CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Early Rally Fades, Nvidia Beats Estimates, Salesforce Gives Tepid Forecast

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

The latest in business, financial, and market news and how it impacts your money, reported by CNBC's Peter Schacknow

I'm Peter Schack, now CNBC. Wall Street will try once again on Thursday for a lasting rally after Wednesday saw early gains mostly fade, a trend that's been prominent over the past week. The Dow lost 188 points to close at 43,433. The S&P 500 was up by less than a point. The Nasdaq did manage to hold onto a quarter percent gain, adding 49 points. The fate of the market in the day ahead will likely depend on reaction to the latest earnings report from chipmaker Nvidia, which did report better than expected results for the latest quarter

in its after-the-bell earnings release. Dow component Salesforce did the same, but it gave a tepid full year revenue forecast because of slow adoption of its AI platform. Monica DiCenzo, head of the Global Income Opportunities Group at JPMorgan Securities, says while caution is in order, it's not time to completely abandon the stock market. You never want to completely obviously sell down and de-risk your entire portfolio. If you did that during COVID, for example, you saw how quickly things can turn around. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have some portfolio protection on. Many clients I work with still don't own a fixed income because for so long it didn't make sense. Even though we're

worried about inflation, fixed income still makes sense in a portfolio. Now rates are higher. With concerns about the US economy increasing, investors will keep an eye on a flood of data in the day ahead, including the latest on first time jobless claims, durable goods orders orders and pending home sales, as well as the second estimate of fourth quarter GDP. And we'll see just how much inflation is impacting food companies and the consumers that buy from them, as the latest earnings from JM Smucker, Hormel Foods, and Papa John's are released before the opening bell. Peter Schacht now, CNBC.

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