[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] AI-related fear trading flared again in New York stock markets.

Shares of delivery, payment and software companies fell across the board. IBM slumped 13 percent, its biggest drop since 2000, Bloomberg News reported on Feb. 23 local time.

The trigger was a Citrini Research report released over the weekend. Citrini posted on social media on Feb. 22 a report analysing potential risks from AI disruption across the global economy. The report named food delivery services and credit card companies and laid out a scenario in which AI agents could work in a way that eliminates fees charged by payment processors such as Mastercard and Visa.

The report is a hypothetical scenario set in June 2028. Citrini described a chain of events in which AI-driven disruption leads to mass white-collar unemployment, weaker consumption, souring software-backed loans and a recession. The introduction specified that "this is a scenario, not a prediction".

On Feb. 23, AI startup Anthropic posted on its blog that its Claude Code tool could be used to modernise the old programming language COBOL, which primarily runs on IBM computers. Nassim Taleb, author of "The Black Swan", then warned about the vulnerability of the AI rally.

In this situation, DoorDash fell more than 6 percent. American Express, KKR and Blackstone also dropped more than 6 percent. Uber, Mastercard, Visa, Capital One and Apollo Global Management also fell more than 4 percent.

DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang wrote in a post on social media platform X that he was "confident agent-based commerce will change the industry" and that "the ground is moving beneath our feet and the industry must adapt". Thomas George, a portfolio manager at Grizzle Investment Management, said, "Even if the situation does not unfold like the worst-case scenario, the disruption concerns raised by the report are real," adding, "After reading the report, investors holding those stocks will see their conviction shaken."

There were also rebuttals to the report. Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, said, "This market has shown remarkable resilience even to real bad news, but it fell into turmoil over what is literally a piece of fiction," calling it "a notable reaction."