By Connor Smith

Streak Snapped. The stock market's little winning streak ran into a wall of market worries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 268 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 dropped 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3%.

The S&P and Dow had each risen in three-consecutive sessions.

WTI crude oil futures jumped another 1.9% to $66.43 a barrel. President Donald Trump suggested at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, D.C., that the U.S. will decide whether to strike Iran in the next 10 days.

"Now we may have to take it a step further -- or we may not," the president said. "Maybe we're gonna make a deal."

Blue Owl Capital also sparked a slide in alternative asset managers after the firm halted quarterly redemptions at one of its private-credit funds. (My Barron's colleague Andrew Bary has the full story here.) Financials were the S&P 500's worst-performing sector.

Beyond Iran and private credit worries, there was a general risk-off mentality. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist of Interactive Brokers, told me that's not surprising, given the personal consumption expenditures price index for December and an advance estimate on fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth are set to be released tomorrow morning.

"Either can move markets, with PCE being particularly crucial after yesterday's FOMC minutes," he says.

There could also be another big surprise, depending on what the Supreme Court has planned for tomorrow. More on that below.

The Hot Stock: Omnicom Group +15.4% The Biggest Loser: EPAM Systems -17.0%

Best Sector: Utilities +1.1% Worst Sector: Financials -0.9%

No Sleep Until IEEPA

For weeks, the stock market was glued to every Supreme Court decision day for a potential ruling on President Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enact some tariffs.

"It was like all the rage to be anticipating it, and now everyone's forgotten about it," David Donabedian, senior investment strategist at CIBC Private Wealth, told me earlier this week.

Though updates on Iran, artificial intelligence, PCE and GDP are splitting Wall Street's focus for the moment, a ruling on the IEEPA tariffs could come as soon as tomorrow. In the meantime, the U.S. reported a trade deficit that wasn't much different from last year, my Barron's colleague Reshma Kapadia reports. Reshma writes:

While trade was choppy last year as companies maneuvered around the tariff threats and negotiations, the overall goods and services trade deficit for 2025 barely budged, hitting $901.5 billion compared with $903.5 billion in 2024, according to the Commerce Department. The deficit with China narrowed 31% to $202 billion, though it widened with other Asian countries, including Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Trump administration cited the country's wide trade deficit in justifying its use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for many of its global tariffs. Those tariffs -- including others threatened under IEEPA, representing about $130 billion in revenue -- are at issue in the Supreme Court ruling investors have been awaiting.

Lawyers are looking to Friday and then early next week for a possible ruling, though it could come as late as the summer. Since it has been three months since the oral argument, Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former trade official in both the first Trump and Biden administrations, thinks the court could issue multiple concurring and separate opinions, with the Justices relying on different rationales for the final ruling.

Donabedian says he's always watching for Wall Street fixations that move to the back-burner. A potential ruling goes could have massive implications for markets.

You can read more from Reshma on trade and a potential IEEPA ruling here.

The Calendar

Lamar Advertising and PPL release quarterly results tomorrow.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for December and reports its advance estimate of fourth-quarter gross-domestic-product growth.

S&P Global also releases both its Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers' Indexes for February.

What We're Reading Today

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   -- Lower Mortgage Rates Didn't Lure Home Buyers in January. Contract 
      Signings Dip. 

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February 19, 2026 19:50 ET (00:50 GMT)

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