The U.S. New York Stock Exchange closed mixed on the 25th (local time). The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which recorded an all-time high last week, fell for four consecutive trading days, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also closed lower due to the sharp drop of several big tech corporations. Concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy have heightened, resulting in an influx of bargain buying amid risk-averse sentiment.
On that day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the large-cap S&P 500 Index closed at 5,955.25, down 28.00 points (0.47%) from the previous session. The Nasdaq Index finished down 260.54 points (1.35%) at 19,026.39. The Dow Jones 30 Index traded at 43,621.16, up 159.95 points (0.37%) from the previous trading day.
The U.S. stock market has been broadly struggling since mid-last week as reports indicated the U.S. economy is weaker than expected. On this day, the economic analysis institution Conference Board (CB) announced that the consumer confidence index for February was 98.3 (based on 1985 being 100), a decline of 7.0 points from the previous month. This was the largest monthly drop since August 2021 and fell short of market expectations (102.5). The expectations index, containing short-term outlooks on income and the labor market, also recorded 72.9, down 9.3 points from the previous month, falling below the recession warning threshold (80) for the first time since June of last year.
Stephanie Gishard, chief economist of the global indicators section at the Conference Board, noted to the Associated Press that "concerns about trade and tariffs have surged to levels not seen since 2019," adding that "most notably, the opinions about the current administration and its policies dominated the responses."
Such economic pessimism has impacted stocks that individual investors were enthusiastic about. NVIDIA fell 2.8% on that day, and Tesla also dropped 8.4%. Conversely, shares of dwelling construction companies rose amid expectations that lower mortgage rates would benefit the construction industry. However, the market value of dwelling construction companies and retailers is relatively small compared to large tech stocks like NVIDIA, which did not prevent the S&P 500 from declining.