Stocks Fall, Oil Jumps On Iran Fears; GE Aerospace, Planet Labs, Cameco In Focus

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0:38Alexis Garcia:Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Stock Market Today for Thursday, February 19th. It's Alexis Garcia here, and the major stock indexes fell on Thursday. That action stoked by surging oil prices amid fears of an impending U.S.-Iran showdown. Here with me to help break down everything you need to know about today's trading action is IBD News editor Ed Carson. So, Ed, I'm sure people are asking, Ali is back in the building. Yes, obviously getting caught up on things. So, unfortunately, stuck with us for another day here. But we'll make it nice and easy on you. What's on top for us today?

1:25Ed Carson:That's right. This market sort of gone sideways while Ali was out. So hopefully we can move out of that. But GE Aerospace, Planet Labs, and Cameco are three stocks that are holding it pretty well.

1:36Alexis Garcia:All right. Well, we'll get to those names. But first, let's just check in quickly on the major indexes. The S &P 500 finishing the day down almost half a percent. The Dow down about six-tenths of a percent. The NASDAQ down three-tenths of a percent. And it looks like small caps here turn positive at the close. But let's just go ahead and get going here. starting with SPY. You can see here, Ed, looks like it's trading around. These conjoined 21 - and 50-day lines. So talk to me about the S &P 500 and what you see in the market.

2:14Ed Carson:Yeah, we just have this situation where the market keeps on just going sideways. You have a couple of days up and then a couple of days down. Really, it was sort of like a day and a half because we really rebounded from Tuesday's lows And, you know, we're really not, you know, we just haven't gone much of anywhere. We hit resistance at the 50-day line. It just makes it tough making buys. And, you know, some indexes are doing better than others. But when you go up and down, up and down, it's just hard. Oh, you buy on the second or third day. Then you roll over again. And then you come back around, you know, and there's sector rotation.

2:46Ed Carson:And you never know. And it's AI disruption fear. It's just slam, you know, an industry here and there. Just difficult to make headway. I mean, normally we talk about, oh, you want to wait a few days in a new rally attempt. It's not that kind of situation. But wait just a few days. But in this situation, you wait a few days and it's done. You know, and it's just tough. So, I mean, look, we could have a good day and we're almost at record highs. Heck, we could get to record highs with a really strong day. So, I mean, it could all turn around, but it'd be hard to really, how convinced would you be?

3:18Ed Carson:But, you know, we're on the wrong side of the tracks, but not that far.

3:22Alexis Garcia:Yeah, I mean, it's been so hard. to distinguish a trend here since the beginning of the 2026 trading year. We're switching over to the NASDAQ here. And this one has been lagging a little bit more solidly below the 50 and 21 day lines. But again, just so much back and forth. Do we think we're doing well? And then it rolls over. So thoughts here.

3:47Ed Carson:Yeah, I mean, this is doing poorly. Software's obviously been a big drag. Some of the mega caps are not doing well. There are pockets of strength, fiber optics, chips generally, a number of quality names in there. Certainly specific names are doing very well. So, but generally, I mean, the strength has been in NYSE listed non-tech type of situations. So it needs to see this improvement. We have NVIDIA next week. That'll be huge news for the market, obviously. NVIDIA is doing a little better than that, but it sort of looks just hanging on there, you know, So very close to buy areas, very close to looking weak.

4:26Ed Carson:So, you know, we'll just have to see how next week earnings come in.

4:29Alexis Garcia:Yeah, and a shameless plug. We do cover NVIDIA in our earnings cheat sheet episode for tomorrow. But yes, definitely looking to see if it can maybe get above some of these recent highs here around the 193, 194 area. You know, talk to me about the Dow, Ed, because we've seen this one holding up pretty well. Again, talking about some of this rotation, maybe into some more defensive non-tech names, this one holding right at the 21-day line.

5:01Ed Carson:Yeah, just one under there. But, yeah, it's been holding the 21-day line, you know, for the most part for the past several weeks. Hasn't really gone, you know, toward the 50-day line too much. But it would not take much at all to get to the 50-day line. I mean, that's the situation. It wouldn't take much to get to a new high. So you could see things. And it's not just the Iran concerns and it's not just the up and down trend of the market. We have a possible Trump tariff ruling. We've been talking about that a number of times. Well, the next possible thing is Friday and there could be a few things next week.

