"Will AI take our jobs?" Fear spreads…market rattled by a plunge in shares [New York Market Briefing]

Fears grow that "AI could upend software vendors"…software stocks tumble across the board

U.S. stocks in New York ended lower as concerns mounted that artificial intelligence (AI) technology could replace large swaths of the traditional software (SW) industry.

In trading on the 3rd (local time) in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 49,240.99, down 166.67 points (-0.34%) from the previous session. The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 fell 58.63 points (-0.84%) to 6,917.81, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 336.92 points (-1.43%) to 23,255.19.

On Wall Street, worries that AI could supplant existing software have flared after AI startup Anthropic unveiled its AI tool, "Claude Cowork."

As fears spread that AI models could reshape the software landscape, major software vendors as well as data services and research services firms moved lower in tandem. Concerns also emerged that large private equity firms that have invested capital in these industries face significant exposure, triggering broad sell-offs.

Major software names extended losses, including customer-management software firm Salesforce (-6.85%), Intuit (-10.89%), Cognizant Technology (-10.14%), ServiceNow (-6.97%), and Adobe (-7.31%).

Travel booking platform Expedia plunged 15.26%, while data analytics and research firms such as FactSet Research (-10.51%) and S&P Global (-11.27%) also posted steep declines.

Major private equity firms also fell sharply, including Ares Management (-10.15%) and Blue Owl Capital (-9.76%). Large-scale private equity firms such as Apollo Global Management (-4.76%), KKR (-9.69%), and Blackstone (-4.43%) also retreated.

By contrast, AI data company Palantir rose 6.85% on the back of strong results announced the previous day.

Walmart gained 2.94% and, for the first time, surpassed a market capitalization of $1 trillion.

Nvidia fell 2.84%, and other major Big Tech (large technology companies) also declined, including Microsoft (-2.88%) and Amazon (-1.78%).

By Shin Min-kyung, Hankyung.com reporter radio@hankyung.com