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Happy Wednesday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Feb. 18, 2026. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog.
Update: 4:00 p.m. ET
Closing Bell
The U.S. markets are now closed. Despite a strong start to the trading day, which came on the back of news that Meta Platforms would purchase millions of NvidiaAI chips for its data center buildout, U.S. equities finished out the day with modest gains. Still, a gain is a gain.
The Nasdaq (+0.78%) was chief among major indexes, trailed by the S&P 500(+0.56%), Russell 2000 (+0.45%), and Dow (+0.26%).
Among S&P 500 sectors, three declined today: utilities (-1.7%), real estate (-1.32%), and staples (-0.15%). All other sectors rose, led higher by energy (+1.89%) and technology (+1.08%).
Update: 3:42 p.m. ET
Coming Up: P.M. Earnings
After the closing bell, earnings from Booking Holdings, CRH Plc, and Carvana will round out a hefty day of Wednesday reports. Here’s the full slate:
Update: 2:06 p.m. ET
FOMC Minutes Reveal Split on Rate Trajectory
FOMC Minutes are just out, revealing a small schism among Fed officials at the January meeting, where rates were held at their current target range of 3.50% to 3.75%.
The minutes suggested that most members agreed on the decision to hold rates for a period of time to assess data. However, the path forward was more split; various members indicated that rates could be cut in the event that inflation were to decline. Others indicated that rates could be raised if inflation continued to prove inconvenient to regular business.
Labor data remains an important element in decision-making as well, but FOMC Minutes indicated that the balance of the labor market and inflation were more equal, a factor which has only been furthered by January’s small decline in the unemployment rate.
Update: 1:50 p.m. ET
Midday Update
Markets are much more decisive today than they were yesterday. 60.8% (3,378) issues are advancing against 36% (2,000) that are declining, while all major U.S. benchmarks are up.
Speaking of which, that brings us to our Midday Movers list, where we capture a glimpse of the top and bottom 20 stocks on U.S. markets today. With the markets skewed to the upside today, the winners are showing out extra strong:
Winners
Losers
Update: 10:00 a.m. ET
Opening Bell
The U.S. market is now opened. U.S. equities are rising this morning after Meta announced it would expand the scope of its partnership with Nvidia, committing to use even more AI chips in its data center projects.
The positive AI news has helped float equity benchmarks this morning. 30 minutes into trading, the Russell 2000 (+1.15%) and Nasdaq (+1.07%) are leading the way. The S&P 500 (+0.74%) and Dow (+0.52%) aren’t far behind.
In Focus: S&P 500
Among S&P 500 sectors, tech is among the six in the green, up 0.37%. The leaders are energy (+1.24%), financials (+0.94%), and discretionary (+0.73%).
Positive Data Lifts Markets
As mentioned in our A.M. Update, this morning saw a swath of big economic reports. Chief among them were housing-related reports like Building Permits (Prelim) and Housing Starts, plus Durable Goods Orders and Capacity Utilization. Most of these reports arrived at or exceeding expectations. At least some of that optimism might be reflected in the 10Y Treasury, which is 2.9 bips higher at 4.083% as a result.
Situation Monitors Are on Iran Watch
In recent weeks, hundreds of U.S. assets (planes, air craft carriers, fighter jets, etc.) have been mobilized to Europe, appearing to stage for an armed conflict with Iran. Unlike the Venezuela operation, which involved moving on the country and nabbing the leader while leaving the government apparatus in place, reports claim that an incursion in the region would be more long-lasting.
The revelation has pushed up commodities, with continuous contracts in Crude Oil (+3.03% to $64.22) jumping above $60. Gold (+2.37% to $5,022.40) and Silver (+6.09% to $78.015) have also risen on the geopolitical jitters.
Update: 8:31 a.m. ET
A.M. Update
Good morning.
Here is today’s slate of economic data and earnings:
A.M. Earnings: Analog Devices, Moody’s, Imperial Oil
Here are this morning’s earnings, which include big reports from Analog Devices, Moody’s Corp, and Imperial Oil.
Economic Data: Housing Data, Durable Goods, Industrial Production
Today will be the lightest of the remaining economic data slate this week, but we’ve already got most of it out of the way this morning in the form of older housing reports, December durable goods data, and more recent industrial production readouts.
The good news is that most of that data is positive; housing starts and preliminary permit data rose year-over-year in December, ending the year on strong footing after a cooler October and November report. In December, starts and permits were 1.322 million (+3.9% month-over-month) and 1.448 million (+4.3% MoM), respectively.
At the same, Durable Goods Orders came in stronger than expected, declining only 1.4% MoM in December, versus estimates of 2%. That was also a significant improvement from the 5% MoM decline in November, which coincided with the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Here is the full slate of data, plus what’s left for the rest of the day (namely, FOMC Minutes and Net Long-term TIC Flows, among other things):
