Daily #109 stock chart answers — October 21, 2026

Six years of near-zero interest rates had starved Charles Schwab of the easy income it usually earned on idle client cash, and every false dawn on a Federal Reserve rate hike had sellers leaning on the shares again. This mid-December dip was the moment buyers stepped straight back in to front-run the rate cycle that finally arrived the following year.

Record summer petrol prices and a deepening credit crunch had the market dumping almost anything tied to the American shopper, even the warehouse clubs where strapped families were actually going to buy in bulk. Lehman Brothers was still a month from going under, and a stock that has since climbed +2027.4% was still getting dragged lower with the rest of retail.

Higher interest rates had turned the market against heavy capital spending just as Air Products was betting its future on giant clean-hydrogen projects. The long winter slide finally stalled out here, though investors spent the rest of the year questioning the price tag on that green transition.

With the vaccine rollout underway and money chasing the reopening trade, big drugmakers without a COVID jab were left sitting on the sidelines. Bristol-Myers Squibb spent that winter digesting its Celgene takeover while traders looked elsewhere for action.

After a bitter boardroom revolt brought John Mack back to the top job, Morgan Stanley was finally catching the wave of Wall Street's credit and dealmaking boom. Investors were buying the turnaround story with both hands, oblivious to the mortgage crisis building beneath the entire sector.