Your Evening Briefing

February 12, 2026

Tech drags down stocks amid continued AI anxiety

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all fell as tech was the worst-performing sector. Defensive havens utilities and consumer staples were the best-performers. Every Mag 7 stock traded lower and bitcoin also dipped. Gold and silver weren’t immune to the selloff as SPDR Gold Shares ETF and iShares Silver Trust fell.

Today’s economic data was mixed as January home sales slid but jobless claims fell. Investors await for tomorrow’s delayed January CPI, which is expected to show a 2.5% gain from a year ago.

Stocks that moved higher:

Seagate Technology Holdings, Micron, Sandisk, and Western Digital rose after Japanese chipmaker Kioxia issued strong guidance, saying some customers want to lock in supply through 2028 as opposed to traditional 12-month agreements.
Algorhythm Holdings, a company that previously produced consumer karaoke products, soared after publishing a whitepaper that says its SemiCab AI platform lets customers scale freight volumes by 300% to 400%.
Fastly skyrocketed after its Q4 results and 2026 guidance crushed estimates.
Crocs surged after strong Q4 results and a much better than expected 2026 earnings outlook.
Equinix jumped after issuing a better than expected Q1 and full-year sales outlook.
Viking Therapeutics climbed on plans to advance the oral version of its GLP-1 treatment.
McDonald’s rose after reporting Q4 results after the bell yesterday that beat earnings and revenue expectations as the Grinch Meal helped set new sales records.
Boeing ticked higher as the company touted improvements in its supply chain and progress in its “war on defects.”

Stocks that moved lower:

AppLovin cratered as investors worried about the competitive threat of Meta’s new AI tools and a slower ramp of its new ad portal.
Trucking stocks Old Dominion Freight, JB Hunt, C.H. Robinson, and Expediators International got pummeled on fears that AI will disrupt the freight forwarding and brokerage industry.
AST SpaceMobile slid after the company unveiled a $1B convertible note offering, debt repurchase, and stock sale.
Cisco sank as the surging costs of memory chips weighed on its margins, despite delivering a beat-and-raise Q2 result.
Shopify sank as its Q4 revenue beat estimates but missed on earnings.
Despite OpenAI investment gains driving a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, SoftBank ticked lower.

Massive AI expenses will start coming back to roost soon. Analysts say tech workers should be worried.

Hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of depreciation costs will begin weighing on companies soon, with analysts saying layoffs are likely. “GPUs don’t need as much stock-compensation expense,” one said. Read more.

Fresh off an IPO, SOLV Energy’s CEO sees a bright future with burgeoning demand, despite Trump’s distaste for solar

We spoke with George Hershman minutes after his company went public, surging in its first day on the Nasdaq.

Read more.

Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana says she thinks the company could reach 1 million weekly paid autonomous rides this year, Bloomberg reports. That would be more than double the roughly 400,000 weekly rides the Alphabet subsidiary is currently providing after quadrupling service in 2025. Read more.

Options trades to play for a short squeeze in Hims & Hers as the pain piles up
Hims short interest is jumping despite shares getting crushed.
China-made Tesla deliveries fell at home but surged abroad in January
Year over year, Tesla sales declined 45% in China, but exports jumped 71%.
Anthropic raises $30 billion, now valued at $380 billion
The company announced that it has a $14 billion annual revenue run-rate, and business subscriptions to Claude Code have quadrupled since the start of the year.
Apple’s smartphone market share is growing in China
As of January, it’s second only to Huawei.
Anthropic donates $20 million to pro-AI regulation PAC
The move is seen as an effort to push back against OpenAI’s lobbying efforts.
Standard Chartered lowers bitcoin projection to $100,000, sees bottom at $50,000 “in the next few months”
“Bitcoin prices will chop around for a few months, as we are lacking any strong active catalysts on the horizon.”
Russia blocks Meta’s WhatsApp, the country’s most popular messaging app
Despite the size of its user base, Russia isn’t a big market financially for Meta.
Van Leeuwen, America’s fastest-growing dessert chain, is looking to expand abroad
The boutique ice cream chain is looking to open at least 300 new shops in South Korea over the next decade.
Strategy was responsible for as much as 97.5% of all bitcoin buys from public companies in January
Strategy ended last month with 712,647 BTC on its balance sheet, or $47.9 billion.

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