2026.02.1321:02:39UTC+00US Stocks Finish Mostly Flat

The S&P 500 and the Dow were little changed on Friday, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%. All three major indexes ended the week roughly 1.5% lower, as a softer-than-expected January inflation report failed to revive risk appetite amid ongoing AI-driven volatility. Headline and core inflation eased in line with forecasts, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates multiple times this year. However, chipmakers and megacap tech stocks, including Nvidia (-2.2%), Apple (-2.3%), Alphabet (-1.1%), Meta (-1.6%), and Broadcom (-1.8%), remained under pressure amid renewed concerns about the sustainability of data center capital spending, which capped broader market gains. In contrast, software names such as Salesforce (2.3%) and Oracle (2.3%) advanced, while Applied Materials (8.1%) and Arista Networks (4.8%) rallied sharply following stronger-than-expected earnings.