Oil, Walmart and asset managers spoil investor sentiment: stocks fell

Stocks in the U.S. declined in trading on Thursday, February 19, after three consecutive days of growth. The sentiment was influenced by investors' concerns about a possible US war with Iran, which caused oil prices to reach a six-month high. Also, the market was under pressure due to the sell-off of securities of asset managers of funds and a weak forecast of Walmart on annual profits. As a result, the S&P 500 fell to the level of the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq Composite has already dropped by 2% since the beginning of January.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average blue-chip index fell the most on Thursday, down 0.54%.

- The S&P 500 broad market index 0.28%. It is now only 0.1% higher than it was at the start of 2026, CNBC notes.

- The Nasdaq Composite Technology Sector Index fell 0.31% on the day and was down more than 2% YTD.

- Brent futures were up 2.4% to $72 per barrel on Thursday. US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by 2.6% to $66.88 per barrel.

Investors on Thursday worried about rising oil prices amid growing tensions around the United States and Iran negotiating over Iran's nuclear program. U.S. President Donald Trump said that the next 10 days will make clear the further steps of the U.S., among the options is military action.

Due to rising fuel costs, shares of several airlines posted their worst performance in months on Thursday, MarketWatch writes. United Airlines announced it was cutting its loyalty program, and its shares collapsed 5.9%. That's the worst one-day drop since June 17, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Delta Air Lines shares fell 5.2%, the biggest decline since April 10.

Investors sold off securities of asset management companies on Thursday after Blue Owl Capital restricted investor withdrawals from one of its funds. Shares of Blue Owl fell 6%, Blackstone fell 5.4% and Apollo Global Management fell 5.2%.

Walmart also put pressure on the market. Its securities fell 1.4% after the company gave a profit forecast for the year worse than Wall Street expectations, despite strong results for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Software developer stocks came under renewed pressure after a slight recovery on Wednesday, with Salesforce losing more than 1%, Intuit losing more than 2% and Cadence Design Systems losing 2.8%. The sector remains vulnerable amid concerns that AI could disrupt industry business models, CNBC writes. The day before, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch told the channel that more than 50% of corporate software could be replaced by AI technologies.

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