{"id":59192,"date":"2026-02-26T17:09:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-edges-higher-as-software-and-financials-offset-semiconductor-slump\/59192\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:09:29","slug":"dowjonestodaydow-jones-edges-higher-as-software-and-financials-offset-semiconductor-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-edges-higher-as-software-and-financials-offset-semiconductor-slump\/59192\/","title":{"rendered":"[DowJonesToday]Dow Jones Edges Higher as Software and Financials Offset Semiconductor Slump"},"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 <strong>up 17.05 (0.0345%) points today<\/strong>, closing at <strong>49,499.20<\/strong>. Despite a volatile trading session, the blue-chip index managed to eke out a marginal gain, primarily driven by strong performance in the <strong>enterprise software<\/strong> and <strong>financial sectors<\/strong>. This resilience helped offset a significant drag from the <strong>semiconductor industry<\/strong>, specifically a sharp decline in <strong>AI-related equities<\/strong>. The main narrative for <strong>Thursday, February 26th, 2026<\/strong>, centered on a <strong>sector rotation<\/strong> as investors moved capital from high-valuation hardware manufacturers into established software providers and credit services following positive guidance.<\/p>\n<p>Leading the charge for the bulls was <strong>Salesforce (<a href=\"\/stock\/CRM\">CRM<\/a>)<\/strong>, which surged <strong>3.36%<\/strong> to close at <strong>$197.79<\/strong>. The cloud giant\u2019s gains were bolstered by positive sentiment surrounding enterprise AI integration. Similarly, <strong>IBM (<a href=\"\/stock\/IBM\">IBM<\/a>)<\/strong> rose <strong>1.98%<\/strong> to <strong>$242.20<\/strong>, while <strong>American Express (<a href=\"\/stock\/AXP\">AXP<\/a>)<\/strong> added <strong>1.89%<\/strong> to finish at <strong>$332.85<\/strong>. Other notable performers included <strong>3M (<a href=\"\/stock\/MMM\">MMM<\/a>)<\/strong>, up <strong>1.32%<\/strong>, and <strong>Visa (<a href=\"\/stock\/V\">V<\/a>)<\/strong>, which climbed <strong>1.17%<\/strong>. The financial sector saw broad support with <strong>JPMorgan Chase (<a href=\"\/stock\/JPM\">JPM<\/a>)<\/strong> gaining <strong>1.03%<\/strong> and <strong>Goldman Sachs (<a href=\"\/stock\/GS\">GS<\/a>)<\/strong> rising <strong>0.91%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, the market faced heavy pressure from <strong>Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>)<\/strong>, which plummeted <strong>5.05%<\/strong> to <strong>$185.52<\/strong>. This sharp decline in the semiconductor leader acted as the primary anchor on the broader tech landscape. Healthcare and industrial giants also faced headwinds; <strong>Merck (<a href=\"\/stock\/MRK\">MRK<\/a>)<\/strong> dropped <strong>2.32%<\/strong> to <strong>$119.49<\/strong>, and <strong>Amazon (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMZN\">AMZN<\/a>)<\/strong> fell <strong>2.21%<\/strong> to <strong>$205.96<\/strong>. Heavy machinery manufacturer <strong>Caterpillar (<a href=\"\/stock\/CAT\">CAT<\/a>)<\/strong> also struggled, sliding <strong>2.11%<\/strong> to <strong>$749.39<\/strong>, while <strong>Amgen (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMGN\">AMGN<\/a>)<\/strong> retreated <strong>1.95%<\/strong>. These losses highlight a cautious approach toward capital-intensive industries as interest rate expectations remain a primary focal point for global investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was up 17.05 (0.0345%) points today, closing at 49,499.20. Despite a volatile trading session, [&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":[75,293,633,808,3016,4350,17074],"class_list":["post-59192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summary-snippets","tag-crm","tag-ibm","tag-nvda","tag-axp","tag-dji","tag-dow-jones","tag-stock-market-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59192","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=59192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59192\/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=59192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}