More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

---

Equity Alert: US equity indices end lower; Dow Jones snaps 3-day win streak

 

MUMBAI--0734 IST--Equity indices in the US ended flat to lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 staying almost unchanged and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index snapping its three-session winning streak. This came despite better-than-expected non-farm payrolls data for January, which was delayed due to a partial government shutdown, eased tensions over the economy but did indicate that the US Federal Reserve might hold back on rate cuts.

 

The non-farm payrolls data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a job growth of 130,000 in January, CNBC reported. This was significantly higher than the addition of 55,000 jobs estimated by economists polled by Dow Jones and was also higher than 48,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate for the country was at 4.3%, slightly lower than the 4.4% estimated by Dow Jones. However, the growth was restricted within a few sectors, primarily in the healthcare related fields, which saw an addition of 124,000 positions alone, double the growth in 2025. This also comes at a time when every month in 2025 has seen downward revisions. "This is generally a good sign, as you'd expect, but we are certainly not out of the woods yet with respect to the labor market. ‘Moving in the right direction' would be a better description. The unemployment rate is gradually improving, but there are still plenty of signs that the labor market remains exceedingly weak," Rick Wedell, chief investment officer at RFG Advisory was reported as saying.

 

The indices started the session well, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reaching their highest level in more than a week, after the release of the US jobs data. However, indices lost their gains as traders cut back on bets for rate cuts, Reuters reported. Traders are still expecting one 25-basis-point rate cut. However, the probability of rates holding steady for the month rose to 42.4% from 24.8% on Dec. 10, the CME Fedwatch tool showed.

 

Software stocks, which were under pressure last week amid concerns over artificial intelligence disrupting their operations, were lower for the session again, CNBC reported. Shares of Salesforce were down over 4% and those of ServiceNow were down 5.5%. Stocks that would gain from a faster economy, such as shares of companies involved in making AI data centres, were higher. Shares of digital infrastructure company Vertiv Holdings Co. surged 24.5% after its fourth-quarter earnings beat estimates, with the company providing a strong outlook for 2026 as well. Shares of Caterpillar were up over 4?ter Argus Research raised its target price on the stock to $820 from $625, Reuters reported.

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Wednesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6941.47	0.00
NASDAQ Composite	23066.47	(-)0.16
Dow Jones Industrial Average	50121.40	(-)0.13

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 90.70

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

NSE: National Stock Exchange
NYSE: New York Stock Exchange
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange
SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India
RBI: Reserve Bank of India

Internet links:
Securities and Exchange Board of India - http://www.sebi.gov.in
Bombay Stock Exchange - http://www.bseindia.com
National Stock Exchange of India - http://www.nseindia.com
Directory of Indian government websites - http://goidirectory.nic.in
Indian Ministry of Finance - http://www.finmin.nic.in
Reserve Bank of India - http://rbi.org.in
Controller General of Accounts, Government of India - http://www.cga.nic.in
Government's Press Information Bureau - http://www.pib.nic.in

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.