{"id":58450,"date":"2026-02-13T07:07:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wall-street-braces-for-further-declines-as-ai-fears-grip-markets\/58450\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:07:32","slug":"wall-street-braces-for-further-declines-as-ai-fears-grip-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wall-street-braces-for-further-declines-as-ai-fears-grip-markets\/58450\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street Braces for Further Declines as AI Fears Grip Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. stock markets are poised for a lower open on Friday, February 13th, 2026, as investor anxiety surrounding the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence continues to cast a long shadow over the technology sector. Premarket<\/a> trading indicates a continuation of the previous day's sharp sell-off, with futures for the S&P 500<\/a>, Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average, and Nasdaq all pointing to a negative start to the trading session.<\/p>\n

Premarket Pulse and Index Overview<\/h2>\n

In premarket<\/a> trading, futures for the S&P 500 were down less than 0.1%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures also edged 0.1% lower. Nasdaq futures signaled a weaker open as well, reflecting the ongoing pressure on technology-related stocks. This follows a turbulent session on Thursday where the S&P 500 plunged 1.6%, its second-worst day since Thanksgiving. The Dow shed 1.3%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2%.<\/p>\n

The current market sentiment is being heavily influenced by a significant rotation away from technology stocks. Concerns are mounting that the rapid advancements in AI could disrupt existing business models, leading to a reassessment of valuations for many software and tech companies. This has led to a notable divergence in performance, with the equal-weighted S&P 500 outperforming its market-cap-weighted counterpart, which is heavily skewed towards large-cap tech.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Market Catalysts<\/h2>\n

Investors are keenly awaiting the release of the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which is expected to provide further insights into the trajectory of inflation. Economists are forecasting a cooling in the annual inflation rate to around 2.5%, which would bring it closer to the Federal Reserve's 2% target. This data will be a critical input for the central bank's future monetary policy decisions. Currently, market expectations are overwhelmingly in favor of the Federal Reserve holding interest rates steady at its next meeting.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, traders should also note that U.S. markets will be closed on Monday, February 16th, for Presidents' Day.<\/p>\n

Movers and Shakers in the News<\/h2>\n

The apprehension around AI's impact has been particularly evident in the performance of several major technology companies. Cisco Systems (CSCO<\/a>) saw its shares sink by 12.3% despite reporting quarterly results that beat expectations, as investors fretted about its future profitability in the age of AI. Similarly, AppLovin (APP<\/a>), a mobile technology company, experienced a staggering 19.7% plunge in its stock price due to worries that AI could undercut its business, even as it posted strong quarterly profits.<\/p>\n

The broader technology sell-off has impacted a wide range of software stocks. In contrast, some non-technology companies have shown resilience. McDonald's (MCD<\/a>) rose 2.7% after reporting better-than-expected profits, and Walmart (WMT<\/a>) also saw its shares rally.<\/p>\n

In other corporate news, BridgeBio Pharma Inc. (BBIO<\/a>) announced positive results from a late-stage study of its experimental drug for a form of dwarfism. On the other hand, investment research firm Zacks has added Kirby (KEX<\/a>) and Mattel (MAT<\/a>) to its "Strong Sell" list, citing downward revisions to their earnings estimates. As the market navigates these crosscurrents, the focus will remain on the interplay between technological disruption and macroeconomic data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. stock markets are poised for a lower open on Friday, February 13th, 2026, as investor anxiety surrounding the disruptive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6824,94],"tags":[17074,95,1876,2002,3710,3712,4223,4350,5236,6658],"class_list":["post-58450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-market-update","tag-stock-market-today","tag-nasdaq","tag-sp-500","tag-futures","tag-federal-reserve","tag-cpi","tag-inflation","tag-dow-jones","tag-premarket","tag-ai-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}