Nasdaq, S&P 500 slide as investors digest flood of tech earnings, government shutdown

Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) 2026 sales will likely decline by 5% to 13% as the company’s headline Ozempic and Wegovy medications face stiffer competition and a White House push to cut drug pricing, the company said in an outlook report on Tuesday.

Shares plunged by more than 14% in the minutes after the release. Analysts had only expected a sales decline of 1.4%, according to Bloomberg.

Novo Nordisk sales grew by 10% in 2025 as the popularity of its weight management drugs Ozempic and Wegovy exploded; however, the Danish drugmaker has faced greater competition from rivals such as Eli Lilly (LLY).

Novo has also faced come-and-go threats from compounded semaglutide makers such as Hims (HIMS), which distributed a generic GLP-1 before the FDA banned the practice in 2025.

In its release, Novo attributed the drop in sales to “continued volume penetration from GLP-1 treatments and market expansion, mainly within obesity, as well as intensifying competition and negative impacts from the compound patent expiry of the semaglutide molecule in certain markets” internationally.

Its US sales impact is due to “current prescription trends for the injectable GLP-1 portfolio, intensifying competition as well as negative impact from reduced obesity medication coverage in Medicaid.”

The company also said in the Tuesday release that its adjusted operating profit growth would also fall by an equal 5% to 13%.

The partial government shutdown looks likely to soon come to a close as the House of Representatives prepares for a final vote to approve five spending bills while pushing off a decision on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Our Ben Werschkul reports:

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The Trump administration is preparing to issue a general license allowing US oil companies to begin drilling for fossil fuels in Venezuela, roughly a month after the extraction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, according to Bloomberg.

The move comes as the White House is looking to unlock Venezuela’s vast hydrocarbon stores, with roughly 300 billion barrels of crude oil underfoot. The prospective license could be issued by the Treasury Department as early as this week, Bloomberg reported.

Such a decision by the Treasury Department would be the second such step as the US looks to license a rebuilding of the South American country’s oil economy. In late January, the US issued a general license allowing companies to buy and sell Venezuelan oil, which commodity trading houses such as Trafigura and Vitol have jumped on.

As the US Navy blockade stopped oil from leaving the country, exported hydrocarbons have built up in storage tanks and on oil tankers, meaning that a large amount of oil is ready to be sold without any extraction activity. This newer license the Treasury Department is planning to issue would allow upstream operators to begin drilling operations, taking new oil out of the ground.

Reactions have been mixed as the Trump administration — and President Trump himself — has pressured US oil and gas operators to consider investments in Venezuela.

Chevron (CVX), the only US oil company to continue operating under Hugo Chavez and Maduro, has not yet announced any plans to meaningfully boost its current production rates, and Exxon Mobil (XOM) CEO Darren Woods called the country “uninvestable” in its current state during a meeting at the White House in January.

Walmart (WMT) passed the $1 trillion market capitalization mark Tuesday morning as shares ticked up by over 1%, buoyed by positive investor sentiment as John Furner replaced Doug McMillon as CEO at the start of February.

In crossing the $1 trillion mark, Walmart made its way onto a short list of the world’s largest companies that is overwhelmingly dominated by the biggest tech players.

The investment advisory firm Piper Sandler raised its Walmart price target to $130 Tuesday morning on the company’s apparel strength, and Bank of America said in a recent client note that Walmart could benefit from tax refund provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The company’s shares have picked up more than 12% since the start of the year. Walmart is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 19.

Shares in Galaxy Digital (GLXY) fell by more than 4% after the company disclosed Tuesday morning that it lost nearly $500 million and posted negative adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter, driven by “depreciation of digital asset prices in the quarter.”

Michael Novogratz’s digital assets-focused financial services firm reported a fourth quarter adjusted loss per share of $1.08, falling below analyst estimates for a loss per share of $0.92. Galaxy Digital also missed on revenue for the quarter, reporting $10.2 billion in revenue against analyst estimates of $12.15 billion.

The company said in a press release announcing the earnings that its loss in crypto-driven revenue reflects “a softer macro environment and lower industry trading volumes and onchain activity.”

