Wall Street finished with mixed results on Thursday, February 26, 2026, with Nvidia declining despite reporting strong quarterly earnings and weighing on other semiconductor stocks. Investors were also focused on a latest round of nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran, as well as the release of new unemployment claims data.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.04% to 49,499.51 points.
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The S&P 500 lost 0.53% to 6,909.01 points.
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The Nasdaq Composite depreciated 1.18% to 22,878.38 points.
Initial Unemployment Claims Increase
Wall Street began with a mixed bias after economic data released Thursday, February 26, 2026, left some uncertainty. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week, while the unemployment rate appeared to remain stable in February, suggesting a steady labor market.
Initial state unemployment claims increased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 212,000 for the week ending February 21, 2026, the Department of Labor reported. That figure was slightly above the 215,000 predicted by Reuters.
Last week’s claims included the President’s Day holiday, which may have affected the data. However, the level of claims suggests the labor market continued to stabilize after a challenging period last year amid uncertainty stemming from extensive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
U.S. And Iran Continue Nuclear Talks
Geopolitical factors continue to contribute to investor nervousness. U.S. And Iranian negotiators are meeting in Geneva for their third round of talks this year regarding Iran’s nuclear activities.
President Donald Trump stated that “awful things” could happen if significant progress isn’t made, as the United States faces one of its largest military deployments in the Middle East. A prolonged conflict could disrupt supply from Iran, the third-largest crude producer in the OPEC.
Nvidia: A Case Apart
Nvidia exceeded expectations, but failed to fully convince the market. Shares retreated around 3% hours after the company reported quarterly revenue of USD 68.130 billion, above the analysts’ estimate of USD 66.210 billion.
The figure represents a 73% year-over-year increase, driven particularly by its data center business – marking the fourth consecutive quarter of accelerating growth.
Why the stock decline? The central concern is whether major technology clients, the well-known hyperscalers, can sustain this pace of investment without deteriorating their cash flows. Earlier in February, these large tech companies lost over USD 1 trillion in market value amid doubts about the scale and monetization of their artificial intelligence bets.
The performance of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) (-3.4%) reflects this sensitivity: its shares fell 17% after publishing results that exceeded estimates, but did not meet the most optimistic expectations. Nvidia is heavily reliant on companies of this type. If capital spending on AI begins to moderate, growth could slow.
“Markets don’t trade on good or bad news in isolation; they settle on how results compare to expectations. Nvidia is still up more than 1400% since its October 2022 low, so the bar for positive surprises remains high,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment officer at Truist.
Nvidia shares fell more than 5.4% at the close of trading, dragging down other chip giants such as Broadcom (-3.1%) and ASML (-4.1%).
Other Notable Moves
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Salesforce: Advanced 4% despite revealing fiscal year 2027 revenue guidance below estimates, a signal that demand for enterprise software may be affected by budget controls.
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Paychex Inc: Rose 3.5% following the announcement of new AI-powered enhancements to its Paycor and Paychex Flex platforms. The company unveiled features such as Paycor Smart Scheduler, which uses automated intelligence to optimize workforce management.
