Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

• Home Depot and Lowe's are set to report earnings this week, with traders expecting sizable moves in the home improvement retailers' shares. 
• Both stocks have climbed to start the year, amid a broader rotation out of tech stocks in favor of consumer-focused companies.

Home Depot and Lowe's are set to report earnings this week, with traders anticipating sizable swings in the home improvement retailers' stocks following the results.

Home Depot is set to report earnings on Tuesday morning, with rival Lowe's following Wednesday. Current options pricing suggests traders expect Home Depot (HD) stock could move up to 4% in either direction by the end of the week, while Lowe's (LOW) could swing up to 5%.

For Home Depot, a shift of that size from Friday's close could lift the stock above $398, its highest level since last September, or drag the stock down to $366. For Lowe's, the move could mean setting a record high above $294 at the high end, or dropping as low as $266.

Both stocks have enjoyed a strong start to the year so far, with Home Depot gaining about 11% and Lowe's up 16% for 2026, amid a broader rotation out of tech stocks in favor of consumer-focused companies.

Results from Home Depot and Lowe's could provide insights into the health of the American consumer, and the housing market. In recent quarters, the retailers have said many Americans are holding back on large do-it-yourself projects, and both companies are looking to professional contractors for growth.

UBS analysts recently wrote that they will be looking to comments from executives on the outlook for the home improvement market. The analysts said they see tax refunds, declining mortgage rates, and the Trump administration's proposals on housing affordability as likely tailwinds for the sector this year.

Home Depot is expected to report adjusted earnings per share of $2.53 on a 4% year-over-year drop in revenue to $38.15 billion for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Lowe's is projected to post adjusted EPS of $1.93 on a 10% jump in revenue to $20.37 billion.

Analysts tracked by Visible Alpha are largely bullish on both stocks, with a majority recommending buying the shares. The consensus price target of $418 for Home Depot would suggest about 9% upside, while the mean target for Lowe's at $289 would imply a roughly 3% rise from Friday's level.

Earnings from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, and President Donald Trump's State of the Union address take center stage this week.

Quarterly reports from chipmaking powerhouse Nvidia have been a key driver of the AI trade. Other key firms are on the earnings calendar, with reports scheduled for tech firms Salesforce and Dell, hardware retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s, and a slate of Canadian banks.

Trump's comments will come after the Supreme Court last week struck down a key part of his tariff policies and economic growth showed signs of slowing. Several Fed speakers are lined up, potentially highlighting the division in the central bank over the future path of interest rates.

Read to the bottom for our calendar of key events—and one more thing.

After setting an upbeat tone for the AI trade with its last report, Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday come as investors continue to raise worries about Big Tech spending. CEO Jensen Huang could speak to the “through the roof” demand for the firm’s AI-specialized chips and provide updates on Nvidia’s access to China. 

Media firms Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery are reporting amid ongoing takeover drama. Warner Bros. Discovery said it was reopening its consideration of a takeover offer from Paramount after it had previously said it would accept the bid from streaming giant Netflix. 

Home improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s are reporting as a housing market slump has hurt sales at the hardware sellers. Traders will also be looking for updates from tech firms Snowflake, CoreWeave, Workday, Dell, and HP.

Berkshire Hathaway’s report on Saturday is the first since Warren Buffett retired from the firm, handing the reins to new CEO Greg Abel.

President Trump's annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday comes on the heels of his administration's loss in a court challenge over his tariff policies. Trump could use the speech to further lay out his response to the decision, as well as discuss other key economic policies, including housing market reforms and tax policies.

With questions remaining about the path of interest rates amid softening inflation trends and robust labor market data, comments this week from Fed Governor Christopher Waller could provide more insight from an advocate of steeper reductions in borrowing costs. Other Federal Reserve officials are also on the speaking calendar.

The S&P Case-Shiller home price index is on deck as high prices contribute to affordability pressures in the housing market. Wholesale inflation data on Friday follows recent consumer inflation reports that showed price pressures easing more than economists anticipated.

