Dow Jones falls 1,000 points from highs, Nasdaq sinks 2% as AI fears rattle markets

Benchmark indices on Wall Street collapsed after a relatively sedate first hour on Thursday, February 12, with all three major ones ending with deep cuts as fears of AI disruption rattled markets further.

The Dow Jones fell nearly 700 points. More importantly, the index ended 1,000 points off the highs of the day. The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, while the Nasdaq sank over 2% in overnight trading.

Leading the Dow lower was Cisco Systems, which fell 12% after its guidance disappointed the street. Cisco Systems is a manufacturer of networking hardware such as routers and switches.

Software stocks, which have been at the forefront of this recent sell-off, continued to pile on the los…
[4:55 am, 13/2/2026] Hormaz CNBC: Dow Jones falls 1,000 points from highs, Nasdaq sinks 2% as AI fears rattle markets

Benchmark indices on Wall Street collapsed after a relatively sedate first hour on Thursday, February 12, with all three major ones ending with deep cuts as fears of AI disruption rattled markets further.

The Dow Jones fell nearly 700 points. More importantly, the index ended 1,000 points off the highs of the day. The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, while the Nasdaq sank over 2% in overnight trading.

Leading the Dow lower was Cisco Systems, which fell 12% after its guidance disappointed the street. Cisco Systems is a manufacturer of networking hardware such as routers and switches.

Software stocks, which have been at the forefront of this recent sell-off, continued to pile on the losses. The iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF (IGV) fell another 3% on Thursday, taking its drop from the recent peak to 31%. The fund had entered a bear market last month itself.

Also leading the Dow lower on Thursday were all of its financial heavyweights. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, saw their shares fall between 3% and 5%, on fears that AI would disrupt their wealth management business, which forms a key part of their topline.

Trucking and Logistics company, CH Robinson also fell 14% on Thursday over fears that AI would disrupt freight operations, thereby disrupting some revenue streams. Fears spread to the Real Estate sector as well, with stocks such as CBRE declining 9% on concerns that higher unemployment due to AI would lead to less demand for the sector.

Adding to the risk-off sentiment was a sell-off in Silver prices, with futures declining another 10% overnight.

Investors dumped risky trades and sought protection in the defensive part of the market. Shares of Walmart, having recently crossed $1 trillion in market cap, finished with gains of nearly 4%, while those of the Coca-Cola Company, rose nearly a percent. Consumer Staples and Utilities were the two sectors that gained on the S&P 500 overnight.

After a jobs report that dwindled hopes of significant rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, the markets will await the Consumer Price Inflation number for January, later this evening. A poll by Dow Jones expects the headline and core inflation to rise 0.3% month-on-month. Core inflation excludes food and energy prices.

"AI, which was the one thing that was driving these stocks to parabolic heights and to multiples that were getting extreme — not overwhelmingly extreme — now is the one thing that's holding them back," said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.

(With inputs from agencies)