5:30Ed Carson:So there are a lot of possible headwinds along with all the things that have been volatile and uncertain anyway, you know, back and forth. But, yeah, I mean, you know, very, very, very close to looking strong, very close to looking weak. But it's definitely been doing better than NASDAQ or even the S &P. And what about small caps thoughts here? Same thing. I mean, it's the same thing. This is even better. This has been sort of basing a little bit. This has formed a sort of a consolidation above the prior base where everything else is maybe leaning up or leaning down over the past few months. This one is actually sort of, you know, sort of a base on base formation type of situation.

6:06Ed Carson:So it looks a little better. But, you know, at Lowe's today, it was getting close to the 50-year line. So you don't want to overplay the strength. It's there. It's there. There's been an upward bias, but it's been hard. If you bought here, there's been a couple of stretches where there's been a two or three week stretch. And that's nice where you could buy and you can make some gains. And then if a pullback comes, you can hold it kind of thing. But even here, there's been a lot of instances where there's been a couple of days and you go down, you know, kind of situation.

6:34Alexis Garcia:And how about we just check in on RSP? Tell me how you're viewing market breadth right now. Down slightly today, a two-tenths of a percent. But, you know, again, holding, it seems trying to hold at this 203 level.

6:49Ed Carson:Yeah, this is looking very good. Basically, a closing high is not quite there, but, you know, the RS line has been doing quite well for a while. This is where you strip out the mega caps. You know, when you look at it, the same could even work for equal weights, even on the Russell can work. When you take out some of the more volatile names, you know, that's been outperforming. And there's a lot of areas that are working or holding up. So, you know, you don't want to discount that. It just makes it tough. You just don't know if it's going to last. And again, they have some of the up and down. So if you own stocks and you've owned them for a while, you could probably keep holding them, assuming they haven't been like a software name that's broken down.

7:26Ed Carson:So it's not like, oh, no, you have to rush to the sideline. It's obviously not that kind of market. And you can make buys, but just because you look at areas like RSP and you look at some of the sector ETFs, but you just want to make sure that you're nimble. And if things do not work out well, you cut those, you know, if you're going to play with new buys in this market.

7:45Alexis Garcia:And now let's head on over to some sector ETS then, starting with USO. That's the United States Oil Fund. Oil prices surging in the last couple of days at up another 2.3 percent today. But obviously, you know, all this anticipation of a possible U.S.-Iran standoff here driving up the cost of oil.

8:08Ed Carson:Yeah, so that's really that could turn around very quickly. I mean, honestly, let's say Trump decides there's an agreement. There could be, you know, there could always be an agreement at the last minute. And then you wake up and oil prices are down 8, 10 percent. I mean, that could happen. But this is putting pressure on things. Clearly, a lot of energy names doing well in this kind of environment. it.

8:29Alexis Garcia:And how about we take a look at JETS? That's the Global JETS ETF. This one reversing lower today, down almost 4%, breaking below the 21-day line, moving closer to this 50-day line. So what's been going on with JETS?

8:44Ed Carson:Today, it seems like it's the oil prices, but you can see that there's been some volatility in the last few days. So there was a nice move. It was looking strong. And then there's been a few big down days, a small recovery on lighter volume. Today's volume wasn't that high, But it's gotten a little bit more turbulence on that sector. And, you know, again, oil prices plunge, you're going to see a big bounce. But, you know, we attack and oil prices shoot up to, say,$80. We're way below that. But if we did, you can imagine that, you know, energy using sectors of the economy would probably take a hit.

9:19Alexis Garcia:And how about we take a look at ITA? That's the U.S. Aerospace and Defense ETF. This went up 1.3 percent today. It has about five straight days of gains here, Ed. So another industry here possibly benefiting from this potential U.S.-Iran news.

9:39Ed Carson:Yeah, but there's also things in the civilian. It just seems like in general, aerospace is doing well. There's some space stocks, there's defense stocks, there's, you know, straight up. I mean, GE, which I'm sure does defense stuff, but it's mostly civilian jet engines and stuff. They're all doing well. But this is a great way to play, you know, that sector. It's pretty calm, but it's made some nice gains. You can see that RS line is hitting a new high. So that's definitely a way that you can play, especially with all the volatility. You know, that's a way to minimize things. You know, at least to try to minimize the single stock risk.

10:11Ed Carson:You know, Swing Trader has used a lot of ETFs for that reason. I think they might own, have ITA in the portfolio right now. All right.

10:20Alexis Garcia:How about we take a look at IBB? That is the iShares Biotech ETF. This went up about two-tenths of a percent today, rebounding off the 50-day line and basing here. So thoughts here.

