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Happy Monday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Feb. 23, 2026. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog
Update: 4:00 p.m. ET
Market Close
The U.S. markets have shut for the day. It was a rough day for stocks, which saw hefty declines on a mix of tariff and AI-related worries.
For tariffs, a new 15% tariff was cause for concern among investors. In AI land, a report from Citrini Research was to blame for tumult in markets.
The Dow (-1.66%) was worst off among major indexes, while the Russell 2000 (-1.55%) was seen settling in around a one and a half percent decline.
The Nasdaq (-1.13%) and S&P 500(-1.04%) fell by about one percent a piece. Among S&P sectors, dramatic declines in financials (-3.27%), discretionary (-2.36%) and technology (-1.78%) were largely to blame for the angst in the best-off index today.
In Focus: S&P 500
Here is how the S&P 500 heat map finished out the day:
The COBOL Concerns
While we were exclaiming the ridiculousness of how the market was receiving the weekend Citrini Research report, Anthropic struck yet again. In a new tweet, the AI company announced COBOL capabilities, taking an axe to IBM(-13.15%) and Accenture (-6.58%) stocks. For the former, it was the worst day since Oct. 2000. Those Dot-com echoes keep bubbling up.
Update: 2:41 p.m. ET
Anthropic Strikes Again, This Time with COBOL Tool
New product announcements from AI company Anthropic have done a number on various pockets of the market in recent days. They’re back today with a new announcement, which is having an impact on shares of Accenture and IBM.
The company announced Monday that it created a new tool which can intermediate with COBOL, a coding language that few software engineers want to learn nowadays, but remains instrumental in upkeeping critical infrastructure such as payments and government applications.
The company’s new AI promises to modernize existing COBOL applications, threatening firms which specialize in the dated coding language and its design architecture.
$IBM fell 11%. $ACN fell 7%.
Update: 1:38 p.m. ET
Citrini Report Moves Markets
A report from Citrini Research has, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, played a role in today’s stock market decline. Namely, among software, payment, and delivery giants. In TheStreet Daily, we dig into that big move:
Update: 12:03 p.m. ET
Midday Update
Investors are already spiraling this trading week, pushing down equities amid tariff worries.
The Russell 2000 (-2.07%) is off more than two percent, while the Dow (-1.55%), Nasdaq (-1.17%), and S&P 500 (-1.08%) are also seeing heftier declines.
The Cboe Volatility Index is up 11%, adding to an unreal start to the year. The $VIX is up 40% year-to-date, starting the year in a similar fashion to how it kicked off 2022 (that year, the S&P 500 fell by over 18%).
PayPal Pops on M&A Interest
After a rough earnings report, PayPal stock collapsed, putting it down 23% year-to-date. That adds to a years-long decline which has seen the fintech phenom lose nearly 83% of its value. That’s now stirring up talk on the bidding block, with the $41 billion company jumping over 10% and being halted for volatility today.
Midday Movers
That said, let’s turn our attention to today’s Midday Movers, where we aim to identify the most pressing stories in markets by looking at its top and bottom stocks:
Winners
Losers
Update: 9:46 a.m. ET
Opening Bell
The U.S. stock market is now open for the week. A few minutes into the trading day, stocks are markedly lower, declining as investors digest new tariff uncertainty.
As aforementioned in our brief A.M. update, President Donald Trump announced a new 10% global tariff on Friday. This weekend, he bumped that figure up to 15% given frustration with the Supreme Court’s determination on his use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs. (More on tariffs below).
As a result, U.S. equities are declining this morning given the new confusion. The Dow (-0.52%) is worst-situated this morning, down 227.8 points out of the gate. The Russell 2000 (-0.35%) and Nasdaq (-0.32%) are kindred spirits, trading in close succession.
In total, over 55% of U.S. issues are declining this morning against 40% which are advancing; that’s a rough start to the trading week.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (-0.21%) is in the best shape, despite a modest increase in the Cboe Volatility Index (+3%) this morning.
In Focus: S&P 500
Despite the shoddy start to the day, only five S&P 500 sectors are in the red this morning.
Leading the pack are utilities (+1.05%), energy (+1.01%), and health care (+1.01%).
Facing declines are discretionary (-1.06%), tech (-0.39%), and financials (-0.30%).
Investors could warm up to the S&P 500 as the morning progresses, but for the moment, the losses appear to be steepening.
Uh Oh, Novo
Aside from the tariffs, arguably the biggest story out this morning is fresh data from Novo Nordisk, which is down 15% after its new weight loss drug CagriSema disappointed in its REDEFINE 4 trial.
The stock hit its lowest level since Jun. 2021 after CagriSema patients lost 23% of their body weight after 84 weeks, failing to demonstrate “non-inferiority on weight loss” when compared with competitor Zepbound by Eli Lilly, which saw patients lose 25.5 of their body weight.
Eli Lilly rose 3% on the news.
Return of Tariff Talk
President Donald Trump’s new 15% tariff for 150 days might read like a new, unsettling chapter in the tariff tumult. Despite the reaction today, there’s still positive news for companies (and their investors).
With prior rates upwards of 20%, the new temporary tariffs are likely to bolster even optimistic outlooks for companies affected by the ever-changing import costs. And even better for those firms, tariffs will likely stand significant obstacles to permanent implementation by Congress as the midterm cycle kicks up.
While the President holds that he should have the ability to skip Congress and impose tariffs himself, the disagreement of six of the nine Justices on the court has produced even more questions about the going concern of Trump’s prevailing economic policy.
While some national security-related tariffs were kept intact by the courts, the legitimacy of any new tariff policy is likely to be carefully watched by industry hawks after the administration’s courtroom defeat.
We’ll probably hear more about it tomorrow at the annual State of the Union address.
Update: 8:32 a.m. ET
A.M. Update
Good morning.
The stock market is slated to open slightly lower today after a memorable Friday of trading, which saw U.S. stocks rise after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency power tariffs. A 10% tariff was followed this weekend with a new, upsized 15% tariff on all global goods.
In addition, investors are marinating on a tepid open for U.S. tech stocks, which has been tied to an AI-related report published by Citrini Research. (More on that later).
Here is today’s earnings and data to know about:
Earnings Today
Here are the top earnings reports today, sorted by market cap.
Data Today
It’s set to be a light day for economic data. Here are today’s biggest reports:
