February Ends with a Market Slide

February Ends with a Market Slide

February ended on a down note, with four out of five major markets closing lower for the week. The Dow Jones was the exception, benefiting from strength in its limited constituents. The Nasdaq took the biggest hit, dropping 3.5%. The main reason for this pullback was a 4% decline in Information Technology, with NVIDIA leading the drop. Consumer Discretionary, the second-largest sector in the Nasdaq, also fell, losing 2%.

Even though 7 of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 posted gains, they weren’t enough to push the overall index higher, due to its cap-weighted structure. As a result, the S&P 500 dropped about 1% for the week and finished the month down by 1.5%.

February’s decline continues a pattern of alternating gains and losses in the S&P 500 since September of last year, following a strong 5-month rally.

In earnings news, over 825 companies reported last week. Despite the recent market weakness, 77% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported exceeded their earnings expectations, matching the 5-year average.

In political news, President Trump announced that 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will take effect on March 4th, along with a rise in tariffs on Chinese goods to 20%. This news put pressure on the markets. However, this news was ultimately eclipsed by the much more widespread fallout of the Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday.

Major Markets		YTD as of 02/28/2025
	Nasdaq
	Dow Jones Industrial
	S&P 500
	MSCI World
	MSCI EM
	Russell 2000
	Bar US Agg Bnd

S&P Sectors

YTD as of 02/28/2025

Comm. Services

Cons. Discretionary

Cons. Staples

Energy

Financials

Health Care

Industrials

Info. Technology

Materials

Real Estate

Utilities

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Finally, U.S. Treasury yields flattened as investors became more cautious about the future. The 5-year yield dropped by 23 basis points, helping bond indices, with the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate bond index up 1.26% for the week.

https://insight.factset.com/earnings-insight-infographic-q4-2024-by-the-numbers

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-71761a2894e13a050717afda4fd8131a

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The S&P 500® Index is a capitalization index of 500 stock-designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of stock representing all major industries. https://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500

The Dow Jones Industrial Average® (The Dow®), is a price-weighted measure of 30 U.S. blue-chip companies. The index covers all industries except transportation and utilities. https://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/dow-jones-industrial-average

The NASDAQ Composite Index measures all NASDAQ domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Today the NASDAQ Composite includes over 2,500 companies, more than most other stock market indexes. Because it is so broad-based, the Composite is one of the most widely followed and quoted major market indexes. https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/Index/Overview/COMP

The MSCI World Index, which is part of The Modern Index Strategy, is a broad global equity benchmark that represents large and mid-cap equity performance across 23 developed markets countries. It covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country and MSCI World benchmark does not offer exposure to emerging markets.

The MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index is designed to represent the performance of large- and mid-cap securities in 24 Emerging Markets countries of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. As of December 2017, it had more than 830 constituents and covered approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country. https://www.msci.com/

The S&P GSCI Crude Oil index provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark for investment performance in the crude oil market. https://us.spindices.com/indices

Companies in the S&P 500 Sector Indices are classified based on the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®). https://us.spindices.com/indices

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