{"id":58980,"date":"2026-02-23T13:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-slumps-as-financials-lead-broad-market-retreat\/58980\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:09:28","slug":"dowjonestodaydow-jones-slumps-as-financials-lead-broad-market-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-slumps-as-financials-lead-broad-market-retreat\/58980\/","title":{"rendered":"[DowJonesToday]Dow Jones Slumps as Financials Lead Broad Market Retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/dowjones\/today.aspx\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average (<a href=\"\/stock\/%5EDJI\">^DJI<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>715.91 (-1.44%)<\/strong> points today, reaching <strong>48,910.06<\/strong>, while <strong>Dow Futures (<a href=\"\/stock\/YM=F\">YM=F<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>740.00 (-1.49%)<\/strong> points. The primary narrative driving the market lower is a sharp retreat in the <strong>financial and technology sectors<\/strong>, sparked by a <strong>hawkish shift in monetary policy expectations<\/strong> and rising concerns over <strong>consumer credit health<\/strong>. Investors are rotating out of cyclical names in favor of <strong>defensive havens<\/strong> as economic uncertainty regarding interest rate trajectories for the remainder of 2026 takes center stage, following a series of <strong>stronger-than-expected inflation prints<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The financial sector faced the brunt of the selling pressure, with <strong>American Express (<a href=\"\/stock\/AXP\">AXP<\/a>)<\/strong> leading the decline, as it was down <strong>7.68%<\/strong> at <strong>$319.55<\/strong>. Similarly, <strong>JPMorgan Chase (<a href=\"\/stock\/JPM\">JPM<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>4.05%<\/strong> at <strong>$298.37<\/strong>, and <strong>Goldman Sachs (<a href=\"\/stock\/GS\">GS<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>3.40%<\/strong> at <strong>$891.74<\/strong>. Technology and software stocks also struggled significantly; <strong>Salesforce (<a href=\"\/stock\/CRM\">CRM<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>5.36%<\/strong> at <strong>$175.45<\/strong>, while <strong>IBM (<a href=\"\/stock\/IBM\">IBM<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>4.11%<\/strong> and <strong>Microsoft (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>2.68%<\/strong>. Additionally, <strong>Nike (<a href=\"\/stock\/NKE\">NKE<\/a>)<\/strong> was down <strong>4.69%<\/strong> at <strong>$62.35<\/strong> amid broader retail concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the broad market downturn, <strong>consumer staples and healthcare<\/strong> stocks provided a defensive buffer. <strong>Procter &amp; Gamble (<a href=\"\/stock\/PG\">PG<\/a>)<\/strong> was up <strong>2.05%<\/strong> at <strong>$164.01<\/strong>, emerging as the top performer. Other notable gainers included <strong>Verizon (<a href=\"\/stock\/VZ\">VZ<\/a>)<\/strong>, which was up <strong>1.87%<\/strong>, and <strong>Walmart (<a href=\"\/stock\/WMT\">WMT<\/a>)<\/strong>, which was up <strong>1.75%<\/strong>. Healthcare giants also saw positive momentum as investors sought stability, with <strong>Johnson &amp; Johnson (<a href=\"\/stock\/JNJ\">JNJ<\/a>)<\/strong> up <strong>1.66%<\/strong> at <strong>$246.30<\/strong> and <strong>Amgen (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMGN\">AMGN<\/a>)<\/strong> up <strong>1.18%<\/strong> at <strong>$379.11<\/strong>. This &quot;risk-off&quot; sentiment highlights a clear preference for <strong>value-oriented equities<\/strong> over speculative growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down 715.91 (-1.44%) points today, reaching 48,910.06, while Dow Futures (YM=F) was down [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50368,"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":[6803],"tags":[75,174,277,808,1587,3016,3785,4380],"class_list":["post-58980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summary-snippets","tag-crm","tag-jpm","tag-wmt","tag-axp","tag-vz","tag-dji","tag-pg","tag-stock-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58980","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=58980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}