Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 9, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Stocks fell on Thursday as investors began to worry about the downside of increased artificial intelligence, which threatens to disrupt business models across industries and drive up unemployment.
of Dow Jones Industrial Average Decreased by 530 points (1.1%) and decreased by: Cisco Systemsfell 11% after manufacturers of network hardware such as switches and routers reported disappointing outlooks for the current quarter. of S&P500 While the decline was 1.1%, Nasdaq Composite It decreased by 1.5%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average, 1 day
Parts of the stock market have been hurt this year by the release of AI tools that have the potential to replicate businesses, or at least eat into profit margins.
Financial stocks etc. morgan stanley The company’s stock price came under pressure amid concerns that AI could disrupt the wealth management business, while CH Robinson The company plunged 22% on concerns that AI would streamline freight operations, thereby squeezing certain revenue lines.
Concerns about AI disruption are spreading to the real estate sector as well. CBRE and SL Green Realtybased on the idea that rising unemployment will hurt demand for office space.
Software stocks, a group that has been plagued by disruption concerns in recent weeks, extended their year-to-date losses during trading. sales force The stock price fell 2%. The stock is down more than 31% this year. shares of autodesk It has fallen more than 5% and is now down 26% year-to-date. of iShares Enhanced Technology Software Sector ETF (IGV) Down 3%, the fund is now about 32% below its recent high.
“It’s pure crowd psychology. It’s like selling first and analyzing later, but don’t be left holding the bag,” Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird, said of the recent sell-off. “The money that comes out of software has a place to go.”
sale at silverhas been actively traded among retail investors this year, and risk-off sentiment further increased on Thursday. silver futures It fell 9%.
Investors sought safety in more defensive areas of the market. walmart and coca cola Stocks rose 3% and 2%, respectively, with consumer staples and utilities leading gains among S&P 500 sectors, each up more than 1%.
Stock prices rebounded in response to the positive employment data, but ended the session with a decline. Enthusiasm over the data waned, especially after the revised report showed zero job growth in the second half of 2025, leaving economists skeptical that it was the beginning of a trend toward higher wages.
Traders are now preparing for Friday’s important inflation report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect both the headline and core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, to rise 0.3% in January.
“Now that we have a good jobs report, the CPI is a little less important because it already allows the Fed to shut down certain activities for significant periods of time,” Mayfield said. “If CPI does go up, the Fed will probably need several months of data to get some sense of the trend before making any really tough decisions.”
Conversely, if this data emerges, the strategist expects Friday could be a risk-on day, but added: “It would take a fairly severe numerical upside to really impact the stock market or federal funds futures.”
