The New York stock market began on a slightly lower note on the 18th (local time). As the New York stock market was closed for the previous day due to the federal holiday "Presidents' Day," this week's trading days have been shortened to four. The market continues to show a slight decline in the absence of special stimuli to invigorate it. Although the news that the Donald Trump administration's second term and Russia have entered into the first "peace negotiations" to end the Ukraine war seemed to support the market, the momentum did not sustain.
As of 10:30 a.m. on this day, in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a group of blue-chip stocks, recorded a decline of 88.66 points (0.20%) from the previous session at 44,457.42. The benchmark for large-cap stocks, the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index, was down 2.47 points (0.04%) at 6,112.16, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 40.89 points (0.20%) to 19,985.88. The S&P 500 index is approaching its intraday record high of 6,128.18 established on the 24th of last month. The three major indices had mixed results in the previous session on the 14th.
Before the opening of the market on this day, news was reported about the conclusion of the first high-level talks between the United States and Russia regarding the Ukraine war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for about five hours of negotiations. The meeting reportedly discussed principles for ending the Russia-Ukraine war, which is nearing its third anniversary, and the timeline for moving forward.
On this day, shares of Delta Air Lines began trading with a decline of less than 1%. The previous day, an accident occurred when a Delta passenger plane from Minneapolis landed on a snow-covered runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport, leading to an overturn. The aircraft had 80 passengers and crew members on board, and at least 18 sustained serious injuries, but there were no fatalities.
After announcing its first large-scale layoff plan in its history, shares of low-cost airline Southwest Airlines rose by less than 1%. Southwest Airlines plans to reduce about 1,750 jobs, which is 15% of its total workforce, including management, to achieve "expense reduction."
Shares of Venture Global, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier listed on the New York Stock Exchange on the 24th of last month, surged over 4% as large banks began assigning investment ratings with expectations and support such as "buy" and "increase weighting."
Last week, shares of semiconductor company Intel fell 2.20% after rising for four consecutive transaction days, bolstered by Vice President J.D. Vance's remarks about "protecting and nurturing U.S. semiconductor companies," but are showing close to a 10% surge today. This came after reports that the U.S. government is considering splitting Intel into the design and manufacturing sectors, with the design being sold to Broadcom and the manufacturing to Taiwan's TSMC.
On this day, Facebook's parent company Meta started trading with a 2% decline. Meta had risen for 20 consecutive transaction days prior to the last trading day, breaking records for the longest rising streak among Nasdaq 100 constituents, but it seems to have entered a phase of stabilization afterward.
Among the large technology stock group "Magnificent 7" (M7), NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Tesla began on an upward trend, while Apple, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Amazon, and Meta started lower. Although NVIDIA's share price has risen by less than 1%, it has risen for three consecutive transaction days, with analysts commenting that it has largely washed away the shock impact from the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup "DeepSeek."
Meanwhile, European markets are showing a collective upward trend on this day. The pan-European index STOXX600 rose by 0.38%, the German DAX index by 0.23%, and the British FTSE index by 0.10%.
International oil prices are also on the rise. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for March delivery rose 1.31% to $71.67 per barrel compared to the previous session, while the price for Brent crude for April delivery increased by 0.49% to $75.59 per barrel.