Dow tumbles nearly 600 points, S&P 500 goes negative for 2026 in tech sector rout: Live updates

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Feb. 5, 2026.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

The three major averages closed solidly in the red on Thursday.

The S&P 500 declined 1.23% to end the session at 6,798.40, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1.59% to 22,540.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 592.58 points, or 1.20%, to 48,908.72.

— Sean Conlon

The Russell 2000‘s slide on Thursday pulled the small cap-focused index into the red for the week.

The index dropped around 2% in the session, on track for its worst day in nearly three months. The Russell 2000 is now down more than 1.5% on the week.

Russell 2000 vs. S&P 500

Still, the index has outperformed the broader market in the new year. The Russell 2000 has jumped more than 3% in 2026, while the S&P 500 has slipped 0.7%.

— Alex Harring

As consumers get ready to spend for their Super Bowl weekend parties, Wells Fargo says these major retailers will be the winner of the big game.

Analyst Edward Kelly wrote in a Thursday note that BJ’s and Albertsons are poised to get a boost from the football game. Wells Fargo estimated about 21% and 19% of BJ’s and Albertsons’ stores respectively have exposure to the New England Patriots’ and Seattle Seahawks’ — whose supporters span the Pacific Northwest — fan bases.

Kelly explained the case for BJ’s comes from potential food and TV sales over the weekend. He added that management in 2018 noted the Super Bowl in discussions over the company’s first-quarter performance, but impact could be greater now that BJ’s New England stores will have customers rushing to prepare for their team’s first Super Bowl appearance in seven years.

While Wells Fargo expects club model retailers to see a bigger boost than grocers, Kelly still sees upside for Albertsons. A potential Super Bowl boost “could help IDs as the company guides to EBITDA growth in ’26,” he said.

Both BJ’s and Albertsons have rallied — as investors have rotated into the consumer staples sector — heading into the game, both up more than 6.5% week-to-date.

BJ & ACI 5-day chart

Eli Lilly is “[f]iring on all cylinders,” Wells Fargo said after the pharma company’s recent earnings and revenue beat. Eli Lilly’s guidance also blew past expectations.

“While [the] commercial portfolio continues to shine, we like the focus on building & growing pipeline,” analyst Mohit Bansal said in a note Wednesday. “This sets up the company well for the long term.”
The launch of its oral GLP-1, orforglipron, is the key next focus, he said. It is currently awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

Bansal raised its price target on the stock to $1,280 from $1,200, suggesting nearly 16% upside from Wednesday’s close.

Shares gained 10% on Wednesday, but sank 9% on Thursday after Hims & Hers announced it will offer a copy of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill at a much cheaper cost.

— Michelle Fox

Citizens Bank is bolstering its outlook on Uber after the transportation company posted a weak earnings report and outlook.

The bank upgraded Uber to market outperform from market perform and set a price target of $100. This is a 35% upside from Wednesday’s close. The upgrade is “predicated on better valuation” though “headline risk around competition, specifically Tesla,” persists, analyst Andrew Boone wrote. Shares were up 2%.

Though competitors pose a threat, Boone believes that “Uber is doing an exceptional job on building out a strong network of AV partners that it can aggregate in the medium term.”

UBER 1-day

Corpay could be “a port in the storm,” according to Wolfe Research.

The corporate payments company posted a rosy earnings report, beating Wall Street expectations on earnings and guidance. Estimates are likely to move higher, which Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller says are driven by “greater than expected deal synergies” with financial institutions and “lower than expected interest expense.”

Wolfe Research reiterated an outperform rating and price target of $375 on Corpay. This suggests a 24% gain from Wednesday’s close. Shares were up 10% in afternoon trading.

CPAY 1-day

SLV 5D chart

The exchange-traded fund was on pace for its worst day since Jan. 30, when it fell 28.54%. Week to date, the ETF is down 8% and pacing for its second straight weekly loss after plunging 18.8% last week.

The fund has emerged as a favored silver play for retail traders, who stuck by it on Monday even after an enormous sell-off for the precious metal. Last Monday, individual investors sent about $171 million on net into the fund, marking the largest single-day flow of new funds into the trust.