Galaxy Digital also noted that its digital assets trading volumes declined by approximately 40% quarter-on-quarter, “reflecting softer client activity following a record Q3.”

In Galaxy Digital’s data center division, the company said it “remains on track to deliver 133MW of critical IT load to CoreWeave in the first half of 2026” and that it “received ERCOT approval for an additional 830 MW of power capacity,” bringing the total approved capacity for its Helios campus to 1.6 gigawatts. bringing Helios’ total approved capacity to more than 1.6 gigawatts

The US stock market mostly ticked higher at Tuesday’s open as earnings rolled in, with Palantir’s (PLTR) outlook fueling faith in AI demand and precious metals jumping to continue their wild ride.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), S&P 500 (^GSPC), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) all rose after the blue-chip benchmark led gains on Monday with a 500-point advance.

The S&P 500 is eyeing a fresh record after Palantir’s surprisingly strong quarterly results signaled continued strength in the AI trade. Elsewhere in the sector, investors are watching posturing Nvidia (NVDA) and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) amid headlines hinting at a cooling relations between the high-profile AI players.

Market attention now turns to chipmaker AMD’s (AMD) after-hours earnings report, which could provide the best look yet at the AI trade amid those fears of Big Tech overspending and an AI bubble, and updates from Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOG) later this week.

Gold (GC=F), silver (SI=F), copper (HG=F), and crude oil (CL=F, BZ=F) all picked up through Tuesday morning in a reversal to the major commodities sell-off on Monday.

Walt Disney (DIS) named parks division chief Josh D’Amaro as the company’s next CEO, succeeding long-time leader Bob Iger. Shares ticked up by more than 1% in premarket trading on the news.

D’Amaro has led Disney’s parks and cruise businesses — which operate under the company’s Experiences unit — since 2020. He joined Disney in 1998.

D’Amaro will replace Iger on March 18, according to Disney’s statement on Tuesday morning. Iger, who has effectively been at the helm of Disney since 2005, will remain on Disney’s board through the end of the year.

Iger stepped down from the CEO role in February 2020 to be replaced by Bob Chapek, but he was reappointed as CEO in November 2022 after Chapek was ousted from the company.

As part of the executive move, Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment alongside D’Amaro, has been named Disney’s president and chief creative officer, the company said.

The decision by Disney to appoint D’Amaro to the chief executive role caps off years-long speculation over which of Iger’s top deputies would be tapped to lead one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

Read the breaking news story.

PayPal (PYPL) stock fell 15% before the bell on Tuesday after issuing a disappointing profit forecast for 2026 and reporting fourth quarter earnings below Wall Street estimates. The online payment company said it had been pressured by weaker US retail spending and slow growth within its branded checkout segment.

The group also named HP’s (HP) Enrique Lores as president and CEO, effective ‌March 1.

Reuters reports:

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AES Corp (AES) stock jumped 7% before the bell on Tuesday after BlackRock Inc.’s (BLK) Global Infrastructure Partners said be teaming up with EQT AB (6EQ.F, EQBBF) in its bid to buy the power company.

Bloomberg News reports:

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Intel (INTC) stock rose almost 3% before the bell on Tuesday following the news that a subsidiary of Softbank (SFTBY, 9984.T), Saimemory, had signed a partnership deal with the US chipmaker. The agreement will help advance the commercialization of next-generation memory technology, according to an announcement from the companies.

Sandisk (SNDK) stock rose 4% during premarket hours after Bernstein SocGen raised its price target on the technology company to $1,000 from $580 and maintained an Outperform rating, citing the company’s positive second-quarter earnings report.

Micron (MU) stock edged higher before the bell on Tuesday, climbing 2% after launching a $24 billion high-tech storage facility in Singapore to support its AI initiatives.

AMD (AMD) rose 2% during premarket hours on Tuesday. The chip company is preparing to report its fourth quarter earnings today. AMD stock has been up 10% over the past month and risen 14% year to date.

Alibaba’s (BABA) US shares dipped 2% before the bell today following a sell off in Chinese technology stocks due to concerns about authorities placing a tax on internet firms.