Wall Street is bracing for President Donald Trump’s new tariff plans next week following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, while traders are wary of escalating tensions with Iran and keeping an eye on Nvidia’s latest earnings. Stocks oscillated between gains and losses on Friday after the high court ruled that President Trump had wrongly invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to enforce reciprocal tariffs. In response, President Trump said he would use authority contained in other trade laws to impose a new 10% “universal tariff.” Major market averages initially rallied following the Supreme Court ruling, but rebounded after a sell-off as investors hoped tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners would ease, refunds would be issued to affected companies and inflation could be contained. “Wall Street and Main Street will be grappling with trade and tariff issues for some time to come,” Tim Holland, chief investment officer at Orion Wealth Management, said Friday. Other details remain relevant to the market. In one example, a refund issue that would force importers who paid IEEPA tariffs to repay billions of dollars to the United States was dragged back to lower courts, laying the groundwork for a lengthy legal battle. “We expect the process for companies to receive tariff refunds to be long and arduous, and litigants will need to litigate individually or join class action lawsuits (rather than automatic refunds),” Raymond James managing director and Washington policy analyst Ed Mills said Friday. But unless Trump can win support from Congress, future tariffs may not be as comprehensive. If inflation eases as a result, the Fed could have more room to cut interest rates. Wall Street will listen carefully to other policy signals from the White House. President Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, which could include an ultimatum to Iran, Barclays’ trading desk said. President Trump last week encouraged Iran to reach a deal over its nuclear program, warning that “bad things” could happen if it didn’t. The president appears to have set an unspecified deadline of 10 to 15 days for the United States to take military action. And Nvidia’s financial results are scheduled to be released on Wednesday. Jensen Hwang’s chipmaker is one of only two Magnificent Seven stocks to make money on the stock market this year, but Nvidia faces high expectations for beating analysts’ expectations and raising expectations in its latest report, reassuring investors that its bet on artificial intelligence remains intact. Markets on edge As a result, stock markets are on edge heading into the weekend. While historical geopolitical risks have not had a material impact on stock markets, investors may be prompted to reduce their exposure now, with stock prices only a few percentage points below their all-time highs. Moreover, any potential disappointment from Nvidia, by far the largest stock in the S&P 500, could further worsen sentiment. Justin Bergner, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said he’s taking a defensive position in the current climate, with a modest overweight on consumer staples, health care and utilities stocks, given the potential for a 10% to 15% decline, which is common in midterm election years. “I feel like at some point, something might give,” Bergner said. Still, money managers are holding out hope that last year’s One Big Beautiful Built fiscal stimulus package – higher government spending and consumer and corporate tax cuts – will take effect in the coming months and reverse the nascent economic downturn. Week Ahead Calendar All Time (ET). Monday, February 23rd 10am Endurance Orders (December) 10am Factory Orders (December) Earnings: Keysight Technologies, Diamondback Energy, Domino’s Pizza, Dominion Energy Tuesday, February 24th 9am, FHFA Home Price Index (December) 10am, Consumer Confidence Index (February) 10am, Wholesale Inventory (December) 9pm 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) Earnings: First Solar, Axon Enterprise, Workday, The Mosaic Co., HP, GoDaddy, CoStar Group, Fidelity National Information Services, American Tower, Home Depot, NRG Energy, Keurig Dr Pepper, EOG Resources Wednesday, February 25 Earnings: Salesforce, Nvidia, TKO Group Holdings, Synopsys, VICI Properties, Universal Health Services, Paramount Skydance, Agilent Technologies, The Trade Desk, Lowe’s Companies, TJX Company, Pinnacle West Capital, Raymond James Financial, APA Corp. Thursday, February 26th, 8:30am First Billing (2/21) Revenue: Block, Solventum, Dell Technologies, SBA Communications, NetApp, Autodesk , Intuit, Coterra Energy, Sempra, Public Service Enterprise Group, Vistra, The JM Smucker Co., Viatris, Hormel Foods, Qnity Electronics, The AES Corp. Friday, February 27th 8:30 a.m. Producer Price Index (January) 8:30 a.m. Wholesale Inventories (January) 9:45 a.m. Chicago PMI (February) A.M. 10:00 Construction expenditure (December)
