{"id":58719,"date":"2026-02-18T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/nasdaq-rallies-1-as-precious-metals-surge-google-unveils-pixel-10a-at-499\/58719\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:08:28","slug":"nasdaq-rallies-1-as-precious-metals-surge-google-unveils-pixel-10a-at-499","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/nasdaq-rallies-1-as-precious-metals-surge-google-unveils-pixel-10a-at-499\/58719\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasdaq Rallies 1% as Precious Metals Surge; Google Unveils Pixel 10a at $499"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nasdaq Composite leads market gains, rising 1.01%<\/strong> as technology stocks rebound from recent volatility.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Precious metals hit historic highs<\/strong>, with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/silver\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"silver price today\">Silver<\/a> jumping over 5% to $77.55\/oz<\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/gold\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"gold price today\">Gold<\/a> nearing the $5,000\/oz milestone<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alphabet Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/GOOGL\">GOOGL<\/a>)<\/strong> maintains its aggressive pricing strategy, <strong>unveiling the Pixel 10a smartphone at $499<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Spain becomes the first nation<\/strong> to officially enter the race for the <strong>European Central Bank (ECB) presidency<\/strong> to succeed Christine Lagarde.<\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. labor market data reveals a &quot;lopsided&quot; economy<\/strong>, where healthcare has added <strong>1.6 million jobs in 18 months<\/strong> while other sectors stall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>Nasdaq Composite<\/strong> surged <strong>1.01%<\/strong> in mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching <strong>22,615.68<\/strong> as investors rotated back into growth and technology names. This rally followed a cautious market open where the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/dowjones\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average<\/strong> was up a modest <strong>0.05%<\/strong> at <strong>49,559.23<\/strong>, while the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/sp500\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"snp500 today\">S&amp;P 500<\/a><\/strong> gained <strong>0.18%<\/strong> to reach <strong>6,855.81<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alphabet Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/GOOGL\">GOOGL<\/a>)<\/strong> provided a catalyst for tech sentiment by officially unveiling the <strong>Pixel 10a smartphone<\/strong>. The device is priced at <strong>$499<\/strong>, keeping the entry price unchanged from previous models despite rising component costs. The new handset features the <strong>Tensor G5 chipset<\/strong> and advanced AI photography tools, with Google promising <strong>seven years of software support<\/strong> to maintain its lead in the mid-range value segment.<\/p>\n<p>In the commodities market, safe-haven assets saw explosive demand. <strong>Spot Silver<\/strong> skyrocketed more than <strong>5% to $77.55\/oz<\/strong>, while <strong>Spot Gold<\/strong> rose nearly <strong>2% to $4,977.42\/oz<\/strong>. <em>Analysts suggest that persistent geopolitical tensions and a weakening broader labor market are driving investors toward physical assets as Gold eyes the psychological $5,000 barrier.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The labor market is showing signs of significant divergence, according to recent data. While the <strong>healthcare sector<\/strong> has been a powerhouse\u2014adding jobs for <strong>18 straight months<\/strong> for a total of <strong>1.6 million<\/strong>\u2014hiring in the broader economy is slowing sharply. <em>Excluding healthcare, the labor market appears much weaker than headline figures suggest, raising concerns about the sustainability of consumer spending outside of essential services.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Europe, the race to lead the <strong>European Central Bank<\/strong> has officially begun. <strong>Spain<\/strong> is the first country to submit a candidacy for the succession of <strong>Christine Lagarde<\/strong>, whose term is nearing its end. According to reports from the <em>Financial Times<\/em>, Madrid is moving early to secure influence in Frankfurt, with former Bank of Spain Governor <strong>Pablo Hern\u00e1ndez de Cos<\/strong> viewed as a front-runner for the position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Nasdaq Composite leads market gains, rising 1.01% as technology stocks rebound from recent volatility. Precious metals hit historic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[95,1684,2029,3768,4037,5437,5591],"class_list":["post-58719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-nasdaq","tag-gold","tag-silver","tag-googl","tag-ecb","tag-spain","tag-labor-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}