Market Outlook

The Dow suffered its biggest weekly drop since mid-November, falling 1.3%.  One of the reasons for this week's drop in the market was NVDA, which despite reporting strong Q4 results, dropped significantly, signaling potential fatigue in the AI trade and skepticism over the longevity of high-cost, mega-cap capital expenditures.  Market weakness was further driven a hotter-than-expected PPI inflation report, which showed a 0.8% monthly gain, the biggest jump since July 2025, and a 3.6% core year-over-year increase, raising concerns about stubborn inflation and a more hawkish Fed.  President Trump announced that a decision had been made about Iran, hinting that military action was immiment.  That attack began a few hours later.  How will that affect oil and the energy sector next week? 

For the week ending February 20, 2026, the stock market was dominated by a major Supreme Court ruling on tariffs, continued anxiety over Artificial Intelligence (AI) sustainability, and high-stakes anticipation for upcoming Nvidia earnings.  Despite initial volatility, the major indexes closed higher, with the Nasdaq snapping a five-week losing streak.  But the biggest news of the week came on Friday as the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that tariffs imposed by President Trump on most U.S. trading partners in 2025 were illegal, deciding he exceeded his authority...

The stock market experienced a volatile week ending February 13, 2026, with major indices closing in negative territory, driven by intense fears of A.I. disruption, which impacted wealth management, trucking, and real estate.  And the defensive rotation continued as investors moved toward safety, with consumer staples, energy and utilities leading gains.  This flight to safety put major pressure on the big megacap stocks, with some of the Mag 7, like NVDA and AAPL suffering losses this week. 

The stock market experienced a highly volatile week ending, characterized by a massive AI-driven tech sell-off earlier in the week followed by a pretty dramatic rebound on Friday.  In fact, Friday's rally saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average close above the 50,000 level for the first time.  The strength in the Dow was driven by a rotation into defensive and cyclical sectors (such as the industrial, energy, and financial sectors) as investors shifted out of tech.

The stock market experienced a volatile week characterized by a mix of record-highs early in the week, a subsequent retreat, and a focus on the start of fourth-quarter earnings season.  We also had some geopolitical tensions as well as some policy-related volatility. While the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted slight weekly losses, small-cap stocks showed considerable strength.

The stock market rallied to record highs this week, with the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Russell 2000 leading the way higher more so than the Nasdaq, meaning this rally was driven by broad participation and not just the big tech stocks.  We also saw positive sentiment from a weaker-than-expected jobs report suggesting potential Fed rate cuts, and all of this comes ahead of the new earnings season kicking off this week with the big banks set to report.

The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow all posted losses as 2025 wound down, partly due to profit-taking and a bit of weakness in the tech names. Overall, 2025 was a strong year for the market, with the S&P finishing the year up 16%, the Nasdaq up 20%, and Dow up 13%.  Gold and silver rallied near the year’s end, with precious metals hitting highs before pulling back.

This past week, the stock market saw continued strength driven by AI enthusiasm (especially in chip stocks like Nvidia and AMD).  Market strength was also driven by potential Fed rate cut hopes from softer inflation numbers as reported by the CPI, and rising precious metals (especially silver). Metals related stocks and ETFs rose in sympathy.  FCX had a great week thanks to the rise in copper.  GDX also saw substantial gains due to the rise in gold. 

Last week in the stock market was marked by the resurgence of the AI trade, led by primarily by stocks like  Nvidia and Oracle.  Ther were some early-week jitters, but we had a strong finish late in the week, espoecially for tech stocks.  We also saw a big drop and recovery for Nike, Micron beat on earnings, we had cooler-than-expected CPI data boosting sentiment, and we got a bit of corporate drama with Warner Bros. rejecting Paramount's bid, while cannabis stocks reacted to a Schedule III reclassification, and tech M&A activity picked up with IBM aquiring Confluence. Also, gold and silver neared record highs, while Bitcoin remained volatile but within a range.

This past week in the stock market was defined by a tech pullback, especially in AI, following weak guidance from Broadcom and concerns over Oracle's cloud/AI spending, leading to profit-taking in big tech like Nvidia, though the Dow and small-caps showed strength, hitting new highs as investors rotated into value/cyclical stocks. Also, the Federal Reserve's gave us that widely expected interest rate cut.