EB Daily Market Report - Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Dear Members.

A brief update today as Tom Bowley prepares for tonight's members only quarterly portfolio draft. We will send room instructions to all of you prior to the start of the 5:30 event.

The bulls are having a solid day with all of the major indexes higher as we close in on monthly options expiration Friday. With so many tech stocks down significantly the past few weeks it makes sense that traders are taking advantage of the recent pullback.

Blue chips continue to be more in favor with the Dow back above all key technical levels while the S&P is attempting to climb back above both its 20 and 50 day moving averages while the NASDAQ remains below both its 20 and 50 day.

While the bears were hoping to inflict more pain on the bulls, we saw that price support on the S&P right near 6780 held yesterday, just as the VIX approached 23. And though the bulls might not be completely out of the woods, seeing the VIX back below 19 has bolstered their confidence some.

Later today the Fed will release the minutes from its January meeting. The minutes will only likely matter if there is some surprise that traders were not already aware of.

We continue to trade in a tight trading range with the downside support on the S&P now at 6775, yesterday's low. And to the upside the bulls are hoping at some point to clear that all time high of 7002. Until one of those goes, expect a lot of sideways trading.

At your service,

John Hopkins