Overview
- Sector losses stretched to six straight sessions, taking about $830 billion off software and services since Jan. 28, with broader estimates this week approaching $1 trillion.
- Anthropic’s Claude Cowork plugins, including a legal workflow tool, pushed AI into the application layer and heightened fears over seat‑based pricing and labor‑intensive IT services.
- Dip‑buying largely vanished as options flows turned defensive, with traders pressing downside exposure in funds such as IGV and ARKK, according to Susquehanna and Interactive Brokers.
- Short‑sellers have booked roughly $24 billion in profits this year and increased bearish positions across the group, as IGV fell more than 21% year to date and major names slumped.
- The rout spread worldwide, with India’s Nifty IT down over 7% in a day and European data and legal firms sliding, while views diverged between JPMorgan’s harsher‑treatment warning and calls from Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Wedbush’s Dan Ives that the reaction is overdone.