Equities close with slight gains as tech shares recover

Equities close with slight gains as tech shares recover

By Chuck Mikolajczak and Purvi Agarwal

Tue February 17, 2026 6:24 AM

It was another extremely volatile day on the indexes with all three bouncing back and forth several times between deep red and modest black, the Dow losing some 330 points and the Nasdaq down some 300 in the morning. But all three eventually worked their way through all the nerves to close modestly in the black. The events were summed up by today’s expert, “There’s a lot of different [competing] trends going on in terms of where investors want to put money right now and you see that in this market where you just see spikes up and spikes down, on maybe not a daily basis, but on a regular basis.”  

There is certainly a vigorous tug-of-war going on for some time between beating down inflation and rate cuts that could well trigger more inflation. But the Fed seems agreed that we are at least on a consistent if slow downward trajectory on inflation and it that continues, there well could be more rate cuts.  But Fed official Mary Daly has cautioned that “the central bank must do a deep dive into the data” to determine monetary policy without triggering more inflation. The coveted PCE report is due this week, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. Volume at 17.76 billion was below the 20.7 billion average.  

DJ: 49,500.93  +48.95        NAS: 22,546.67  -50.48         S&P: 6,836.17  +3.41               2/13

DJ: 49,533.19  +32.26        NAS: 22,578.38  +31.71        S&P: 6,843.22  +7.05               2/17

Tue 2-17-26 5:20 pm Equities close with slight gains as tech shares recover | Reuters