Quick Links: Recap Last Week’s Trading | Read Investopedia’s Latest News

Monday, Feb. 23

• Factory orders (December)
• Federal Reserve Officials Speaking: Fed Governor Christopher Waller
• Key Earnings: Dominion Energy (D), Oneok (OKE)

Tuesday, Feb. 24

• President Donald Trump delivers State of the Union address
• More Data to Watch: S&P Case-Shiller home price index (December), Wholesale inventories (December), Consumer confidence (February)
• Federal Reserve Officials Speaking: Fed Governor Lisa Cook, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Boston Fed President Susan Collins, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic
• Key Earnings: Home Depot (HD), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), American Tower (AMT), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Workday (WDAY), HP (HPQ)

Wednesday, Feb. 25

• Key Earnings: Nvidia (NVDA), TJX (TJX), Salesforce (CRM), Lowe’s (LOW), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Synopsys (SNPS), Medline (MDLN), Snowflake (SNOW), Agilent Technologies (A), Paramount Skydance (PSKY)

Thursday, Feb. 26

• Initial jobless claims (Week ended Feb. 21)
• Federal Reserve Officials Speaking: Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman
• Key Earnings: Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Toronto Dominion (TD), Intuit (INTU), Canadian Imperial Bank (CM), Dell (DELL), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Baidu (BIDU), CoreWeave (CRWV)
  

Friday, Feb. 27

• Producer price index (January)
• More Data to Watch: Construction spending (December, November), Chicago Business Barometer (February)

Saturday, Feb. 28

• Key Earnings: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B)

Are you in danger of losing your job to AI? It could depend on where you live. Investopedia’s Trina Paul has more on which workers are best positioned to adapt to AI-related job displacement.

• Shares of Pinterest, Meta, Google parent Alphabet and other companies that sell ads saw their stocks rise Friday after a Supreme Court ruling against President Trump's tariffs.
• Digital advertisers could stand to benefit from easing tariffs, if clients choose to channel refunds into higher ad spend, marketing research firm EMARKETER said.

Companies that sell advertising were among Friday's gainers after the Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The gains helped both Big Tech stocks and some smaller players. Shares of Pinterest (PINS) jumped 6%. Shares of Snap (SNAP), social media giant Meta Platforms (META) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), which derive the bulk of their revenues from ad spending, also rose; Alphabet's 4% climb set it among the day's best performers on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. 

Digital advertisers could stand to benefit from easing tariffs, according to marketing research firm EMARKETER. Some clients could channel refunds into higher ad spending, the company said. Trump later Friday said he would impose a 10% global tariff, signaling the likelihood of further uncertainty around trade policy in 2026. 

Shifts in trade policy such as changes in tariffs can affect companies across a wide range of industries, including providers of digital services, as customers and partners react to the changes.

With Friday’s move higher, Pinterest shares recovered some of their losses seen over the past week. The company said its retail clients pulled back on ad spending as they grappled with higher costs from tariffs.

Snapchat owner Snap has also seen its stock lose ground in recent months amid some weakness in ad spending by large clients in North America. Both stocks have lost roughly half their value over the past 12 months.

Meta and Alphabet, which recently reported surging ad sales, haven’t seen the same squeeze. Executives at Pinterest blamed the company’s higher mix of large retailers relative to its peers. Analysts at Bank of America suggested Pinterest also likely lost some of its market share to larger rivals.

Some of them, such as Meta, have positioned their investments in AI-enhanced ad offerings as part of their strategy to weather tariff-related headwinds, with some signs of success.

Read Investopedia's full coverage of Friday's trading here.

• President Donald Trump said he is imposing new tariffs to replace the ones the Supreme Court struck down Friday, starting with a 15% global tariff.
• Tariffs on specific countries and products will require his administration to carry out investigations.

When the Supreme Court struck down the majority of President Donald Trump's tariffs Friday, he lost little time revealing his backup plan: imposing more tariffs under different legal mechanisms from the one the high court ruled against.

The new tariff regime will begin with a global 15% tariff on all countries, Trump said in a social media post Saturday, up from a 10% hike announced Friday. The new import tax is similar to the 10% baseline reciprocal tariff he imposed on Liberation Day in April. However, it doesn't rely on powers granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the court ruled did not allow the president to impose tariffs.

Trump said Friday he was using Section 122 of the Trade Expansion Act, which gives the president authority to impose tariffs to address trade imbalances for up to 150 days.

In addition, he said his administration was starting Section 301 investigations against several other countries. That provision allows the White House to impose tariffs in retaliation for unfair trade practices, but only after completing an investigation.

The Supreme Court's ruling and Trump's vow to impose more tariffs introduce a fresh dose of uncertainty into an economy where it was already difficult for businesses to predict trade policy.

Trump's swift tariff action signaled his determination to continue using his preferred economic and foreign policy tool. But it also highlighted the limitations of his remaining tariff powers, since he can no longer use IEEPA.

Investigations under Section 301 can take months to complete. That's in contrast to Trump's freewheeling use of emergency tariff powers. Over the past year, Trump has frequently announced and then changed tariffs on social media posts and also used threats of tariffs as a negotiating tool.

