U.S. stocks fall amid geopolitical tensions

NEW YORK, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, leaving the S&P 500 virtually flat for the year to date, as investors remained cautious over escalating tensions between the United States and Iran and digested a batch of mixed economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 267.5 points, or 0.54 percent, to 49,395.16. The S&P 500 sank 19.42 points, or 0.28 percent, to 6,861.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 70.91 points, or 0.31 percent, to 22,682.73.

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with financials and consumer discretionary leading the laggards by going down 0.86 percent and 0.53 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, utilities and industrials led the gainers by rising 1.13 percent and 0.77 percent, respectively.

Crude oil prices extended gains amid the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, after U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Iran has 10 to 15 days to reach a deal over its nuclear program, otherwise "really bad things" will happen.

Walmart dipped 1.38 percent despite reporting strong fiscal year sales growth of 713.2 billion U.S. dollars. The figure fell just short of Amazon's 716.9 billion in annual revenues, marking the first time Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the company with the largest annual revenues.

Carvana skidded nearly 8 percent after the online used-car retailer missed estimates on key profitability metrics in its latest quarterly report. DoorDash rose 1.62 percent, buoyed by the food-delivery platform's forecast that users would spend more on its service this quarter than analysts had anticipated.

Big technology stocks traded mixed amid reports that OpenAI is nearing the close of a 100 billion funding round. Apple fell nearly 1.5 percent, while Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Tesla posted modest changes.

The United States posted a record 1.24 trillion U.S. dollar trade deficit in goods in 2025, up 2.1 percent from the previous year, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 14 fell to a seasonally adjusted 206,000, down 23,000 from the prior week.

Market participants continue to monitor geopolitical developments in the Middle East and await further inflation data, including the December personal consumption expenditures price index due Friday. Enditem