The S&P 500 lost 0.4%, the Nasdaq lost 0.4%, and the Dow Jones tumbled 1.1% as a hot inflation report and a tech sector retreat pulled the major benchmarks into the red for February on Friday. These hotter-than-expected figures suggested companies are passing tariff costs to consumers and complicating the path for Federal Reserve rate cuts. Sentiment was further damaged by massive layoffs at Block and disappointing guidance from CoreWeave which sank 18.6%. Nvidia extended its slide with a 4.1% drop as skepticism grew regarding the sustainability of AI capital expenditures by major tech firms. While Dell surged 21.8% on record AI server demand and a massive buyback plan, financial heavyweights like Apollo and Jefferies fell 8.6% to 9.3% on private credit contagion fears. Despite the volatility, February saw record corporate buyback authorizations of 233.3 billion dollars providing a floor for some large cap names.
India's BSE Sensex extended early losses to close about 1.2% down at 81,287 on Friday, the lowest since early February, marking the second session of declines. Market sentiment remained subdued, driven by renewed foreign fund selling and market nervousness over stalled US–Iran nuclear negotiations. Selling was broad-based, driven by sustained profit booking in financials, autos, and select consumption stocks, even as IT counters lent modest support. On the macro front, the attention was on the release of domestic GDP figures and inflation data from the US. Private banking majors bore the brunt of the decline. ICICI Bank fell 1.9%, Kotak Mahindra Bank dropped 1.9% and HDFC Bank slipped 1.3%. State-run lender State Bank of India also shed 0.6%. Auto companies Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra fell 2.5% and 2.3% , respectively. Among IT names, Infosys and HCL Technologies gained 0.8% each, while TCS fell by 0.3%. The index posted a weekly losses of 1.8% and a monthly decline of 1.2%.
