AI Report Goes Viral, Sets Off Plunge In Stocks

“It doesn't take much to cause tumultuous stock moves in a market top-heavy with tech shares and jumpy about the prospects for artificial intelligence.

 

But nothing underlines the sensitivity of stocks right now quite like what happened recently, when one of the factors behind the Dow's 800-point drop was a 7,000-word hypothetical.

 

A viral report by Citrini Research tapped into a new strain of fears about AI, painting a dark portrait of a future in which technological change inspires a race to the bottom in white-collar knowledge work. Concerns of hyperscalers overspending are out. Worries of software-industry disruption don't go far enough. The "global intelligence crisis" is about to hit.

 

The new, broader question: What if AI is so bullish for the economy that it is actually bearish? "For the entirety of modern economic history, human intelligence has been the scarce input," Citrini wrote in a post it described as a scenario dated June 2028, not a prediction. "We are now experiencing the unwind of that premium."

 

Many of Monday's moves roughly aligned with the situation outlined by Citrini, in which fast-advancing AI tools allow spending cuts across industries, sparking mass white-collar unemployment and leading to financial contagion.

 

Software firms Datadog, CrowdStrike and Zscaler each plunged more than 9%. International Business Machines' 13% decline was its worst one-day performance since 2000. KKR and Blackstone -- name-checked by Citrini -- tumbled.

 

That anxiety, coupled with renewed uncertainty about trade policy from Washington, weighed down major indexes Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average led declines, falling 1.7%, or 822 points. The S&P 500 shed 1%, while the Nasdaq composite retreated 1.1%.

 

A number of financial-services companies also took a beating on Monday. American Express' stock fell around 7%, while JPMorgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley all dropped more than 4%. Mastercard was down nearly 6%, and Visa was down more than 4%. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said fears about artificial intelligence that walloped its stock on Monday were overblown and that America's biggest bank would use the technology to its advantage.

 

The pricing of AI-related disruption "is all happening sooner than most folks anticipated," said Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer for GammaRoad Capital Partners. "Such is the nature of an accelerating technology."

 

While investors on Monday kept rotating money into sectors such as energy and consumer staples, those industries carry relatively little weight in major indexes. Rizzuto also noted that the growing popularity of defensive plays can suggest Wall Street is growing more cautious about the road ahead.

 

Still, individual companies waiting for potential tariff refunds or planning new investments may not be immune. Trade-sensitive stocks including American Eagle Outfitters, Ralph Lauren and Yeti Holdings slumped Monday. So did logistics and transit firms, pushing down the Dow Jones Transportation Average 2.8%.

 

Monday's market swings extended a run of AI-linked volatility. A small research outfit that has garnered a huge Substack following for macro and thematic stock research, Citrini said in its new post that software firms, payment processors and other companies formed "one long daisy chain of correlated bets on white-collar productivity growth" that AI is poised to disrupt.

 

Private credit firms, which have lent huge sums to the tech industry in recent years, were among those hit Monday. Blue Owl fell 3.4%, while Apollo Global Management declined 5%. Lenders stretching from Wall Street's biggest banks to regional counterparts also sold off.

 

"From a credit standpoint, the key risk is speed of disruption rather than its existence," UBS analysts told clients recently. "A rapid shock within 12 months could overwhelm contractual protections, but we view a multiyear adjustment as far more likely."

 

Shares in DoorDash also veered 6.6% lower after Citrini's Substack note called the delivery app a "poster child" for how new tools would upend companies that monetize interpersonal friction. In the research firm's scenario, AI agents would help both drivers and customers navigate food deliveries at much lower costs.

 

In a social-media post Monday responding to Citrini, DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang said the rise of "agentic commerce" would require his firm to evolve in ways that work for both AI agents and real-world merchants. "The ground is shifting underneath our feet," Fang wrote, "and the industry is going to need to adapt to it."” [1]

 

1. AI Report Goes Viral, Sets Off Plunge In Stocks. Uberti, David.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Feb 2026: B1.