February 23, 2026
AI remained the main market story, but the week showed both sides of it. IBM fell 13.2% to $233.35 after investors reacted to Anthropic's Claude Code tool, which can help modernize legacy COBOL systems. That matters because IBM's mainframe ecosystem and modernization services have long benefited from complexity and specialized labor. The stock was down more than 24% year to date, which shows how fast investors can reprice a legacy profit pool.
Nvidia showed the other side. Fourth-quarter revenue reached $68.1 billion and net income was $43 billion, with profit up 94% and sales up 73%. Data center products made up more than 90% of revenue, gross margin held at 75%, and management guided to about $78 billion of revenue for the current quarter. For recruiting, the contrast is useful: AI can expand infrastructure demand while also pressuring services that depend on slow modernization work.
Meta's AMD deal added a strategic supply-chain angle. Meta agreed to acquire customized chips with 6 gigawatts of capacity, and AMD's CEO said each gigawatt could represent double-digit billions in value. AMD rose as much as 14%, reaching a $342 billion market cap. The warrant structure gives Meta the option to buy up to 160 million AMD shares at $0.01 in tranches tied to processor orders, potentially reaching a 10% stake. Meta also expects AI infrastructure spending as high as $135 billion this year.
Trade policy moved markets as well. European stocks rose after a feared 15% global tariff became a 10% rate for 150 days. The STOXX Europe 600 gained 0.3%, Germany's DAX rose 0.76%, and autos rose nearly 2%. Copper slipped 0.7% to $12,868.50 per ton, below $13,000, as tariff uncertainty and weaker physical demand in China weighed on the market.
Rates were less clear. Fed minutes showed a 10-2 vote to hold the benchmark rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, with some officials open to hikes if inflation stays firm. Unemployment fell to 4.3%, while traders pushed some cut expectations into 2027 as AI labor concerns entered the debate. Mortgage rates fell to 5.99%, refinancing applications were 130% higher than a year earlier, and 5.5 million more households qualified for a mortgage.
Other risk appetite showed up in emerging markets and healthcare M&A. A $20.3 billion Avantis emerging markets ETF took in $429.5 million in one day, and EM ETFs had more than $35 billion of net inflows year to date. Gilead agreed to buy the rest of Arcellx for about $7.8 billion at $115 per share, a 79% premium, with a CVR worth up to $5 per share.