities 0.98% and industrials 0.75%.

Akamai: the numbers behind the after-hours jump

Akamai closed down 6.78% at $110.41, then traded near $129 after hours, up about 17% on Nasdaq.com quotes. The reason was in an 8-K filed at 4:14 p.m.: Anthropic committed $11.6 billion over seven years to Akamai's cloud, with room to add up to $9 billion more. The filing also shows what Akamai gives up. It issued Anthropic a warrant for up to about 5% of its stock at $111.33 a share, less than $1 above Thursday's close, with about 2% vesting on this commitment. Akamai also put capital spending tied to the deal at about $5.5 billion, including roughly $1.7 billion more this year, while leaving 2026 revenue guidance unchanged. The spending comes first and the revenue comes later.

Other movers

MGM Resorts fell 11% after Barry Diller's People Inc. withdrew its $48.30-a-share takeover proposal, CNBC reported. Oracle dropped 3.5% after a force majeure notice on its New Mexico data center (our story).

For borrowers

Freddie Mac's 30-year average rose to 7.03% from 6.95%, the first reading above 7% since January 2025 (Freddie Mac). That works out to about $21 a month more on a $400,000 loan ($2,669 against $2,648). August new home sales jumped 6.4% to a 684,000 annual rate, but the Census Bureau puts the margin of error at plus or minus 19.5%, so the jump may not be real. More: what it means for builders.

Sources: Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq.com, U.S. Treasury, CNBC, Akamai SEC filing, Freddie Mac, U.S. Census Bureau. After-hours prices as of about 4:37 p.m. ET. This is market information, not investment advice.