Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz – Japan's Export Engine Heats Up – Cadence Presents Dream Margins and Raises Forecast – Palo Alto Networks Drops Post-Market – Anthropic Unveils New Flagship Models 4.6 – Meta and Nvidia Cement AI Alliance – Tesla Implements Grok in Europe – ServiceNow CEO Buys Own Stock for $3 Million – Danaher Acquires Masimo for $10 Billion

On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, US stock markets continued their volatile stabilization following the weakest trading week of the year. The Dow Jones closed slightly higher by 0.1% at around 49,533 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.1% to approximately 6,843 points, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.1% to around 22,578 points. At one point, the indices had been significantly in the red before recovering during the trading session. The upcoming inflation data and GDP update at the end of the week are now in focus. The most notable movements came...