Stock Market Update
20-Feb-26 14:30 ET
S&P 500 Rises 0.6% as CIEN, EXE, APP Lead Gains; CRWD Slumps on AI Competition Concerns
Dow +143.83
at 49537.88,
Nasdaq +198.70
at 22881.44,
S&P +40.76
at 6902.64
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.59%) is in second place on Friday afternoon, up about 41 points.
Briefly, S&P 500 constituents Ciena (CIEN 336.80, +18.39, +5.78%), Expand Energy (EXE 108.58, +4.73, +4.55%), and AppLovin (APP 429.90, +17.90, +4.34%) dot the top of the standings. EXE shows strength after reports of a 9.2 GW Ohio gas plant, boosting demand for Marcellus/Utica shale where the company operates, with APP higher after news that OpenAI has started working with the company to monetize ChatGPT via ads, highlighting potential new revenue streams from AI-powered advertising.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike (CRWD 397.34, -24.80, -5.87%) is one of today's worst laggards after Anthropic unveiled a limited preview of its AI-driven "Claude Code Security" tool, stoking incremental competitive concerns around AI-powered vulnerability scanning. Separately, Barclays cut its price target to $550 from $610 ahead of earnings, adding to de-risking pressure in the premium-valued cybersecurity name.