"The administration retains the ability to re‑impose tariffs, but nothing grants the President the same broad power with immediate effect as IEEPA would have," economists at Wells Fargo Securities said in a commentary.

The immediate result of the ruling is to lower the effective tariff rate paid by Americans. Wells Fargo estimated the overall tariff rate fell to 13% Friday from 16% before the action. Trump said he intends to raise tariffs back to their former level, if not higher.

"We have alternatives," Trump said in a press conference Friday. "Great alternatives. Could be more money. We'll take in more money, and we'll be a lot stronger for it."

UPDATE—Feb. 21, 2026: This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect more recent developments.

• Inflation rose to 3% in December, prompting the Federal Reserve to pause further interest rate cuts.
• Fourth-quarter GDP growth slowed to 1.4%, significantly below the 2.8% consensus estimate, due to the government shutdown.
• Analysts expect inflation to decline in 2026, supported by softening rental prices and fading tariff pressures.

An uptick in inflation in December validates the Federal Reserve’s pause in cutting interest rates, analysts say, even though economic growth data at year-end looked disappointing.

Fed officials received two varying stories of the economy in Friday’s data releases. One pointed to weakening: Real GDP grew by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, dragged down by a weeks-long government shutdown. Growth was sharply below consensus estimates of 2.5%.

The other pointed to hotter trends. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose to 3% year-over-year in December, up from 2.8% in November. The reading suggests progress toward the central bank’s goal of 2% may be stalled.

“The higher inflation reading justifies the Fed moving to the sidelines and holding the policy rate steady for a while longer,” wrote Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide.

Not that the Fed may stay there forever. Bostjancic expects inflation to keep marching back down in the months ahead, since rental prices are softening and tariff-driven inflation is fading. That could open the door for two rate cuts by year-end, Bostjancic wrote. 

Sticky inflation could delay further rate cuts, affecting borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. At the same time, slowing growth raises questions about how long the Fed can stay on hold.

The Fed lowered interest rates three times in 2025, bringing its benchmark rate down to 3.5% to 3.75%. But some officials at the Fed are wary of cutting rates again until inflation is back to target.

“Looking ahead, I anticipate we’ll see progress on inflation this year,” Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, one of the Fed’s more hawkish members, said this month. “But I am not yet fully confident inflation is heading all the way back to 2%.”

The Fed tends to cut interest rates when the economy is softening—much as it did last year when job growth was stalling. But many analysts anticipate sunnier prospects for the economy in 2026.

“The core of the economy is resilient,” wrote Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “With tariff pressures fading and tax cuts beginning to fuel an increase in capital spending, the economy will gather momentum in 2026.”

Consumer spending rose at a solid pace that’s “not indicative of a slowing economy,” wrote Richard de Chazal, macro analyst at William Blair. Stronger business investment in equipment is also a sign of an “unfolding capex boom,” de Chazal wrote, as companies step up their capital expenditures.

“From the Fed’s perspective, it will likely look through the noise from the shutdown, and see few signs of economic deterioration that would necessitate further rate cuts for the time being,” he wrote.

Others are a bit less optimistic. When excluding the shutdown impact, the economy’s momentum was solid but is also “likely to wane” this year, wrote Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Technology expenses continue to boost business investment, he wrote, pointing to an “ongoing divergence between tech-related sectors and the rest.” Residential investment fell by 1.5%, he added, marking the sixth consecutive drop in the last seven quarters.

The rise in consumer spending is also “over-reliant on consumers saving less,” he added, rather than large wage increases driving up expenditures.

“Bumper tax refunds will lift consumption briefly this spring, but by mid-year it will be clear that spending has slowed amid still-weak employment growth and slower wage gains,” Tombs wrote.

That should help prompt a resumption in the Fed’s rate cuts, he said, even as officials “will continue to wait for further signs" of inflation returning to 2% before easing policy again.

• Corning stock rose to a record high on Friday, pacing the S&P 500 with a 6% gain.
• Corning shares have soared in the past year amid surging demand for fiber optic cables in data centers.
• The stock achieved its first record high since 2000 earlier this year.

Shares of glass maker Corning (GLW) soared to a record high on Friday, as the supplier of a key component in data center networking equipment continued to ride a wave of AI enthusiasm. 

Shares of Corning rose above $140 for the first time ever on Friday. The stock was recently up more than 6%, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 in afternoon trading and bringing its year-to-date return to nearly 60%.

The data center boom has benefited a variety of businesses providing equipment and services that facilitate the training and deployment of artificial intelligence. Corning is just one of several surprise beneficiaries, including data storage device makers and electric utilities, of the hundreds of billions being spent on AI.

