The S&P 500 fell during a volatile session, after President Donald Trump's declaration that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would proceed as planned, as well as a negative reversal in bellwether stock Nvidia following earnings.

The S&P 500 closed down 1.59% at 5,861.57. The broad market index remains in the red for the week and month. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 2.78%, to end the day at 18,544.42, with Nvidia's 8.5% slide pulling the tech-heavy index lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 193.62 points, or 0.45%, to finish at 43,239.50.

Both the broad market index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are on pace for their worst week since September 2024.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced the proposed tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will take effect on March 4 after the one-month moratorium ends. Trump claimed that the two countries had yet to curb the flow of drugs over the border by enough. The president also stated that China, which already faces 10% tariffs from the U.S., would face an additional 10% levy.

"We're in a stalled, range-bound, slightly irrational market as we wait for policy clarity," said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

Shares of Nvidia fell even after the chip giant exceeded fourth-quarter estimates on the top and bottom lines. The AI play also issued strong guidance, reflecting continued demand driven by the artificial intelligence race. However, the company posted a decline in gross margins for the quarter and its smallest revenue beat in two years, raising questions about whether the bull market leader could keep its momentum going.

"Nvidia earnings were outstanding, but they come during an extremely jittery stock market," said James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research.

Besides Trump's tariff declaration, a jump in jobless claims also subdued sentiment, adding to recent concerns of economic softening. Jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 22 came in at 242,000. This was up 22,000 from the previous week's revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, according to a Labor Department report Thursday.

This comes on the back of several other recent economic reports — including a softer-than-expected consumer confidence reading, disappointing retail sales numbers and a weak consumer sentiment reading — which have rattled stocks and raised worries about the health of the U.S. economy.

Traders are now looking ahead to Friday's personal consumption expenditures price index — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

With just two trading sessions left in February, all three major averages are on pace to finish lower. The broad market index has dropped almost 3%, while the Dow and the Nasdaq have are down 2.9% and 5.5%, respectively.

Nvidia is 'compellingly valued,' BofA's Vivek Arya says

Nvidia's current trading levels could provide an attractive opportunity for investors, according to Vivek Arya of Bank of America.

"The demand environment is exceptionally strong, and now you have a stock which is growing 50% to 60% a year ... and it's trading at less than one times their earnings growth," the firm's senior semiconductor analyst said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" Thursday. "If you look at the S&P 500 or if you look at the other [Magnificent Seven] stocks, they are trading at two times their earnings growth, so from that perspective we think Nvidia is very compellingly valued."

Arya added that "high" initial ramp-up costs for Blackwell's transition are "short-term issues" and sees major gains ahead for the stock. On Thursday on the back of Nvidia's results, he reiterated his buy rating on the chipmaker and raised his price target by $10 to $200, which implies more than 52% upside from Wednesday's close.

"As we get through to their GTC conference and then through the back half, we will start to see their margins expand, and I think that's going to help re-energize the stock," the analyst also said.

Shares moved more than 6% lower in afternoon trading during Thursday's session, putting the stock's year-to-date losses at more than 8%.

— Sean Conlon

CFPB dismisses lawsuits against several firms, including Capital One

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dismissed several enforcement lawsuits that began during the Biden administration.

The dropped cases include actions against Capital One, a division of Rocket Cos. called Rocket Homes Real Estate and the Berkshire-Hathaway-owned Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance.

The CFPB has shuttered its Washington headquarters since the Trump administration took over, with acting CFPB Director Russell Vought working with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to dramatically scale back the agency.

— Jesse Pound, Hugh Son

Market is waiting for 2026 growth to regain conviction in Nvidia, says Cantor Fitzgerald analyst

Nvidia bull C.J. Muse, Cantor Fitzgerald senior managing director, is staying optimistic on the chipmaker even as the stock continues to lose steam on the back of its latest quarterly results.

"We are in the first stages of the Blackwell ramp," Muse told CNBC on Thursday, noting that Nvidia delivered $11 billion of Blackwell architecture revenue in its fourth quarter, the fastest product ramp in its history. "If you think about this Blackwell product cycle, I think you're gonna get a July quarter where you get a reacceleration on the top line, and then we're gonna go into Blackwell Ultra in the second half."

Nvidia's next AI chip, Blackwell Ultra, is set to be unveiled next month.

