Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Feb. 13, 2026.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 rose on Tuesday, supported by gains in financial stocks, as Wall Street looks to regain its footing after yet another losing week.
The broad market index advanced 0.2%, as did the Nasdaq Composite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 48 points, or 0.1%.
Investors rotated out of beaten-down software names, which added to the losses they’ve seen this year, and into financial stocks such as Citigroup and JPMorgan. Shares of Citi jumped almost 3%, while shares of JPMorgan were up more than 1%.
ServiceNow, however, was more than 1% lower, with its fall in 2026 standing at about 31%. Autodesk and Palo Alto Networks were down more than 2%. The former has notched as 23% decline this year, while the latter has fallen 11%. Salesforce and Oracle shares declined around 3% and 4%, and their year-to-date losses were at 30% and 20%, respectively. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) traded down more than 2%, putting its loss for the year at 23%.
The software sector has been getting hit on fears that artificial intelligence tools could replace industry-specific software providers.
“We just need time to see what earnings are going to look like from some of these companies,” Leah Bennett, chief investment strategist at Concurrent Investment Advisors, said in an interview with CNBC. “I think those that aren’t able to compete and don’t really have moats around their business, you’re going to see a deterioration,” she continued, adding that such a disruption will also lead the market to decipher winners in the space.
AI disruption worries hit industries such as software, real estate, trucking and financial services last week, pushing the S&P 500 to its second consecutive losing week. Both the S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow lost more than 1% last week, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq lost more than 2%.
The Dow and S&P 500 both logged their fourth losing weeks of the last five. The Nasdaq recorded its fifth straight negative week, its longest losing streak since 2022.
“AI innovation and its disruption are calling into question terminal multiples in various corners of the market that is driving investors to focus on specific risks, rather than broader exposure changes,” said Scott Chronert, Citi U.S. equity strategist. “For now, the narrative is disconnected from good medium-term fundamental trends. The onus is on companies to convince markets of longer-run business moats, likely a Q1 reporting season theme, absent a renewed focus on a macro soft landing.”
Those concerns appeared to overshadow the latest consumer price index reading released Friday. The headline CPI data came in softer than economists polled by Dow Jones predicted for January. That followed a better-than-expected jobs report earlier in the week.
Investors will get more insight into the path of inflation this week, with the personal consumption expenditure report slated for Friday. Before then, they’ll monitor Federal Reserve meeting minutes on Wednesday.
The New York Stock Exchange was closed on Monday in observance of Presidents’ Day.
