Market Brief – 19 Feb 2026

In today’s episode of Market Brief – After Hours, US markets close lower as liquidity concerns in private credit and rising geopolitical tension in the Middle East weigh on risk appetite. The Dow leads the decline, while the S&P 500 hovers near flat for the year and the Nasdaq extends its recent weakness amid renewed pressure on software and financial stocks.Oil prices surge on escalating US-Iran rhetoric, complicating the inflation outlook, while jobless claims data shows a still-resilient labour market. European equities retreat sharply, with losses across the STOXX 600, DAX, FTSE 100, CAC 40 and FTSE MIB as earnings disappointments add to the cautious tone. In contrast, Asian markets rally, led by strong gains in South Korea and Australia.The episode also features detailed Forex technical analysis across EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY, focusing on key moving averages defining short- and medium-term trend structure. Gold and Silver firm as geopolitical risk builds. Major stock movers include Omnicom’s buyback-driven surge, Etsy’s asset sale rally, and sharp declines in Avis and Wayfair following earnings misses. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.