According to Muse, next year's performance will be critical for Nvidia stock. He believes Nvidia's gross margins from its data center business will remain strong and grow again in 2026.

"The moment the market has conviction on that growth in '26, stock will continue to work," he said. "As long as they continue to deliver more and more value, drive down the cost of compute, I think that enables AI to become more ubiquitous."

— Pia Singh

Palantir heads for another losing week

Palantir is on track for another week of big declines.

Shares have tumbled more than 12% this week, building on last week's plunge of 15%. If that holds, it would mark the technology stock's first back-to-back weeks with drops of at least 10% each since August 2022.

Despite the recent slides, the stock is still up more than 17% in 2025.

— Alex Harring, Adrian van Hauwermeiren

Cleveland Fed President Hammack sees rates holding in place

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said Thursday she doesn't see further interest rate cuts happening until inflation cools down more.

"As long as the labor market remains healthy, I am looking for broad-based evidence that inflation is sustainably returning to 2 percent before adjusting policy further," Hammack told a banking conference. "While there are good reasons to expect that inflation will gradually come down to 2 percent over the medium term, this is far from a certainty, and upside risks to the inflation outlook abound."

The policymaker added that she sees benchmark rates holding where they are "for some time."

Hammack does not vote this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Her comments were largely in line with her colleagues who have expressed caution lately about easing further amid high levels of uncertainty from fiscal policy and economic data.

—Jeff Cox

Nvidia, Rolls-Royce among the names making moves midday

Some stocks are making big moves in midday trading:

• Nvidia – Shares dropped about 3% despite the chipmaker's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue and current quarter revenue forecast beating analyst estimates. Nvidia's fourth-quarter gross profit margin declined, and its latest revenue topped forecasts by the smallest amount in two years.
• EBay – The e-commerce platform slumped about 8% after first-quarter revenue guidance missed Wall Street's expectations. EBay forecast revenue in the current quarter between $2.52 billion and $2.56 billion, while analysts were estimating $2.59 billion, according to LSEG. Trailing fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat expectations.
• Rolls-Royce – American depositary receipts of the British jet engine maker jumped as much as 18% on the heels of better-than-expected full-year earnings and updated its mid-term guidance. The board also authorized a 1 billion pound, or $1.27 billion, share buyback and reinstated a dividend for the first time since the pandemic.

Read here for the full list.

— Sean Conlon

Private credit fund from State Street and Apollo debuts

A unique ETF from State Street and Apollo is now trading, bringing the opaque world private credit into a more liquid trading vehicle.

The challenge of a private credit fund is that those debt securities are typically not very liquid, and ETFs are generally limited to 15% of their assets being illiquid. This new fund — SPDR SSGA Apollo IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV) — is trying to solve that with a commitment from Apollo buy those assets when shares are redeemed, subject to a contractual limit. The fund's prospectus said the plan is to have 10% to 35% of the holdings in private credit, though the actual amount could be outside of that range.

Anna Paglia, chief business officer at State Street Global Advisors, said in a statement that "PRIV continues the mission of democratizing access to private markets."

Neal Epstein, vice president of private credit at Moody's Ratings, said in a statement that the new fund was "credit positive" for the broader market but does come with risks.

"Apollo's contractual agreement to provide executable bids on all investments it originates that PRIV will hold, a key feature of the ETF's liquidity management, particularly raises potential risks arising from reliance on Apollo's ability to purchase securities from PRIV, and the reliance on Apollo's market making to set the pricing of these trades," Epstein said.

There are other private-credit adjacent ETFs already on the market, including BondBloxx Private Credit CLO ETF (PCMM) that launched last year. Other funds hold the stock of business development companies like Blue Owl Capital that are involved in the private credit business.

— Jesse Pound

The market is in the process of a 'retracement rally,' says BTIG

The S&P 500 is on course for a "retracement rally," according to BTIG managing director and chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky.

"We believe a tactical rally is underway, and SPX can retrace back towards ~6,050 into early March before resuming lower and ultimately testing its 200-day moving average," Krinsky wrote in a Thursday note. "Is it possible that we have seen the final low and we are poised for new all-time highs? Yes, and closing above ~6,050 would certainly add validity to that thesis, but not our base case at this point."

