U.S. February Jobs Data Disappoints, Stocks Drop Sharply

Stocks are down sharply at midday, adding to weekly declines, after the February jobs data showed unexpected job cuts and rising unemployment. Nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 in February, missing the growth of 55,000 that economists predicted, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3%. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate futures broke above $89 per barrel after President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that there won't be a deal to end the U.S.-Iran war without an "unconditional surrender."Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.1. STOCK NEWS:and Secretary Hegseth are said to be meeting with the CEOs of defense companies today at the White House as Trump proclaims there "will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender"Marvellreceived aand a number of price target hikes from Wall Street firms after its results and guidance were strongJPMorgan says Costco's"" following the membership club retailer's fiscal Q2 reportGapshares are trading lower after Old Navy and Athletaestimates in Q4Day One Biopharmaceuticalsannounced anby Servier for $21.50 per share in cash2. WALL STREET CALLS:Marvellwasto Buy at Benchmark and BofA on expectations for accelerating data center demandKarmanto Overweight at Piper SandlerOktato Outperform at BMO CapitalWedbushTrade Deskto Underperform, says impact of OpenAI partnership overestimatedZoetisto Hold from Buy at Nephron Research3. AROUND THE WEB:Private equity firms including Blackstoneand TPGhave expressed interest in acquiring Whitestone REIT, Reuters reportsChina has approved Pfizer'sGLP-1 treatment Xianweiying for weight management in adults, Reuters saysCarlyleand CVC have agreed to hand UBSsome of their performance fees in return for the bank selling the firms' products to wealthy individuals, FT saysMetahas hired the engineering team from Atma Sciences, the startup that makes the vibe coding app Gizmo, earlier in 2026 to join its Superintelligence Labs, Business Insider reportsThe Pentagon has notified Anthropic it has determined the company and its products are a risk to the U.S. supply chain, Bloomberg says4. MOVERS:Samsaragains afterand providing guidance for Q1 and FY27ASP Isotopesincreases after announcing Quantum Leap Energy has entered into awith a large publicly traded U.S. energy companyWestern Alliancedeclines after being informed by Jefferies that payments of $126.4M owed to the bank pursuant to a forbearance agreementas agreedREalloysfalls after announcing aIngram Microlower after announcing am5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:Algonquin Powersand backed its guidance for FY26Embraer, with revenue beating consensusImmuneering, with CEO Ben Zeskind commenting that "2025 was a transformative year"SunCar Technologyfor Q4Methode Electronicsand narrowed its guidance for FY26INDEXES:Near midday, the Dow was down 1.18%, or 566.51, to 47,388.23, the Nasdaq was down 0.77%, or 176.09, to 22,572.89, and the S&P 500 was down 1.01%, or 69.05, to 6,761.66.