Wall Street ends down as private equity stocks sink

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Wall Street's main indexes ended lower on Thursday due to concerns over private equity stocks, particularly Blue Owl's decision to sell $1.4 billion in assets and freeze redemptions at one of its funds. This move has weighed on shares of other private capital firms, such as Apollo Global Management, Ares, KKR, and Carlyle Group. However, some stocks, like Deere & Co and Omnicom, have seen significant gains.

Market Impact

Market impact analysis based on bearish sentiment with 85% confidence.

Sentiment
Bearish
AI Confidence
85%
Time Horizon
Short Term

Article Context

Note: This is a brief excerpt for context. Click below to read the full article on the original source.

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended lower on Thursday, with the Dow losing more than half a percent, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each losing about a third of a percent.Shares of private capital firm Blue Owl slid about 6% after the company said it would sell $1.4 billion in assets and freeze redemptions at one of its funds to manage debt and return capital.The company's troubles weighed on shares of Apollo Global Management, Ares, KKR and Carlyle Group as investors worried about credit quality and lenders' exposure to software stocks. The risk of contagion, especially to public banks, presents a deeper fear, said Leah Bennett, chief investment strategist at Concurrent Investment Advisors."If people are not willing to lend to private companies, and we end up having problems where underwriting isn't looked at the right way, and we've been too loose on our standards, then that causes banks overall and lenders to get very conservative. And they end up just lending to the companies that have the best balance sheets, and usually that causes a retraction and the economy overall, and that's ultimately what keeps me up at night. So whenever we see these themes come up, whether or not it's can Oracle borrow money for their data centers, can AI raise money, private credit - are there issues there? They're all intertwined. It's how healthy is the economy and our lending system, and will the economy contract at a very rapid rate? And that's ultimately what my concern is."Among other stock moves, Deere & Co jumped more than 11% after the farm-machinery maker raised its annual profit forecast and beat first-quarter results estimates.Shares of advertising giant Omnicom jumped 15% after the company beat analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter revenue.And shares of software provider EPAM Systems plunged 17% after its cautious first-quarter outlook disappointed investors.

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Original article published by Yahoo Finance on February 20, 2026.
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