The glass maker’s stock has soared in the past year amid booming demand for its fiber-optic cables. The company last month announced a $6 billion deal with Meta to supply the social media giant with cables for its network of data centers. The glass in fiber optic cables allows data to be transmitted more quickly and efficiently than alternatives like copper, making it an essential component of the AI boom.

Meta (META) and the other hyperscalers—Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Oracle (ORCL)—are expected to spend more than $600 billion on infrastructure this year, with much of it going toward equipment to fill AI-enabling data centers. That spending has been a boon to all kinds of companies designing and manufacturing that equipment, including chip companies, networking equipment makers, and power suppliers. Lately, memory chip and data storage device makers have been the biggest beneficiaries of booming demand and short supply.

Corning’s stock this year has finally overtaken its previous record high set back in 2000 when telecommunications companies spent huge sums to build out internet infrastructure. Then as now, fiber optic cables were in hot demand in the late 1990s. Corning stock rose to a record high of about $113 in September 2000. Then the Dotcom Bubble burst and a little over a year later shares had lost nearly all of their value, trading below $2 in 2002.

• Shares of alternative asset managers have taken a hit amid mounting concerns of a private credit crisis.
• Mohamed El-Erian, former chief of bond firm Pimco, wondered whether Blue Owl was a private credit "canary in the coalmine."

A private credit fund is triggering visions of cockroaches and canaries in coal mines in some investors' minds.

Alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital (OWL) earlier this week said that investors in one of its funds—private credit funds are generally built around loans held outside banks —would have to wait to get their money back as it sells portions of its loan book. That raised concerns that there were bigger issues brewing in the U.S. credit market.

Those concerns manifested in part as downward moves in the shares of some asset managers and related products. Shares of the Vaneck Alternative Asset Manager ETF (GPZ), which tracks an index of private asset specialists Brookfield Group (BN), Blackstone (BX), KKR (KKR), Apollo Global Management (APO), and Ares Management (ARES), have fallen more than 3% this week. Blue Owl is down almost 12%.

The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 started with the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market. That private credit is being compared to that meltdown is fueling fears that its problems could eventually take down global stock and credit markets

Blue Owl Capital said its move to "opportunistically" sell some $1.4 billion of its lending investments would allow the fund to "provide substantial liquidity" to shareholders.

Blue Owl is one of the U.S.'s largest managers of business development companies, or BDCs, which raise money from public investors, lend it to companies, and distribute some of the income from interest payments as dividends. It has become the center of a panic around private credit markets this week after it effectively halted customer redemptions from one of its funds.

Investors have in recent years flocked to private credit markets, and funds like Blue Owl's, for the higher returns offered relative to the rest of the bond market. That growth, combined with the risks associated with the sector—murky lending standards, a lack of liquidity, and significant leverage—could lead to a broader financial crisis, according to some market experts.

"Is this a 'canary-in the-coalmine' moment, similar to August 2007?'" veteran bond investor Mohamed El-Erian said in a social media post on Thursday, referencing the Blue Owl Capital fund. El-Erian said the systemic risk posed by private credit was "nowhere near the magnitude" of subprime—the starting domino of yesteryear's financial crisis—but also that a substantial "valuation hit" to certain assets was looming.

Others, including Jeff Gundlach, founder and chief of bond firm DoubleLine Capital, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon have warned that the once-booming sector was showing cracks. Bankruptcies at specialized lenders Tricolor Holdings and First Brands Group last year indicated other potential defaults, Dimon said then, comparing them to "cockroaches."

Gundlach last month pointed to BlackRock TCP Capital's slashing its net asset value by almost 20% as another sign of stress. "New Year, new bad developments in private credit," he wrote on social media in January.

What's next? Blue Owl Capital's latest moves could be a one-off—a cautionary tale for retail investors interested in investing in semiliquid private-market funds— or a sign of things to come.

• The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that President Donald Trump lacked authority under IEEPA to impose many tariffs, potentially putting more than $160 billion in collections in question.
• The decision leaves unresolved whether businesses will receive refunds, with economists warning the repayment process could be complex and uneven, especially for small firms.
• While the ruling could lower long-term costs for consumers, Trump signaled he may reimpose tariffs using a different legal authority.

Billions of dollars in refunds may be returned to businesses after the Supreme Court struck down a portion of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not give Trump the power to issue many of the tariffs he had imposed last year. Tariffs based on IEEPA authority represent about three-fourths of the revenue collected from Trump’s tariff policies, The Tax Foundation calculated.

Tariffs act like a tax on imports, often raising costs for businesses and consumers. Friday's ruling could moderate price increases, but it also creates uncertainty for trade policy, federal revenue, and future market expectations.

