Nasdaq Slides; Bitcoin Falls Below $90,000

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 declined for a fourth consecutive session Tuesday, with economic worries and tariff fears dragging on markets again.

Investors piled into safe bets like consumer-staples stocks and Treasurys, driving yields lower, while selling off riskier assets like cryptocurrencies and technology stocks.

The Conference Board’s closely watched index of consumer sentiment registered the largest monthly decline in more than three years in February. Fears of recession reappeared amid concerns over the inflationary impact of President Trump’s potential tariff policies.

Trump has said tariffs on Canada and Mexico are set to move forward next week, and White House officials said Tuesday that the administration is considering tariffs on global copper imports.

“Investors are finally realizing that we have a tenuous economic situation—that the foundation is sound, but there are cracks to consider,” said Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management. “When the ground is shifting underneath your feet, the economy becomes more vulnerable.”

Market watchers also appear to be reconsidering the artificial-intelligence trade, just a day before AI giant Nvidia reports fourth-quarter earnings.

Nvidia shares dropped 2.8%. The stock, which has soared nearly 800% since the end of 2022, is down 5.7% in 2025 and 11% from Jan. 24, before the DeepSeek competitive threat rattled markets.

The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF dropped 2.05%, entering correction territory—a drop of more than 10% from a recent high.

Energy stocks were another weak spot. U.S. crude prices dropped 2.5% to $68.93 a barrel.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.4%, following Monday’s tech-led selloff, and the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%. The Dow industrials ticked up 0.4%, rising for the second straight day.

Treasury yields dropped to 4.297%, down for seven of the past eight trading days, to the lowest level since mid-December. The strength of the recent bond rally has caught analysts somewhat by surprise. Technical factors might also be contributing to the move, with investors covering shorts and feeling more emboldened to buy Treasurys once yields broke through the bottom of their recent trading range.

Bitcoin prices dropped below $88,000 as part of a broader selloff in cryptocurrencies. The declines follow Friday’s more than $1.4 billion hack of Bybit, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Shares of bitcoin whale MicroStrategy fell 11%. MicroStrategy owns about $43 billion of bitcoin and has more than $9 billion of net debt.

Consumer sentiment fell for a third straight month, by 7 points to 98.3 in February, the largest monthly decline since August 2021.

Consumer-staples stocks got a boost. The S&P Consumer Staples sector rose 1.7% and is on track to outperform the consumer discretionary sector this month by the largest margin on record.

Tesla’s market value fell below $1 trillion for the first time since November after the electric-vehicle maker reported sales in Europe fell 45% compared with a year earlier. Shares dropped 8.4%.

Hims & Hers Health shares plunged 22% after the telehealth company said it would stop the mass sale of compounded versions of Novo Nordisk’s drug Wegovy.

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