Yahoo Finance

They're taking a look at the opening bells. We got two of them. At the Nasdaq, we got the first one. That is chamber magic. Well, technically, they're at the same time. So neither is first nor second. But 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, which means go ahead and press that button. And they felt so good, they pressed it twice at the New York Stock Exchange, where Mistros is ringing the opening bell at the NYSE. All right, taking a look at the major averages. We begin today's trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial average opens up lower to the downside by about eight tenths of a percent. The S&P 500, you're seeing that open up lower by about half a percent. The Nasdaq composite though, that's seeing a touch of green, a spot of green to begin today's activity. It's up by about two tenths of a percent here. So this all as we're considering some of the tariff activity that has both gone into effect and that that is continuing to be ratcheted higher as well between the US and China. We've got some of those developments and continued conversations as well throughout the rest of today's programming. But taking a look at some of the market activity in terms of uh just a little line chart here that we've been able to put together for you folks at home. Taking a look at the past three days activity for the Nasdaq composite. We're still net lower over that period of time over those past three sessions by about 2%. Also, taking a look at the S&P 500. You're taking a look at declines of about 2.3% there over the past three sessions. Past three sessions for the Dow Jones Industrial average about 2.7% in the red. Want to take a look at some of the sector activity out of the gate here this morning. We are mixed, but clearly, there are more laggards than gainers right now. Technology leading the pack. That's up catching a bid to about four tenths of a percent. So some fractional moves higher for consumer discretionary and for technology. However, pulling up the caboose right now, you've got a 1.7% decline for healthcare. That is as some of the new tariffs that could be on the docket are targeting some of those pharmaceutical companies. And then just lastly, let's ride out with a quick look at the Nasdaq 100 here. Uh I'll put this on an equal view just so we can see what the split looks like here. Um it looks like more green than red. Ultimately, they're pulling up the rear. We've got AstraZeneca, of course, this continuing the theme of some of the largest pharmaceutical companies getting hit the hardest here. Regeneron, Gilead, also pulling up the caboose there. Leading the pack though here today for the Nasdaq 100 strategy, micro strategy formally, but uh you're seeing that up by about 4.2% here on the day. There we go. I knew that chart would pull up for me if I just kept trying. It's up by about 4.2%. All right, with all that effort in mind and in the rearview mirror, let's toss things on over to Yahoo Finance's Jared Blickre for a deeper dive.

Thank you, Brad. Uh, stocks are looking for a fifth straight down day, but not necessarily the Nasdaq right now. In the S&P 500, guess what? S&P 500 just turned positive. I do want to show the year to date and there we go. And you can see we just kind of fell off a cliff a few days ago, trying to find our footing. As I was saying yesterday, it's a battle between the bulls and the bears. And we might be in search of that momentum. It might be in place right now, but we're feeling things out. And all these additional tariffs, that's brand new news that has to get digested. And so that can definitely tip the scales in favor of the bears once again. Uh, so we'll have to see how this plays out. It's playing out in volatility in a big way. The VIX is now holding above 5238. If I put some candlesticks on here, you can see we've been above this level basically for three days and that's not the best sign because that means institutions are still trying to figure out uh what they're going to do about these uh about their trades here. And they're looking for protection and hedges and those are expensive right now. So that's a dynamic playing out there. Then we have the 10-year yield. This is again a year-to-date chart. It has surged now off of these lows down here from about 3.9% all the way up to 4.4%. That is 50 basis points in four days or three days actually. That is just a huge amount. And uh we'll have to see how this one plays out. But bond market volatility generally not good for equities. On that note, let's check out what the equity sectors are doing. As Brad just mentioned, tech now up over 1%. It is the leader today. In the in the down position is real estate. That's down two and a half percent. And we went into health care a little bit. Biotech really taking it on the chin as well. Here's a year to date though, I just want, or actually not year to date. Let me point out since the 219, that's February 19th top, tech is by far and away the worst performing sector. That is down 23%. So let's get back to what's happening today in the Nasdaq 100. Uh Brad just went through this as well. I'm not going to linger. Nvidia had been leading the MAG 7. It looks like Tesla is now doing that work. Uh, but overall pretty constructive day for some of the bigger stocks here that have been really an albatross on the market's neck. Let's get to now Chinese stocks because even with all these additional tariffs, uh we are seeing a lot of green in the Chinese market. Alibaba is up 2%. JD up two and a half percent. Uh XPeng up as well. And you got to be asking your yourself, has all of this been priced in already? Is this just a knee-jerk reaction? Or markets and investors anesthetized uh to all these new changes? Well, let's watch what happens into the close today and over the next few days for that answer. Then over in futures, gold is experiencing its greatest jump. It is soaring the most since April of 2020. And here is the yellow metal up 3.33% right now at the highs of the day. That's 3,089. Not quite record highs because it did stumble a bit when we had that market meltdown over the last few days going back to last week. But it is quickly uh quickly reclaiming that lost territory. And so this is a market that you definitely want to keep an eye on. And I'm going to close with Bitcoin as I like to do. It's under a bit of pressure here, but I would note it is holding 75,000. In fact, it's at 77,200 right now. I have support all the way down to 7072. And so anything within that range is not disaster, but it would be nice if Bitcoin could just kind of uh flush out some of those week longs and rocket higher and lead the uh risk markets to some of their floor former glory here. Just my personal wish. And we'll have to see that plays out, Maddie.