7000-word "End of Day Report" Sparks AI Panic, Dow Jones Plummets 800 Points, Software and Private Equity Credit Sectors Hit Hard

On February 24th, a 7,000-word hypothetical report presented in the “June 2028 Scenario” format by research firm Citrini Research circulated wildly on Wall Street, sparking deep market fears over AI’s impact on white-collar employment and the credit system. The report introduced the concept of a “Global Intelligence Crisis,” warning that AI could trigger a “bottom-up competition” for knowledge-based jobs, disrupting the industry and credit chains built around white-collar productivity. As a result, U.S. stocks sharply declined on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 822 points (-1.7%), the S&P 500 falling 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite decreasing 1.1%. The software sector was hit hard, with Datadog, CrowdStrike, and Zscaler each falling over 9%, and IBM plummeting 13%, marking its worst single-day performance since 2000. Companies named in the report, including American Express, KKR, and Blackstone, also saw significant declines. The private credit and banking sectors came under pressure as well, with Blue Owl down 3.4% and Apollo Global Management down 5.6%. UBS analysts pointed out that the real risk lies in the “speed of disruption” rather than whether it occurs; if the impact concentrates within 12 months, it could breach contractual protections. Defensive assets strengthened, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield falling to 4.026%, a new low since late November last year; gold rose 2.9% to $5,204.70 per ounce, and silver increased 5.2% to $86.52 per ounce. Market participants believe that, amid the high weighting of tech stocks and their sensitivity to AI prospects, sentiment amplification effects are significant. Some institutions have warned investors to avoid overreacting to single-scenario analyses, but the trend of reevaluating business models and asset rotation triggered by AI continues.