— Gina Francolla, Lisa Kailai Han

Hims & Hers Health announced Thursday it will offer a cheaper copy of the newly launched Wegovy pill, sending shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly tumbling.

The telehealth company will charge $49 for its option, much less than the $149 Novo Nordisk charges for its branded pill.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk sank 7%, while Eli Lilly shed 6%. Eli Lilly is expected to launch its oral weight-loss pill in the first half of the year.

— Michelle Fox, Elsa Ohlen, Brandon Gomez

Bob’s Discount Furniture briefly rose as much as 11% in its New York Stock Exchange debut Thursday after selling 19.45 million shares in an initial public offering priced at $17 each to raise $330 million. The retailer gave back most of those early gains and was recently about 2% higher. J.P. Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley led the IPO.

The NYSE pegged Bob’s post-IPO market value at some $2.2 billion.

Electrical equipment makerForgent Power Solutionsalso came public Thursday after pricing its IPO at $27 a share, raising some $1.5 billion and giving it an estimated market capitalization of about $8.2 billion. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Morgan Stanley were joint lead managers for the IPO. Forgent shares hadn’t yet opened in early afternoon trading.

On Thursday, Bank of America downgraded semiconductor stock Qualcomm to a neutral rating from buy. Analyst Tal Liani’s revised price target of $155, down from $215, implies an upside of 4% from Qualcomm’s Wednesday close.

Liani said that the downgrade comes as a weaker handset market and share losses temper growth.

“The handset market, which makes up 74% of total QCT revenue, is expected to see a ~15% decline in unit volume this year vs -2% prior expectations, related to memory pricing volatility, with similar weakness flagged by ARM and Mediatek,” the analyst wrote. “In addition, the company has previously noted it is losing 25% share at Samsung, share at Apple is expected to decline in September, and China is likely to see seasonal slowdown after last quarter’s handset launch and holiday-driven strength.”

This downgrade comes after Qualcomm posted a fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue beat. However, shares plunged 7% in Thursday’s session as analysts downgraded the stock or cut their price targets.

QCOM 5D chart

The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) extended losses on Thursday, building on what several Wall Street trading desks described as an intense sell-off.

The fund was marginally lower in Thursday’s session. It dropped more than 3% on Wednesday, which marked its worst day since early April.

The momentum ETF, 5-day

The Street is is now rushing to make sense of the pullback and decide whether it’s a dip worth buying or a sign of bigger problems. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Alex Harring

Bitcoin, 1-day

VIX, 1-day

Job openings tumbled in December to their lowest level since September 2020 and the level of openings was nearly one million below the supply of unemployed workers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that available jobs totaled a seasonally adjusted 6.54 million, a drop of 386,000 from the downwardly revised November total. The openings rate as a share of the labor force fell to 3.9%, a decline of 0.3 percentage point, the lowest since April 2020 in the early days of the Covid pandemic, the BLS said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers slid further, falling to 0.87 to 1. During the height of the pandemic, the number topped 2 to 1.

Professional and business services led the decline, down 257,000, while other big losses came in retail (-195,000) and finance and insurance (-120,000).

Layoffs edged up, rising by 61,000, while quits were little changed and hires rose by 172,000.

— Jeff Cox

JPMorgan in a Wednesday note delivered insight into some of the trades retail investors made in January, the strongest month on record for retail activity.

The bank said that retail investors bought the dip in Microsoft after its post-earnings fall, when the stock declined about 10% on disappointing cloud services growth. On the other hand, retail traders took profit in their Meta holdings, after shares of the company jumped more than 10% on better-than-expected revenue guidance.

JPMorgan said retail traders continued to favor investing in technology names, noting that all other sectors had net selling from the group.

Retail investors didn’t buy the dips in crypto or precious metals at the end of January, and JPMorgan noted they haven’t bought weakness in semis over the past quarter and have turned sour on software stocks since the middle of last month.

— Davis Giangiulio

The three major averages opened in the red on Thursday.

The S&P 500 declined 1% shortly after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 342 points, or 0.7%.

