Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 19, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
U.S. markets were volatile on Thursday, weighed down by escalating tensions between Washington and Iran and renewed concerns about private credit.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would decide within 10 days whether to attack Iran. Concerns over oil supplies in the event of military action in Iran pushed oil prices up nearly 2% in U.S. trading, rising further in Asian time.
meanwhile, blue owl capital The sale of $1.4 billion in loan assets has tightened investor liquidity and raised concerns about the stability of private credit markets. The company’s stock price fell nearly 6%, and shares of other asset managers also fell. black stone and Apollo Global Managementalso withdrew.
“This is a canary in the coal mine,” Verdad Capital founder and advisor Dan Rasmussen told CNBC.
The market fell due to a series of concerns. of S&P500 It fell 0.28%, nearing its flat line for the year. of Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.54%, Nasdaq Composite The stock closed 0.31% lower.
In Europe, airbus Shares fell 6% on Thursday after the aircraft maker said deliveries this year would be lower than analysts expected. CEO Guillaume Faury told CNBC that the supplier-driven engine shortage is “not satisfactory.”
However, there are also positive sentiments at India’s AI Impact Summit. CNBC spoke microsoft President Brad Smith, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Qualcomm Head Cristiano Amon shared his views on the artificial intelligence industry, semiconductor manufacturing, competition with China, and more.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told CNBC that the memory chip shortage remains a limiting factor for agent AI.
Nevertheless, Nvidia seems to be going full steam ahead with its efforts to become an AI company. CNBC confirmed that the chipmaker plans to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI. That would give the startup a pre-money valuation of $730 billion.
—CNBC’s Ashley Caputo, Spencer Kimball and Hugh Leask contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
Blue Owl will sell $1.4 billion in loan assets held in three private debt funds to curb liquidity payments to investors, the private markets and alternative asset manager announced Wednesday. The concern is that years of ultra-low interest rates and narrow yield spreads have encouraged risky behavior by lenders.
Japan’s headline inflation rate fell to 1.5% in January, the lowest level since March 2022. The reading ended a 45-month streak in which inflation had been above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. Core inflation, which excludes fresh food prices, fell to 2%.
Shares in Japanese drugmaker Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals fell more than 12% on Friday in what appeared to be profit-taking, a day after the government approved the company’s iPS cell-based treatments for Parkinson’s disease and heart disease.
Major U.S. indexes fell on Thursday as investors moved away from financial and software stocks. Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday. Korean KospiThe stock rose more than 2%, hitting a new record high for the second day in a row.
(PRO) Analysts still like Airbus stock despite the aircraft maker giving conservative guidance for its 2026 delivery timeline. Here’s why:
And finally…
India is pushing hard on AI, but is there any substance behind the headlines?
Three years ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told an Indian audience that “it’s completely hopeless to compete with us on a training-based model, but we should try anyway.” Altman retracted his comments the next day.
A few years later, China’s DeepSeek emerged as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other US tech giants’ chatbots. Indians resurfaced Altman’s comments and declared that China had already proven Altman wrong.
But can India compete with the US?
— Amitoy Singh
