By Noah Weidner
Publication Date: 2026-02-18 18:25:00
his live blog is refreshed periodically throughout the day with the latest updates from the market.To find the latest Stock Market Today threads, click here.
Happy Wednesday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Feb. 18, 2026. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog.
The U.S. market is now opened. U.S. equities are rising this morning after Meta announced it would expand the scope of its partnership with Nvidia, committing to use even more AI chips in its data center projects.
The positive AI news has helped float equity benchmarks this morning. 30 minutes into trading, the Russell 2000 (+1.15%) and Nasdaq (+1.07%) are leading the way. The S&P 500(+0.74%) and Dow (+0.52%) aren’t far behind.
Among S&P 500 sectors, tech is among the six in the green, up 0.37%. The leaders are energy (+1.24%), financials (+0.94%), and discretionary (+0.73%).
As mentioned in our A.M. Update, this morning saw a swath of big economic reports. Chief among them were housing-related reports like Building Permits (Prelim) and Housing Starts, plus Durable Goods Orders and Capacity Utilization. Most of these reports arrived at or exceeding expectations. At least some of that optimism might be reflected in the 10Y Treasury, which is 2.9 bips higher at 4.083% as a result.
In recent weeks, hundreds of U.S. assets (planes, air craft carriers, fighter jets, etc.) have been mobilized to Europe, appearing to stage for an…
