Global Markets: U.S. Major Indices Close Mixed; Nasdaq Falls Over 1%, Nvidia Drops More Than 5%

U.S. Stock Market: The three major indices closed mixed on February 26. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.05 points to 49,499.2, up 0.03%; the S&P 500 fell 37.27 points to 6,908.86, down 0.54%; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 273.7 points to 22,878.38, down 1.18%.

Most large tech stocks declined, with Nvidia dropping over 5%, its largest single-day decline since April 16 last year; AMD and Intel fell more than 3%; Tesla declined over 2%; Google and Amazon fell over 1%; Apple slightly decreased; Netflix rose over 2%; Microsoft and Meta saw slight gains.

In earnings reports, Dell Technologies’ fiscal Q4 revenue totaled $33.38 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $31.74 billion; Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue was $19.6 billion; AI server shipments in Q4 reached $9.5 billion, above the expected $9.44 billion; AI order backlog was $43 billion, with $34.1 billion in AI orders; revenue from AI-optimized servers in Q4 was $9 billion. The company increased its annual stock dividend by 20% and expanded share repurchases by $10 billion. Dell rose 10% after hours. CoreWeave’s Q4 revenue was $1.57 billion, slightly above the expected $1.55 billion; adjusted EBITDA was $898 million, below the expected $936 million; EBITDA margin was 57%, below the expected 60.5%; adjusted operating profit was $88 million, below the expected $142 million. After hours, CoreWeave fell 5%. MP Q4 revenue was $52.69 million, down 14% year-over-year; net profit was $9.43 million. For the full year 2025, revenue is expected to grow 10% to $224.4 million. MP declined 3% after hours.

The U.S. quantum computing sector mostly rose, with IonQ up over 21%, Rigetti up over 5%, Arqit Quantum up over 3%, SEALSQ and D-Wave Quantum up over 2%. The optical communications sector mostly declined, with Corning, Coherent, and Lumentum dropping over 6%.

Most popular Chinese concept stocks declined, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index down 1.78%. TSMC fell 2.82%, Alibaba down 2.78%, Baidu down 5.65%, Pinduoduo down 1.41%, Ctrip down 2.59%, JD.com down 2.03%, Lingyang Holdings up 108.90%, BeiGene down 8.48%, ACM Research Inc-A down 16.69%, Tencent Holdings (ADR) down 1.90%.

European Markets: All three major European indices rose on February 26, with the UK and France reaching record highs. The FTSE 100 closed at 10,846.7, up 40.29 points or 0.37%; the CAC 40 closed at 8,620.93, up 61.86 points or 0.72%; the DAX closed at 25,289.02, up 113.08 points or 0.45%.

Commodity Markets: International oil prices rose on February 26. At the close, NYMEX WTI crude futures for the current month increased $0.05 to $65.47 per barrel, up 0.08%. COMEX gold futures for the current month fell $24.70 to $5,201.50 per ounce, down 0.47%. COMEX silver futures fell $2.77 to $88.865 per ounce, down 3.02%. Spot gold rose $20.33 to $5,185.29 per ounce, up 0.39%. Spot silver declined $0.90 to $88.3 per ounce, down 1.01%.

Overnight Headlines

Nvidia plunges late at night! “AI panic” amplified as institutions speak out!

Tech giants like Nvidia and Baidu, along with top investment firms, have issued statements emphasizing that the market’s fear of AI is greatly exaggerated. AI is not a “disruptor” in the software industry but an important “enabler.” The future trend is the integration, symbiosis, and iterative upgrade of both.

U.S.-Iran indirect talks end with “significant progress,” says mediator

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi announced on social media that the third round of indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Geneva has concluded with “significant progress.” He said that after reporting back to their respective governments, negotiations will resume soon, with “technical discussions” scheduled for next week in Vienna.

Google Nano Banana 2 unveiled: full capability release cuts costs in half

Early Friday, Google announced the launch of its new image generation model Nano Banana 2, making high-quality image creation faster, cheaper, and easier. Last August, Google first released Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash image model). Its hyper-realistic character consistency, natural language understanding, and 3D modeling capabilities have sparked global enthusiasm, solidifying Google’s position in AI applications.

Why does the U.S. schedule multiple talks in one day? Experts analyze

In Geneva, multiple meetings were arranged in one day—from indirect Iran-U.S. negotiations to bilateral talks between Russia and the U.S., and Russia and Ukraine. Why this packed schedule? Why did Russia send officials mainly responsible for economic affairs instead of diplomats or other departments? Is Trump’s suggestion to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within a month realistic?

IMF warns on U.S. debt: increasing risks to U.S. and global economic stability

The IMF warned Wednesday that U.S. debt will rise to 140% of GDP over the next five years and urged the U.S. government to reduce fiscal deficits to curb excessive trade and current account deficits. U.S. debt has already exceeded $38 trillion, with the deficit still expanding. Over the past year, debt increased by $2.25 trillion, and is expected to surpass $39 trillion by April. According to IMF data, the federal budget deficit rose from about $1.4 trillion in FY2022 to approximately $1.8 trillion last year.

IDC warns that memory shortages may cause record decline in smartphone market in 2026

IDC’s latest report warns that the global smartphone market will face an “unprecedented crisis” in 2026 due to memory shortages. The forecast for 2026 smartphone shipments has been sharply cut to about 1.1 billion units, well below last year’s 1.26 billion. This suggests the smartphone market could see a record 13% YoY decline this year.

Broadcom launches multi-dimensional stacked chip platform; exec claims 1 million units sold in 2 years

A Broadcom executive stated that, based on its latest stacked chip design technology, the company expects to sell at least 1 million chips by 2027. Harish Bharadwaj, VP of product marketing, told media that the chips, based on proprietary technology, stack two chips vertically, tightly integrating different silicon layers to significantly boost data transfer speeds.

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund uses Claude to “mine for problems”: reveals issues in 24 hours

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (NBIM) said it has been using Anthropic’s Claude model to screen for ethical issues in investments. The fund, operated by Norway’s central bank, has a total size of about $2.2 trillion and earned approximately $246.9 billion in 2025.

MP Materials invests $1.25 billion in Texas to build America’s largest rare earth magnet production base

MP Materials, the largest rare earth miner in the U.S., announced on Thursday a $1.25 billion investment to build a large rare earth magnet manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas, Texas. The stock rose slightly during trading. This project is part of its agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense and is seen as a key step in strengthening domestic critical mineral supply chains amid efforts to secure U.S. mineral independence.

AI overloads power grid, spikes electricity bills? Trump urges tech giants to build own power plants to lower costs

The U.S. tech industry is witnessing a new trend: the rapid rise of self-built power plants. Due to surging computing power demands and aging, strained grids, self-generation and self-use are becoming standard in the current AI investment boom. “Many Americans worry that AI data centers’ energy needs could unfairly raise their electricity bills. I’m pleased to announce a new ‘Power Consumer Protection Commitment.’ I told major tech companies they are responsible for their own power needs. They can build their own plants, so electricity costs won’t be inflated. In many cases, community electricity prices could even drop significantly—an unprecedented strategy in the U.S.!” President Trump promoted this plan in his February 24 State of the Union address, citing the outdated grid’s inability to handle such demand. “So I told tech companies: build your own plants, generate your own power. This will ensure they have power, lower others’ bills, and could have a very positive effect.”