Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 19, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
U.S. markets were volatile on Thursday, weighed down by escalating tensions between Washington and Iran and renewed concerns about private credit.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said Wednesday that “there are many reasons and arguments for an attack on Iran,” and President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would decide within 10 days whether to take action.
Oil prices rose nearly 2% on concerns about oil supplies in the event of military action in Iran.
meanwhile, blue owl capital The sale of $1.4 billion in loan assets has tightened investor liquidity and raised concerns about the stability of private credit markets. The company’s stock price fell nearly 6%, and shares of other asset managers also fell. black stone and Apollo Global Managementalso withdrew.
Software stocks also ended the day in the red. sales force, intuition and cadence design system drop down.
The market fell due to a series of concerns. of S&P500 It fell 0.28%, nearing its flat line for the year. of Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.54%, Nasdaq Composite The stock closed 0.31% lower.
However, there are also positive sentiments at India’s AI Impact Summit. CNBC spoke microsoft Brad Smith, President, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Qualcomm Head Cristiano Amon shared his views on the artificial intelligence industry, semiconductor manufacturing, competition with China, and more.
In early news from Asia, Japan reported that headline inflation fell to 1.5% in January, the lowest level since March 2022 and below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for the first time in 46 months. Investors should also keep an eye on China’s loan prime rate decision, which will be announced later in the day.
—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Spencer Kimball and Hugh Leask contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
Blue Owl has sold $1.4 billion in loan assets held in three private debt funds, the private markets and alternative asset manager announced Wednesday. Blue Owl said that following the agreement, one fund will end regular quarterly liquidity payments to investors.
Walmart’s fourth-quarter results beat profit and revenue expectations as gains in e-commerce, advertising and third-party markets boosted the company’s business. However, Walmart’s full-year profit forecast was lower than expected.
The U.S. trade deficit totaled $901 billion in 2025, capping a year in which imbalances remained essentially unchanged despite efforts by the Trump administration to close the gap.
Major U.S. indexes fell on Thursday as investors moved away from financial and software stocks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.53% as investors weighed gains in the likes of Airbus, Renault and Nestle.
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And finally…
India is pushing hard on AI, but is there any substance behind the headlines?
Three years ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told an Indian audience that “it’s completely hopeless to compete with us on a training-based model, but we should try anyway.” Altman retracted his comments the next day.
A few years later, China’s DeepSeek emerged as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other US tech giants’ chatbots. Indians resurfaced Altman’s comments and declared that China had already proven Altman wrong.
But can India compete with the US?
— Amitoy Singh
