Analysis-For stock market, AI turns from lifting all boats to sinking ships

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Investors are discovering that the artificial quality scenery is not conscionable fertile crushed for stocks -- it is besides a minefield.

Enthusiasm astir AI's profitability has fueled the U.S. bull market, with banal gains for exertion companies and others tied to the build-out of information centers ‌and related infrastructure. Many investors person besides pointed to 2026 arsenic the twelvemonth AI volition commencement boosting bottommost lines much broadly, arsenic companies spot productivity benefits.

But caller ‌concerns implicit the technology's disruptive imaginable are rattling industries, including software, ineligible services and wealthiness management, arsenic investors rethink however to worth those businesses.

Questions implicit monolithic AI superior spending are pressuring the stock prices of immoderate of the ​world's biggest companies, including Amazon.com and Microsoft.

"You've intelligibly seen that breakdown successful presumption of the monolithic AI trade," said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist astatine Natixis Investment Managers Solutions. "You're going to person these tug-of-war dynamics successful a batch of the bigger scale weights, conscionable by however the market's rewarding perceived winners and losers successful the AI race."

Already successful 2026, Anthropic's motorboat of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork cause triggered selling of bundle stocks. The heavyweight S&P 500 bundle and services scale was down 15% since the extremity of January, arsenic of Wednesday.

Shares of U.S. brokerages tumbled connected Tuesday aft ‌wealth absorption startup Altruist introduced AI-enabled taxation readying features, with LPL ⁠Financial, Raymond James Financial and Charles Schwab each dropping astatine slightest 7%. Shares of U.S. security brokers specified arsenic Willis Towers Watson and Arthur J Gallagher besides slumped this week, aft online security level Insurify released an AI‑powered examination instrumentality built connected ChatGPT.

"You're going to spot a batch ⁠of volatility driven by these header stories that are besides going to beryllium precise single-name centric," said Alex Morris, CEO and CIO of F/m Investments.

SOFTWARE CHEAPER BUT 'NARRATIVE' CLOUD LOOMS

Some of the signature stocks of this bull marketplace person besides struggled this year, undercut by concerns they would neglect to reap capable returns from precocious superior spending. Shares of Microsoft, which has been caught up successful the concerns astir the ​software ​space, are down 16% this year, portion Amazon.com shares are down implicit 11%.

"The interest that they're conscionable ​spending acold excessively overmuch wealth ... I deliberation that's an unfastened question," said ‌Yung-Yu Ma, main concern strategist astatine PNC Financial Services Group, adding that helium thinks "some of the negativity astir the spending is going to easiness up."