Markets opened on Monday,Feb. 23, with a reaction to new global tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7%, the S&P 500 fell 1% and the Nasdaq composite declined 1.1%.
Financials weighed on the benchmark, with American Express, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. stocks dropping. Software stocks extended losses, with cloud-monitoring platform Datadog falling 11.3%. Mortgage rates dropped below 6%, providing some relief to housing and refinancing activity.
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, the Nasdaq rose about 1% while the S&P 500 and the Dow gained more modestly. Markets rebounded, supported by a major semiconductor development.
Meta Platforms announced a $100 billion AI chip deal with AMD, lifting Nvidia shares 8.5% and boosting broader artificial intelligence sentiment. In currency markets, the dollar strengthened against the Yen and bitcoin recovered toward $65,000.
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address included an announcement of new national security tariffs on large-scale batteries and telecom equipment, with the 10% global tariffs officially taking effect at midnight.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq moved higher, while the Dow was more muted. Nvidia reported strong annual results, with fourth quarter revenue driven by roughly 75% year-over-year growth in its data center segment, underscoring continued AI infrastructure demand. Shares initially rose during after-hours trading as headline numbers beat expectations.
On Thursday, Feb. 26, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 declined, while the Dow was relatively flat. Nvidia reversed its gains, closing 5.5% amid concerns about AI valuations. Mortgage rates fell again, with the average 30-year fixed rate at 5.6%, the lowest level since September 2022. Treasury yields edged lower. In the media, Paramount won a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery assets after Netflix dropped out.
On Friday, Feb. 27, the major indexes were mixed to lower following fresh macroeconomic data. Core wholesale prices rose 0.8% in January, well above expectations, reinforcing sticky inflation concerns.
OpenAI closed a $110 billion funding round backed by Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, underscoring continued capital concentration in AI. UBS downgraded the U.S. equity market, citing valuation risk and earnings vulnerability.
Over the weekend, geopolitical tensions escalated after the U.S. and Israel conducted a strike against Iran. The markets reacted immediately, particularly in energy. Around 20% of global oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and the risk of disruption increased the price of crude oil to $85 per barrel as of March 5.
