Why Thursday Could Be a Big Day for the Stock Market
The Motley Fool·2026-02-23 08:30Thursday could mark a reckoning for investors -- in more ways than one.During the past three years, the stock market has been on an absolute tear. The broad-based S&P 500 has gained 73%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up 99% (as of this writing). That's well ahead of the average stock return of 10% annually. Most experts agree that artificial intelligence (AI) has played a pivotal role in the market's ascent. In recent months, many software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks have been in freefall. Recentl ...