Retail Watch: Home Depot Steps Up 24/02/2026

HOT stories for today

Market wrap:

• U.S. equities slid Monday as investors wrestled with lingering concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could disrupt multiple industries, alongside renewed unease over President Donald Trump’s move to raise global tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.66% to 48,804.06. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.13% to 22,627.27, while the S&P 500 declined 1.04% to 6,837.75, returning the benchmark to negative territory for 2026. The 30-stock Dow was weighed down by IBM, which sank 13% after Anthropic outlined new programming capabilities for its Claude Code product. Software shares, including Microsoft and CrowdStrike, came under renewed pressure as worries about AI-driven disruption persisted. Financials also weakened, with American Express falling 7% and Mastercard slipping nearly 6%, both contributing to the Dow’s decline. Defensive corners of the market outperformed. Consumer staples led the gains, with Walmart and Procter & Gamble each rising more than 2%.
• Bitcoin slid more than 5% Tuesday, trading below $63,000, as investors continued to retreat from risk assets amid escalating tariff tensions and broader geopolitical uncertainty. The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $62,964.64. Looking ahead, traders are focused on an event hosted on Tuesday by Anthropic, the developer of Claude. Investors are also awaiting consumer confidence data and Home Depot earnings, while bracing for potentially market-moving results later this week from Nvidia, Salesforce, and Snowflake as the technology sector pullback deepens.

Trump Attacks Tariff Ruling, Extends Stock Slide; Dollar Falls

• President Donald Trump’s Truth Social broadside against the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling helped deepen a selloff in U.S. stocks on Monday, reinforcing investor anxiety over trade policy and the stability of the U.S. governance framework. The comments came just days after the high court struck down Trump’s earlier tariffs, ruling the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act didn’t clearly grant authority to impose sweeping duties. Trump called the decision “ridiculous,” argued he doesn’t need Congress to approve tariffs, and warned that countries that “play games” would be met with much higher levies than those “recently agreed to.” Markets quickly reflected a more defensive tone. The dollar weakened against major peers, gold climbed, and Treasuries rallied as investors sought safety. The move into government bonds pushed the benchmark 10-year yield down about 5.7 basis points to around 4.03% by midafternoon in New York, according to Dow Jones Market Data, the biggest one-day decline in more than a week. 
• The flare-up also stoked concern abroad. European Union officials were reported to be pausing work on a U.S. trade deal while seeking more clarity following the ruling, highlighting the risk that trading partners could grow frustrated with shifting U.S. policy. “Markets hate uncertainty almost as much as they hate bad news,” said Eric Diton, president and managing director at the Wealth Alliance, who said the bigger worry is whether the rest of the world becomes increasingly fed up with Washington’s approach. Strategists warned the episode could further weigh on sentiment toward U.S. assets, with investors already sensitive to a weaker dollar trend and fiscal worries that have supported demand for havens such as gold.

Stocks on the move:

• Cybersecurity: AI-related jitters hit cybersecurity shares after Anthropic rolled out a new security feature for its Claude AI late last week. The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (BUG) slid 4%. CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Zscaler (ZS) sank about 10%, while Fortinet (FTNT) and Okta (OKTA) fell more than 5%.
• International Paper (IP) dropped more than 5% after Fastmarkets RISI reported Friday that U.S. domestic containerboard prices fell $20 a ton in February, according to a Dow Jones report. Smurfit Westrock (SW) and Packaging Corp. of America (PKG) each slid more than 6%.
• Docusign (DOCU) sank nearly 8% after Jefferies cut the stock to hold from buy. The firm said a return to accelerating double-digit growth may take time and that the company’s new AI-enabled agreement management platform still needs to prove itself.
• DoorDash (DASH) fell 6% after temporarily suspending service in several markets, including New York and Philadelphia, as a major East Coast blizzard disrupted operations.

Watchlist: COIN, MSTR, SLV, NVDA, HD, PYPL, IBM, DASH

Key Economic Events Today:

EST time

08:00 am: USD FOMC Member Goolsbee Speaks
09:00 am: USD FOMC Member Bostic Speaks
09:15 am: USD FOMC Member Waller Speaks
09:30 am: USD FOMC Member Cook Speaks
10:00 am: USD Consumer Confidence
10:00 am: USD Richmond Manufacturing Index
10:00 am: USD Final Wholesale Inventories



Earnings

BMO (Before Market Open): Home Depot (HD), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), American Tower Corp. (AMT)

AMC (After Market Close): MercadorLibre (MELI), EOG Resources (EOG), Alcon (ALC)



The TEFS Analyst team wishes you a successful day!