CNBC Daily Open: Unstable tariff situation and new AI disruption spark market sell-off

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Futures-options traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange’s NYSE American (AMEX) in New York City, U.S., February 23, 2026.

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			Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today_

Investors lost their sense of security in the business of cybersecurity companies after Anthropic on Friday launched Claude Code Security, which it said can scan code for vulnerabilities and suggest solutions. Shares of CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Cloudflare slumped, but it was IBM that was hit the worst, plunging nearly 13.2%.

European markets also had a day in the red. The regional Stoxx 600 fell 0.45%, weighed down by Novo Nordisk — the Danish pharmaceutical company’s stock sank more than 15% after reporting disappointing trial results for its next-generation weight loss drug.

The market sell-off extended to cryptocurrency. Bitcoin lost more than 5% and fell below $63,000 on Tuesday. That’s nearly half its record high of over $125,000 that it reached in October.

The “pure tariff chaos”— as Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, put it — also contributed to the uncertainty in markets. The European Union on Monday said its trade deal with the U.S. was “on hold” following the Supreme Court ruling that Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs are illegal. Lange will be talking to CNBC on “Squawk Box Europe” at 7:45 a.m. GMT.

“The uncertainty around trade tariffs is a problem. It’s not as bad as April, but it’s unhelpful because it pulls back investment,” Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, told CNBC.

The British bank announced on Tuesday a $1.5 billion share buyback — but its fourth-quarter earnings missed Wall Street expectations.

“We will have intense competition between U.S. and China for the rest of our lives,” Winters added.

Competition can spur innovation — but it can also becomes destructive, such as the intense cost-cutting in the Chinese electric vehicle sector. It remains to be seen where the rivalry between the world’s largest and second-biggest economy will lead us.

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Standard Chartered CEO says he sees continued intense U.S.-China competition

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**FedEx sued the U.S. government on Monday, **seeking a “full refund” of the money the shipping giant paid for tariffs imposed by Trump, which the Supreme Court last week ruled are illegal. FedEx’s suit appears to be the first one filed by a major American company.

Panama annulled key port contracts held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison in its official gazette Monday, transferring interim operations of the ports to Danish shipping giants A.P. Moller-Maersk and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co.

Canva acquired startups Cavalry and MangoAI, the company announced Monday, even as software stocks have been hammered in recent weeks. Canva said it ended 2025 with over $4 billion in annualized revenue, up 36% from a year prior.

U.S. stocks fell Monday.The S&P 500 lost 1.04%, putting it in the red again for 2026. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.66% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.13%. Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday. South Korea’s Kospi added more than 2% to touch a new high, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell nearly 2%.

**[PRO] Buy the dip, Wall Street analysts say. **While investors sold off cybersecurity shares on fears that AI could reshape the sector soon, market strategists think the reaction might be overblown — and present a good buying opportunity.

And finally…

From Dimon’s ‘cockroaches’ to the Blue Owl freeze: How stress is spreading in private credit

Private credit’s $3 trillion boom is facing its most serious test yet. A string of bankruptcies, fraud indictments and redemption freezes is exposing vulnerabilities in the fast-growing corner of finance that flourished in the post-2008 era of low rates and loose liquidity.

“It’s a systemic warning sign for the entire non-bank financial ecosystem,”  said Jian Liu, Founder and Managing Partner at Lionhill Wealth Management.

— Lee Ying Shan

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