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# US stocks drift higher as gold, silver and bitcoin stabilize

February 16, 2026 | Staff Reporterd
A woman walks in front of SoftBank store in Ginza shopping district in Tokyo, Jan. 20, 2020.

NEW YORK — Monday saw a little increase in U.S. stocks after significant Asian market gains earlier in the day.

The S&P 500 increased by 0.5 percent, bringing it closer to the record high it reached two weeks ago. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 20 points, or less than 0.1%.

The very modest actions came after Japan's Nikkei 225 surged 3.9% higher to a record high. After the prime minister's party won a parliamentary election by a wide margin, stocks surged there. It is believed that this will empower Sanae Takaichi to enact reforms that will strengthen the market and economy.

The U.S. stock market closed last week on Wall Street after its greatest day since May, but a number of issues continue plague the market. This includes the argument that once stocks hit all-time highs, they are now just too costly.

Concerns have also been raised regarding whether the enormous sums of money that Big Tech and other businesses have spent on AI technology will provide enough revenue to justify the expenditures.

The market rose on Monday thanks to some of the winners from that push into AI. For instance, chip companies saw increases of 2.4% and 3.3%, respectively, with Nvidia and Broadcom. Two of the most powerful factors driving the S&P 500 higher were these two.

Following the appointment of a former Walmart executive as its new CEO, Kroger saw a 3.9% increase in stock price.

After the offshore drilling business announced that it will purchase Valaris in an all-stock deal worth $5.8 billion, Transocean recovered from an early loss and increased 5.9%. Valaris made a 34.3% leap.

After Novo Nordisk launched a lawsuit accusing Hims & Hers of illegally distributing versions of their weight-loss medications, the company suffered a 16% decline. The lawsuit comes after the US Food and Drug Administration took action to limit access to ingredients that are used to counterfeit well-known weight-loss drugs.

In a post on the X account for the company's communications team, Hims & Hers stated, "Big Phama is weaponizing the US judicial system to limit consumer choice."

The U.S.-listed stock of Novo Nordisk increased 3.6%.

After the AI platform announced that Carl Eschenbach, its CEO, was leaving, Workday's stock dropped 5.1%. Aneel Bhusri, a co-founder of the company, will return as CEO.

The S&P 500 increased 32.52 points to 6,964.82 overall. The Nasdaq composite increased 207.46 to 23,238.67, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 20.20 to 50,135.87.

Ahead of potentially market-moving developments later in the week, Treasury rates were largely stable in the bond market. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will provide its most recent monthly report on the state of the labor market. The most recent monthly consumer-level inflation reading will be released on Friday.

Expectations regarding the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy could be affected by either report. Interest rate cuts have been paused by the Fed, but they may begin sooner if the labor market weakens. On the other hand, too-hot inflation might prolong its hold.

The anticipation that the Fed will continue to lower interest rates later this year is one of the reasons why the U.S. stock market is still near records. While lower rates can help the economy, they can also make inflation worse.

Late Friday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell from 4.22% to 4.20%.

There was slightly additional firmness or stability in other markets that have experienced more erratic movements in recent weeks.

Gold settled at $5,079.40 an ounce, up 2%. After nearly tripling in price over the past 12 months, it has been fluctuating wildly, ranging from $4,500 to around $5,600. The price of silver, which has been much more volatile, increased 6.9% on Monday.

After fluctuating above $71,000 over the weekend, Bitcoin was again hovering slightly below that mark. Last week, it fell about $60,000, which was more than half of its October record.

With Japan's advance, indexes in foreign stock markets rose across Asia. Hong Kong and Shanghai markets increased 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively, while South Korea's Kospi jumped 4.1%.

In Europe, the gains were more modest, with France's CAC 40 rising 0.6% and Germany's DAX returning 1.2%.

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