10:34Ed Carson:Yeah, IBD and XBI, and one is one of the bigger names and the other one is more on smaller names, but they're both doing well. I mean, they're not, wow, look at me, they're amazing, but they're finding support, they're making some positive moves. Definitely seems like an area that this could be a place where people nimble on, and they're probably a little bit, you know, separated from AI. Obviously, if NVIDIA plunges 20 % and all AI stocks fall 5%, Biotech's probably have a bad day too. I mean, it's just going to be that kind of thing. But nonetheless, this is a growth area. And sometimes, especially with the smaller names, you know, playing biotech as a group is safer than, because there is always that single stock risk where at any moment, clinical trial data could come out from the company or a rival that sends that stock falling.

11:21Alexis Garcia:Yeah, we're on the weekly here, and you can just see the run that the sector has had since April of last year. A lot of growth. It was one of the strongest sectors of 2025. So good to see it kind of digesting those gains here.

11:36Ed Carson:It's really digesting, but not in an unsettling way. It just sort of like going sideways. Yeah, exactly.

11:41Alexis Garcia:Hey, I'll take it. How about we look at GLD, gold shares, ETF, this one up three-tenths of a percent. And another one here at, you know, topped out at 509, pulled back sharply, but it seems like it's really trying to regain some solid footing here.

11:58Ed Carson:Yeah, I mean, that one is consolidating out. There's a few names we're going to look, you know, at some of these things out there. But it's, you know, some of the names are doing what there's a lot of gold and silver plays that reported today. Generally positive numbers. members, if you look at GDX, which is the miners, that tends to be more extreme up and down because a small change in the price can make a big difference in profitability. So the miners showed some strength. I suppose some people could be nibbling here. But again, safe haven flows are always a risk kind of thing. You could see big moves up or down on Iran, I could imagine, and I auditioned to everything else.

12:43Alexis Garcia:When you want your spring break to feel like and your kids' pool day to feel like and your hotel bed to feel like and room service to feel like because at Hilton, hospitality feels like

13:02Ed Carson:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

13:04Alexis Garcia:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton for this day. We take a look at some individual stocks, starting with GE Aerospace. This up 1.6 % today, peaking above this 3.3279 flat base buy point here. Also great to see RS line hitting a new high with that breakout.

13:32Ed Carson:Yeah, so there was an early entry on Tuesday when it sort of cleared some short-term highs, there. But it really, I mean, honestly, you're not paying much more with today's move. And in general, I'd say like probably buying breakouts has been riskier, but this is not that high above the 50-day line. It's not really, it's up there 8%, but it's not been like way up there, as opposed to these 30 % bases, and it's gone on a big run. So I definitely think it was buyable here, the RS line at a new high, as you pointed out. So growth is still solid. It's hard to go wrong with this. I mean, GE is a big part of ITA.

14:13Ed Carson:You could certainly go with ITA as well, but this has been a really strong performer for quite a while.

14:18Alexis Garcia:And we've really seen some movement in this space, Ed. We have FTAI reporting earnings next week. This one jumping is, again, we're trying to get these power for these data centers, And it seems like these jet engines are a potential answer here. But could we see maybe with FTAI earnings coming up as a potential mover here for GE? I know we like to talk about keeping an eye on related names. So just wanted to see if you had any thoughts there.

14:47Ed Carson:Yeah, I'm not, you know, unless I mean, the movement on FTAI is probably going to be on what they say about the jet engines. And that's not something that's happening now. that's not it's possible they'll say something about the current business which is doing pretty well um that will suggest hey that's good news for maybe the aftermarket business for ge or what have you and that could be helpful but i think what's going to move ftai is going to be this stuff about jet engines for uh for for you know powering data centers and unless ge says hey we're going to build engines for that sort of competing with its former former sister kind of unit ge vernova which does natural gas turbines i mean i suppose if ge wanted to say we're going to make some kind of variant of these jet engines or repurpose some of our some stuff uh then then fda i's news could come in but i don't think ge is doing ge era is doing too much of you know much

15:37Alexis Garcia:of that or too much of that um right now all right well how about we move on to uh sorry about that PLT. Is that the right ticker, Ed?

15:48Ed Carson:PL. PL. PL.

15:50Alexis Garcia:All right. Planet Labs, this one up 5.8 % today. Looks like yesterday possibly broke a downtrend here and following that move up again with some nice action today. Yeah.