Overview
- Software shares fell for a sixth session, with the S&P 500 software and services index down about 13% in a week and roughly $830 billion in value erased since Jan. 28, while losses spread across Europe and Asia.
- Short sellers have pocketed about $24 billion this year and are adding exposure, with options activity in software ETFs skewing defensive and bargain-hunting largely absent.
- Anthropic’s Claude Cowork plugin highlighted contract review and risk‑flagging capabilities, intensifying concerns that agentic AI could compress seat‑based pricing and automate application‑layer workflows.
- Declines swept through Intuit, ServiceNow, Oracle, Thomson Reuters and London Stock Exchange Group as investors rotated toward banks, consumer staples and industrials.
- Opinions split on the path forward, with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang calling the panic illogical and Wedbush’s Dan Ives urging selective buying, while credit stress indicators remain limited ahead of earnings.