“The justices left the door open for refunds. However, that will likely be litigated,” wrote KPMG Chief Economist Diane Swonk. “The logistics of refunds are expected to be a nightmare and require an enormous amount of documentation.”

While the Supreme Court ruled that Trump didn’t have the authority to collect the tariffs, it didn’t say whether the government had to give refunds. 

“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a dissent. “But that process is likely to be a ‘mess,’ as was acknowledged at oral argument.”

U.S. customs officials have estimated that through Dec. 14, the government collected $133.5 billion in tariffs under the IEEPA. Collections continued through this year, making that total even higher.

The Tax Foundation estimates tariff collections exceed $160 billion, while economists at the Penn-Wharton Budget Model told Reuters that collections could more than $175 billion. Who gets these refunds could depend on businesses' ability to claw back the funds.

“Small firms are not likely to fare as well as large firms due to the paperwork, time and potential for additional legal challenges by the administration on refunds,” Swonk wrote.

But it's not certain that all of the revenue collected from the IEEPA tariffs would be refunded, wrote Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic, who estimated that total refunds could amount to around $70 billion.

“The messy part will be for the lower courts to decide how the refunds for importers will be calculated and distributed,” Bostjancic wrote.

The court ruling could save consumers in the long run. Collections from Trump’s tariff were estimated to cost U.S. households around $1,300 a year in 2026, The Tax Foundation reported. 

However, on Friday afternoon, Trump said he would sign an executive order to impose tariffs under a different law.

• Wedbush analysts believe Netflix will be fine even if its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery doesn't go through.
• The analysts believe the streaming giant's business is "entirely healthy on its own."

If Netflix can't land WBD, it's NBD.

That notion—that streaming-video giant Netflix (NFLX) will be just fine if its planned multibillion-dollar merger with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) doesn't go through—is the opinion of analysts at Wedbush, who on Friday reiterated their bullish rating and $115 price target on Netflix shares. That target, which is nearly 50% above Netflix's current stock price, is around the Street average, according to Visible Alpha.

Wedbush's report landed at the close of a week in which the deal, announced in December, embarked down the latest leg of its winding road. Warner Bros. reopened talks with alternative (and at times hostile) suitor Paramount Skydance (PSKY), injecting fresh uncertainty, and the possibility of another round of competing bids, into the process.

Netflix may need to pay more than it expected for Warner Bros. Discover after the latter company reopened talks with Paramount Skydance. But some analysts believe Netflix could just as well move on from the deal.

Meanwhile, investors continue to grapple with the question of whether Netflix's bid would ultimately face insurmountable regulatory hurdles.

But even if it doesn't, Wedbush wrote, Netflix "does not need this deal. ... Its business is entirely healthy on its own, with a burgeoning global advertising business."

Netflix last month reported financial results that included nearly 18% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter, as well as widening operating margins. The company told investors to expect 15% sales growth in the current quarter.

Shares of Netflix, down more than 20% over the past 12 months, were recently up more than 1%. (Read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here.) Warner Bros. shares were edging higher Friday afternoon, while Paramount's were down about 1%.

• Friday morning's ruling by the Supreme Court on a big part of the Trump administration's tariff policy lifted stocks of companies seen as pressured by them.
• That meant increases for a range of consumer discretionary shares, among others.

Bye-bye, tariffs—and buy, buy stocks that were pressured by them.

Shares of a range of consumer-oriented companies rose Friday following the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down many of the Trump administration's tariffs. While the path forward for the administration, the import taxes and related policy remains uncertain, in the immediate term investors are bidding some shares higher.

Investors got some measure of tariff relief on Friday after the court ruling, with some shares—consumer-focused and otherwise—rising in the wake of the decision. The longer-term outlook is less clear.

The S&P 500's consumer discretionary sector was recently up nearly 1%. Companies including Amazon.com (AMZN), Tapestry (TPR) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) were all rising. (Read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here.)

"The market read is straightforward: tariff-sensitive equities breathe easier," Siebert Financial CIO Mark Malek said in written comments. But looking forward, he added, "the tariffs may be gone today, but the incentive for them absolutely is not."

The industrials sector also rose, lifted by stocks including HVAC company Comfort Systems (FIX) and GE Aerospace (GE). Jeep owner Stellantis (STLA), meanwhile, was up some 3%.

Markets wavered Friday, with Big Tech stocks climbing, as investors digested cooler-than-expected economic growth data and a warmer-than-expected inflation reading.

Some market watchers said the tariff ruling might increase the chance of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve because lower tariffs would ease inflationary pressures.