By Hannah Erin Lang

Artificial-intelligence anxieties were still working their way through the stock market on Wednesday, with a slide in software and financial shares weighing on major U.S. indexes.

Shares of Bank of America, JPMorgan and Citigroup each dropped more than 2%, while brokerage stocks like Charles Schwab and Robinhood continued their slide. Software names Salesforce and Intuit each ended the day down more than 4%.

Wednesday's trading action was another installment in a wave of AI-related jitters that have swept through varied corners of the market in recent days, extending declines that began the prior session after fears of a major AI disruption sparked a selloff in financial services stocks.

Financial-technology firm Altruist announced an AI tool that can create personalized tax strategies by interpreting financial documents without manual entry, the company said. Investors rushed out of brokerage and wealth-management stocks, fretting that the technology would eventually undermine those businesses.

That echoed a similar retreat in software stocks that took shape last week after investors homed in on Anthropic's announcement that it was adding new legal tools to its Cowork assistant. The tools are meant to help automate a number of legal drafting and research tasks.

That sparked fears that the software industry would experience major disruption, and Wall Street dumped stocks like Adobe and PayPal, even selling shares of the private-credit firms that invest in the sector.

That trading action is a bit of a head scratcher, noted Stephen Kolano, chief investment officer at Integrated Partners. For years, many investors have predicated their portfolios on the bet that AI will become a revolutionary technology, powering economic growth and corporate profits.

But recently, traders are also fleeing industries they think could be revolutionized if AI becomes widespread and highly effective.

"You almost have a schizophrenic personality on AI right now," Kolano said. "We're not sure what the negative ultimate consequences could be in terms of AI disruption."

The Dow industrials gave up early gains to close down around 0.1%, ending a three-day streak of gains. Shares of IBM, which fell 6.5,% dragged on the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.2%.

Indexes surrendered small gains that came after the January jobs report, briefly delayed by the government shutdown, showed the economy added 130,000 positions last month, more than double expectations. The unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked lower to 4.3%.

The data suggested the jobs market was on firmer footing after adding just 181,000 roles in all of last year, according to new revisions, albeit with healthcare accounting for much of the strength. Benchmark treasury yields jumped, while traders modestly scaled back their rate-cut bets.

Investors have been betting on broadening stock market gains so far this year, wagering on blue-chip and small-cap stocks that would benefit if economic growth accelerates. But the AI frenzy that helped power markets to three back-to-back years of double-digits gains seems to have faded.

"You're seeing a market that is feeling a little fatigued," said Chris Kampitsis, managing partner at Barnum Financial Group. "The unbridled optimism...that chapter is largely behind us."

Write to Hannah Erin Lang at hannaherin.lang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

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