— Brian Evans

16 stocks in the S&P 500 trade at new 52-week highs

During Thursday's trading session, 16 stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week highs.

Of these names, 9 tickers reached new all time highs. The names that reached this milestone were:

• Arthur J Gallagher trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in June 1984
• Aon trading at all-time high levels back through our history to November 1984
• Brown & Brown trading at all-time highs back to when it became publicly traded on the NYSE in 1997
• Intercontinental Exchange trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in November 2005
• Visa trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in March 2008
• Willis Towers Watson trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in 2001
• Ecolab trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in 1957
• NiSource trading at all-time highs back through our history to 1984
• NRG Energy trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in May 2000

On the flip side, five stocks were trading at their 52-week lows on Thursday including Hormel, IQVIA, Teleflex, Viatris and Advanced Micro Devices.

— Christopher Hayes, Lisa Kailai Han

Financial advisors expect bull market to continue beyond 2025, says BofA

Some 70% of advisors anticipate the bull market will extend beyond next year, according to Bank of America's 9th annual Global Wealth & Investment Management Survey. Bank of America polled Merrill financial advisors across the nation between Jan. 21 - Feb. 4. It received 248 responses.

"On average, advisors have 62% allocated to equities (vs. 59% last year), the highest level since 2022," equity and quant strategist Savita Subramanian wrote in a note Wednesday. "Allocations to bonds and cash both fell for the second straight year, while gold allocation rose, with 1/3 now having at least 1% exposure to gold."

Advisors believe the biggest risk to stocks is geopolitics, such as tariffs, and government debt, the survey found. Some two-thirds expect above-trend gross domestic product this year, versus 35% last year, Subramanian noted.

Within global equities, a net 84% of advisors bullish on U.S. equities — a record high, she said. They like large and mid-cap stocks and are most bullish on financials, industrials and tech.

— Michelle Fox

Pending home sales tumbled in January to new low

A measure of pending home sales hit its lowest level ever in January as higher mortgage rates and converged to hit the housing market, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The organization's pending sales index hit a historic low of 70.6, a decrease of 4.6% from December and far worse than the Dow Jones estimate for a 1% decline. The index is benchmarked to a value of 100 in 2001. On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales were off 5.2%.

"It is unclear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed to fewer buyers in the market, and if so, expect greater sales activity in upcoming months," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "However, it's evident that elevated home prices and higher mortgage rates strained affordability."

The rate on a typical 30-year mortgage swelled past 7% during the month, though it has since pulled back to 6.85%, according to Fannie Mae.

—Jeff Cox

JP Morgan adds GE Vernova to focus list, tells investors to buy the dip

The selloff of GE Vernova's stock over the last week has created a good opportunity to buy, according to JP Morgan.

GE Vernova shares have pulled back about 13% since last Thursday over fears that tech companies may pull back on data center spending. The company, which manufactures gas turbines, is viewed by investors as s major beneficiary from growing power demand from artificial intelligence.

JP Morgan has added GE Vernova to its focus list. The investment bank has price target of $436 for the stock, indicating 30% upside from Wednesday's close.

Analysts led by Mark Strouse told clients that worries about AI demand will cause short-term volatility, but GE Vernova can drive substantial earnings growth over the next four years regardless of the tech sector's spending plans. Investors should have confidence in GE Vernova due to strong customer demand for its turbines and backlog for its electrification services, according to JP Morgan.

"While the magnitude of upside to GEV's longer-term margin assumptions is debatable, we believe current valuation levels present a compelling entry point even off the foundational floor," Strouse told clients.

— Spencer Kimball

U.S. dollar leaps following Trump tariff statement

The U.S. dollar surged against its global competitors following an announcement from President Donald Trump on Thursday that punitive tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China are coming next week.

The dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a basket of other international currencies, was last up 0.6% after being off about 1.4% year to date.

In a morning social media post, Trump said 25% tariffs will hit Mexico and Canada on March 4, the same day that China will face an additional 10% charge.

—Jeff Cox

Stocks open higher Thursday

U.S. stocks started Thursday's trading session in positive territory.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 48 points, or 0.1%.

— Hakyung Kim

Trump says Mexico, Canada tariffs will begin March 4

President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the delayed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico will begin on March 4. Trump also said an additional 10% tariff on China will begin on the same day.

