Markets News, Feb. 25, 2026: Tech Stocks Help Major Indexes Close Sharply Higher Ahead of Nvidia Results

Major stock indexes ended higher for a second straight session Wednesday, powered by technology shares, ahead of a highly anticipated earnings report from AI chip giant Nvidia.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, benchmark S&P 500, and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.3%, 0.8%, and 0.6%, respectively.

Yesterday, the Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P 500 closed up a respective 1.1%, 0.8%, and 0.8%, rebounding from sharp declines Monday on worries about AI disruption and uncertainty over the state of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. In a nearly two-hour State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Trump defended his tariffs, some of which were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last Friday.

Investors were eagerly anticipating Nvidia’s quarterly results after the bell. (Read Investopedia’s live coverage of the results here.) Shares of the world’s most valuable company closed up 1.4%, while those of Salesforce (CRM), which also was set to report results after markets close, finished up 3.4%.

In post-earnings stock moves, shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) soared 35%, Cava Group (CAVA) surged 26%, Axon Enterprise (AXON) jumped 17%, GoDaddy (GDDY) sank 14%, Guinness parent Diageo (DEO) dropped 15%, First Solar (FSLR) plunged 13%, and Lowe’s (LOW) declined 5.5%.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), whose shares ended nearly 9% higher Tuesday after it inked a deal with Meta Platforms (META) to provide the Facebook parent with 6 gigawatts of AI computing power, was more than 1% lower.

Bitcoin was trading around $69,100 at 4 p.m. ET, up sharply from overnight lows below $63,900. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages, was at 4.05%, up from Tuesday’s close around 4.04%.

Gold futures rose 0.5% to about $5,200 an ounce, while silver futures advanced 2.4% to $89.60 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, edged 0.2% lower to $65.50 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of currencies, declined 0.2% to 97.69.