New York, Feb 14, 2026, 10:01 EST — Market closed
- Nvidia shares fell 2.2% on Friday, ending at $182.81.
- A fresh analyst target hike ran into broader tech unease and renewed focus on China-linked export risk.
- Next catalysts: a shortened trading week, Nvidia earnings on Feb. 25, and the company’s GTC event in mid-March.
NVIDIA Corp shares slid on Friday and will head into a long weekend on the back foot, with investors leaning on the brakes ahead of the chipmaker’s Feb. 25 earnings and a noisy Washington backdrop on China tech policy. The stock closed down 2.2% at $182.81.
The move matters because Nvidia has struggled to extend its run in recent months even as Big Tech keeps talking up AI spending, leaving the stock more sensitive to guidance risk and any hint of demand wobble. That sets up Feb. 25 as the next real test for the trade. (Bloomberg)
Friday’s dip also came in a tense tape for large-cap tech after a choppy week, with investors weighing softer inflation data against lingering doubts about how quickly AI investment shows up in profits. Nvidia fell more than 2% alongside other “Magnificent Seven” names in the session. (Investopedia)
Politics is back in the frame, too. Democratic lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for pausing China-related tech measures and pointed to Nvidia exports as a flashpoint, keeping the export-control overhang alive even when traders are trying to focus on earnings math. (Reuters)
On the bullish side, UBS lifted its Nvidia price target to $245 from $235 and kept a “Buy” rating, flagging expectations for a strong quarter and a high bar for revenue guidance into the April period. Analyst Timothy Arcuri penciled in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue around $67.5 billion, above company guidance, according to a report on the note. (Investing.com Nigeria)
Peers were mixed into the close. Broadcom fell 1.8% on Friday, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF and the Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ both finished slightly higher, underscoring Nvidia’s stock-specific pressure into the weekend.
In plain terms, the market is asking a simple question: can the biggest seller of AI chips keep producing upside surprises when expectations are already steep? For Nvidia, that usually means data-center demand, supply and product ramps, and—most of all—what management says about the next quarter.
But the setup cuts both ways. If guidance lands closer to consensus than the market’s higher “whisper” numbers, or if Washington moves the goalposts on what chips can go where, Nvidia’s valuation premium can compress fast. Competition risk hangs around the edges as cloud customers look harder at in-house silicon for some workloads.
The next U.S. session won’t be Monday. U.S. markets are closed on Feb. 16 for Washington’s Birthday (Presidents’ Day), reopening Tuesday, which shortens the runway for positioning into the results. (New York Stock Exchange)
Nvidia is scheduled to report results on Wednesday, Feb. 25, with a conference call set for 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET), the company said. (NVIDIA Newsroom)
After that, traders will pivot quickly to Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose on March 16–19, a recurring venue for product talk and partner signals that can reset expectations. (Nvidia)