Trump said in the post that the tariffs are due in part to fentanyl that enters the United States from foreign countries.

Dow futures turned negative after Trump's announcement.

— Jesse Pound

Weekly jobless claims come in higher than expected

Initial jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 22 came in well above expectations, marking another sign of softening economic activity in the U.S. The number of first-time unemployment benefit filers totaled 242,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a reading of 225,000.

— Fred Imbert

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

• Nvidia — The artificial intelligence darling ticked up about 1% after Nvidia reported earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street estimates in the fourth-quarter. It also issued a better-than-expected outlook for revenue in the current quarter. To be sure, Nvidia also warned that global competition is ramping up.
• Freeport-McMoRan — The copper producer advanced more than 2% following an upgrade to buy from Jefferies. The firm cited improving free cash flow trends as well as cost reductions as growth catalysts moving forward.
• EBay — The e-commerce stock fell nearly 8% after first quarter revenue guidance came in short of expectations. EBay said it expects revenue between $2.52 billion and $2.56 billion. Analysts were penciling in $2.59 billion, according LSEG. The company's fourth-quarter results did beat estimates.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Jefferies upgrades Freeport-McMoRan to buy on Trump tariffs

Jefferies believes that Freeport-McMoRan could benefit from the Trump administration's tariffs going forward.

The investment firm upgraded shares of the copper producer to a buy rating, after downgrading shares just last month to a hold.

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan have traded fractionally lower in the past 12 months. Analyst Christopher LaFemina's price target of $48, up from $40, represents a potential upside of over 26%.

"We downgraded FCX just last month due to risks in Indonesia, our cautious view on copper, and Freeport's lack of FCF in the near term. Our view was that FCX shares would be range-bound this year before breaking out in 2026 as copper fundamentals finally begin to improve," he wrote. "We upgrade back to Buy today due to encouraging recent updates regarding Indonesia as well as the potential significant benefit to FCX of tariffs on U.S. copper imports."

Besides an improving free cash flow and capital return outlook, LaFemina also pointed to cost reductions due to operational improvements in the U.S. as another potential catalyst.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Roughly half of S&P 500 names are showing upward momentum as investors remain cautious

Just above half of the S&P 500's stocks are showing a bullish signal, according to Jurrien Timmer, Fidelity Investments director of global macro.

"Everyone is just waiting, it seems. You don't want to sell; in case the rollercoaster arrives safely. But who is left to buy following the strong inflows since the election?," Timmer wrote in a Wednesday post on X. "The equal-weighted S&P 500 index remains below its highs set on November 29th, and only 53% of stocks are above their 50-day moving average. We are in a 'buy the rumor, wait for the news' mode."

A stock's 50-day moving average is determined by adding up the closing prices of a stock over 50 days and then dividing the result by 50. Stocks trending above their 50-day moving average are generally considered to be on an uptrend.

The S&P 500 is having a tough February, and has added just 1.3% so far this year as market hysteria tied to artificial intelligence and the election has weakened.

— Pia Singh

Nvidia, Salesforce, eBay moving in after-hours trading

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading:

• Snowflake — Shares of Snowflake popped more than 9% on the back of the company's better-than-expected fourth-quarter report. The data cloud analytics company reported adjusted earnings of 30 cents per share on revenue of $987 million, while analysts surveyed by LSEG expected earnings of 17 cents per share on revenue of $956 million.
• Nvidia — The chipmaker's shares edged about 0.6% higher on a strong earnings report. Nvidia exceeded fourth-quarter estimates on the top and bottom lines and said it sees first-quarter revenue coming out higher than the Street's expectations. Its revenue in the latest quarter rose 78%, and full fiscal-year revenue for Nvidia rose 114% to $130.5 billion, reflecting continued strong demand.
• Salesforce — Shares of the enterprise software company inched higher by less than 1% on mixed fourth-quarter results. Salesforce reported adjusted earnings of $2.78 per share, beating analysts' expectations of $2.61 per share. Its revenue of $9.99 billion came out under analysts' forecast of $10.04 billion, per LSEG, dragging shares.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

S&P 500 futures rise on Wednesday

S&P 500 futures opened higher Wednesday evening.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained nearly 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.3%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 32 points, or nearly 0.1%.

— Pia Singh