New York, April 27, 2026, 11:04 EDT
- VTI dipped out of the gate before steadying, with investors juggling mega-cap tech earnings and ongoing oil-market jitters.
- This week’s big tech earnings are set to put the AI-driven rally—responsible for attracting capital to broad U.S. equity ETFs—to the test.
- The biggest external threat to stocks, inflation, and fuel prices is still disruption in the Strait of Hormuz tied to Iran.
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF slipped at the open on Monday before ticking up, trading at $352.17, up 12 cents. AI-fueled earnings optimism was bumping up against fresh oil-market jitters linked to Iran, leaving the broad U.S. stock-market fund in a tight spot. VTI started the session at $352.00 and briefly dropped to $351.41.
VTI slipped 0.014% at the open Monday, TipRanks reported, with traders bracing for key tech earnings and digesting fresh uncertainty from stalled U.S.-Iran talks over the weekend. Despite the dip, the fund remains up 0.59% for the past five days, according to the report.
This isn’t some niche play—VTI is an exchange-traded fund designed to move with the bigger U.S. market. TipRanks puts its holdings at 3,473 stocks, with $614.88 billion in assets. Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet sit at the top of the portfolio.
Timing isn’t great here. Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon are all set to report this week, Reuters Editor-at-Large Mike Dolan pointed out. In the next few days, companies accounting for roughly 44% of the S&P 500’s total value will be posting results. That leaves the AI-fueled rally—and heavyweight tech exposure in funds like VTI—squarely exposed.
The peer tape told a mixed story. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF barely budged, closing at $656.36. Shares of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust slipped to $713.87. Invesco QQQ Trust, which has a bigger tech tilt, dropped $1.21 to $662.67 as of the last trades.
Large-cap U.S. equities remain in demand, judging by flows. TipRanks reports the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF climbed 0.75% this week, pulling in $6.3 billion in net inflows—new cash in, even after withdrawals. That pace got a boost from bullish sentiment tied to Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft.
Moomoo flagged VTI’s 0.7% drop in a note tied to an earlier Tuesday session, with the ETF slipping to $347.84 during what the platform called a lackluster day for U.S. stocks. But Monday’s most recent data told a different story—a less dramatic, more uneven session, not a rerun of that previous fall.
Oil remains the wild card. Goldman Sachs bumped its Brent crude forecast for the fourth quarter to $90 a barrel, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate now seen at $83. The bank flagged reduced Middle East supply and sluggish export recovery through the Strait of Hormuz as reasons behind the upward revision. “The economic risks are larger,” Goldman analysts led by Daan Struyven wrote, pointing to pricier oil, thinning refined-product inventories, and the magnitude of the supply shock. Reuters
Equity investors aren’t left with much room to maneuver. If the biggest tech names post solid earnings, that might prop up the market-cap weighted funds where those stocks dominate. Still, rising energy prices stoke inflation, tighten the screws on consumer spending, and muddy the Fed’s next moves.
The real danger? Both narratives souring simultaneously. Say tech giants flag rising expenses with little payoff soon, and oil stays pricey thanks to Hormuz tensions—then passive giants like VTI, which track almost the entire U.S. market, would be hard-pressed to find any safe spots.