— Sean Conlon

Here are some of the names moving before the opening bell:

• Qualcomm — The chipmaker tumbled 9.5% as a global memory shortage hurt its forecast. Qualcomm expects fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of between $2.45 and $2.65 per share on revenue of $10.2 billion to $11 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting $11.11 billion in sales and earnings of $2.89 per share.
• Estee Lauder — The cosmetics company sank 12% following its second-quarter financial results. Estee Lauder reported adjusted earnings of 89 cents per share, topping the 84 cents expected from analysts polled by LSEG. Its revenue of $4.23 billion was in line with expectations. The company also raised its full year earnings guidance to $2.05 to $2.25 per share, versus the $2.16 consensus estimate.
• Carrier Global — Shares fell 3% after the company missed on both the top and bottom lines. Carrier Global’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 34 cents per share, versus the 36 cents consensus estimate per FactSet. Revenue was $4.84 billion, compared to the $4.98 billion expected from analysts.

To see more premarket movers, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Initial jobless claims jumped last week, rising to their highest level since early December and countering a recent trend lower, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Following a heavy snow that blanketed a large swath of the South and East, first-time filings for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 231,000 for the week ended Jan. 31, up 22,000 from the previous period’s unrevised level and higher than the Dow Jones consensus for 212,000.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, also rose, up 25,000 to 1.84 million. However, the four-week moving average of continuing claims was at its lowest since Oct. 5, 2024.

Last week’s rise in claims came from spikes in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to unadjusted data.

— Jeff Cox

Bitcoindropped below $70,000 on Thursday amid a broader sell-off of risk assets.

It’s the first time bitcoin has fallen below $70,000 since November 2024. Bitcoin was last trading at around $69,332 at 7:31 a.m. ET, according to CoinMetrics data.

Some market watchers have suggested$70,000 is a key levelto watch and a break below that could trigger more falls for bitcoin. Read more.

Bitcoin, 1-day

Layoff plans hit their highest January total since the global financial crisis while hiring intentions reached their lowest since the same period, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.

U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009, while the economy was in the final months of its steepest downturn since the Great Depression. Read more.

— Jeff Cox

Pelotonposted a worse-than-expected holiday quarter on Thursday after shoppers failed to shell out for itsnew AI-driven product lineand turned away from higher subscription prices.

The connected fitness company missed Wall Street’s estimates on the top and bottom lines and fell short of its own internal sales targets in the three months ended Dec. 31 – typically the strongest for Peloton’s hardware revenue.

The company said it expects sluggish sales to continue in the current quarter. Peloton forecasts revenue between $605 million and $625 million, below expectations of $638 million, according to LSEG.Read more.

PTON, 1-day

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on Wednesday said that while the overall condition of the economy is solid, progress on inflation hit a plateau last year.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Miami, Cook noted that it’s estimated that the personal consumption price expenditures index rose 2.9% for the 12 months ending in December, still above the central bank’s 2% target. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was estimated to be 3% at the end of 2025.

“Those readings indicate that progress on inflation essentially stalled in 2025,” she said in prepared remarks. “I have long discussed how important it is to return inflation to our target. Such a plateau is frustrating after seeing significant disinflation in the preceding few years.”

She said that while the disinflationary trend has continued for housing services, core goods prices have seen “a notable uptick in inflation.” “That primarily reflects an increase in tariffs last year on a wide variety of imported products,” Cook said.

She noted, however, that it’s expected that these tariff increases should only lead to a one-time rise in the price level. “That raises the likelihood that the recent disinflationary trend could resume once tariffs effects recede into the rearview mirror,” Cook added.

—Darla Mercado

Ciena Corp, a provider of networking systems, is set to join the S&P 500.

The company will be replacing Dayforce, which software-focused investment firm Thoma Bravo acquired and took private for $12.3 billion.

Shares of Ciena rose about 4% in extended trading.

Ciena shares in the past day

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals will take Ciena’s place in the S&P Midcap 400, while ADT will join the S&P SmallCap 600. Arrowhead shares were little changed, while ADT advanced 4.5%.

These changes to the indexes will be effective before the bell on Monday, Feb. 9.

—Darla Mercado