Stocks had an eventful end to a busy week, though today's weakness saw the major averages finish lower across the board for the week and mostly lower for the month of February. 

The S&P 500 (-0.4%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.9%), and DJIA (-1.1%) struggled against a reignition of AI disruption fears, though some rotational strength helped the indices modestly improve from earlier session lows. 

The session started with AI disruption at the forefront of media coverage after Block (XYZ 63.70, +9.17, +16.82%) announced it will decrease its workforce by around 40% as the company automates more work with AI. 

The headline weighed heavily on asset manager names that had faced weakness in recent sessions over concerns they are over-exposed to traditional software companies. The collapse of U.K. mortgage firm Market Financial Solutions added to pressure across select names such as Apollo Global Management (APO 104.58, -9.82, -8.58%). 

A hotter-than-expected January PPI (0.5%; Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) and core PPI (0.8%; Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) print further pushed out the market's expectations for Fed easing this year, undermining the bull case for leveraged deal-making, M&A, and capital markets activity that large banks and PE platforms rely on.

Goldman Sachs (GS 860.22, -68.78, -7.40%) was a particular laggard, and the financials sector ultimately finished 2.0% lower. 

Only the information technology sector (-2.2%) finished with a wider loss, with pressure across packaged software names sending the iShares GS Software ETF 1.3% lower. 

Chipmakers did little to ease the weakness, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index finishing 1.2% lower. NVIDIA (NVDA 177.10, -7.79, -4.21%) was once again a laggard, failing to draw any buying support following its earnigns report as investors reacted to the company's announcement of a $30 billion investment in OpenAI. 

Dell (DELL 147.93, +26.48, +21.80%) was a standout after earnings, though it did little to offset broader weakness in the sector. 

The other nine S&P 500 sectors closed the week at or above their baselines as rotational buying ramped up throughout the duration of the session. 

Defensive sectors stood out today amid the weakness in tech, with the health care (+1.8%), consumer staples (+1.5%), and utilities (+1.1%) sectors all charting nice gains. 

The energy sector (+1.7%) finished similarly as crude oil futures settled today's session $1.85 higher (+2.8%) at $67.06 per barrel. President Trump told reporters that he is not happy with negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, but more talks will occur. The president expressed a desire to avoid an armed conflict but reiterated his stance that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

Rising oil prices weighed heavily on airline names such as United Airlines (UAL 106.30, -10.13, -8.70%) and Delta Air Lines (DAL 65.70, -4.81, -6.82%). 

In other corporate news, Netflix (NFLX 96.24, +11.65, +13.77%) traded sharply higher after deciding not to raise its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD 28.17, -0.63, -2.19%), leaving Paramount Skydance (PSKY 13.51, +2.33, +20.84%) the victor of the merger battle. Reports this afternoon stated that Paramount paid the $2.8 billion termination fee that was required of Warner Bros. 

Outside of the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 (-1.7%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (-0.8%) lagged the major averages today. 

Ultimately, the major averages entered today's session little changed on a week-to-date basis after splitting the week between two weak and two strong sessions. Today's renewed pressure across tech and financial names resulted in a lower finish across the board, with the S&P 500 moving below its 50-day moving average in the process (6,900.47). However, the market did see some solid rotational interest, which increased throughout the day and helped ease index-level losses, fitting with the 2026 theme of leadership broadening beyond the tech and mega-cap space. 

U.S. Treasuries finished February with strong gains across the curve that sent yields to their lowest settlement levels of the year. The 2-year note yield settled down seven basis points to 3.38% (-10 basis points this week) and the 10-year note yield settled down six basis points to 3.96% (-13 basis points this week). 

• S&P Mid Cap 400: +8.1% YTD
• Russell 2000: +6.1% YTD
• DJIA: +1.9% YTD
• S&P 500: +0.5% YTD 
• Nasdaq Composite: -2.5% YTD

Reviewing today's data:

• January PPI 0.5% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior was revised to 0.4% from 0.5%, January Core PPI 0.8% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.6%
  • The key takeaway from the report was rooted in the worrying core-PPI component, as that will foment concerns about pass-through to consumer prices that will likely keep the Fed leery about cutting rates soon.
• February Chicago PMI 57.7 (Briefing.com consensus 52.5); Prior 54.0
• November Construction Spending 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior was revised to -0.2% from 0.5%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that residential construction spending accounted for the entirety of the monthly increase in total construction spending.