Equity markets experienced renewed volatility this week as investor positioning around AI technologies overlapped with a series of earnings reports and forward guidance updates. Several notable large-cap names recorded double-digit moves over the past five trading days, with the AI displacement theme cited as a contributing factor to pressure across multiple sectors.
Stocks of the week
- C.H. Robinson
- Charles Schwab
- CBRE
Logistics, brokerage and real estate among the hardest hit
Logistics names were sharply weaker on Thursday, with C.H. Robinson (CHRW) tumbling more than 14% amid market concern tied to the AI displacement trade. The stock is down in excess of 10% over the last week.
Brokerage share prices were also under pressure. Charles Schwab saw declines starting on Tuesday and finished the week roughly 9% lower than seven days prior. Schwab’s chief executive told Bloomberg TV that the firm was "disappointed and surprised" by the sell-off and emphasized that the company is both benefiting from and deploying AI with clients.
Commercial real estate and development firm CBRE suffered a steep pullback Wednesday and Thursday. The stock has fallen about 15.2% over the past week. While the AI displacement trade contributed to the downturn, CBRE’s shares were additionally pressured by an earnings update in which revenue missed expectations.
Chip-equipment and semiconductor-linked names show divergence
Applied Materials (AMAT) closed the week on a positive note, rising more than 8% on Friday as of 13:20 ET following its most recent quarterly report. The company beat consensus estimates for the quarter, and its second-quarter guidance was also viewed positively by investors. Following the results, brokerage Summit Insights upgraded AMAT to Buy, citing expected upside in wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending through the second half of 2026 (2H26).
Social media and software companies react to earnings and guidance
Pinterest plunged again after releasing results late Thursday, dropping more than 18% on Friday alone and falling over 22% for the week. The platform reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that missed analyst expectations and issued first-quarter guidance below consensus. In response, Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson said the company’s "enthusiasm for Pinterest’s unique use case, commercial relevance and strong user growth story is overshadowed by struggles to monetize and outsized exposure to unusual macro conditions." Sanderson downgraded PINS to Hold and added: "We think it will take several quarters at least to get through a sales reorg, absorb escalated spending, and restore investor confidence."
Cisco Systems (CSCO) shares also declined sharply, falling more than 12% on Thursday following its earnings release. The company reported quarterly profit and revenue above expectations and provided an upbeat outlook, but investors focused on gross margin pressures. UBS analyst David Vogt noted that while order momentum is strong, higher memory input costs are reducing gross margins over the coming quarters: "While order momentum is strong, higher memory inputs are impacting gross margins over the next several quarters as we now expect FY26 gross margin of 67.1% vs our prior est of 68.0%."
Unity Software posted a mixed result, beating on fourth-quarter earnings and revenue but providing first-quarter revenue guidance that disappointed the market. Unity plunged more than 26% on Wednesday and continued to trade lower through the rest of the week, leaving the stock down roughly 21% over the past week. Despite the guidance miss, Citizens analyst Andrew Boone wrote that he remains constructive on the company: "While the impact of AI remains an unanswered question, we ultimately believe Unity’s platform remains necessary for game developers given the complexity of game creation, optimization, and operations and we continue to be buyers."
Oracle recovers some ground after upgrade tied to AI data center dynamics
After several weeks of weakness amid concerns over AI data center demand, Oracle (ORCL) regained some losses and rose more than 15% during the week. DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria upgraded Oracle to Buy from Neutral and explained that a revitalized OpenAI could resume its role as a leading challenger to Google and, backed by fresh capital, meet obligations this year, including to Oracle. Luria said this scenario would "remove the biggest concern from ORCL."
Market takeaway
This week’s market action reflects a confluence of forces: position adjustments tied to AI-related winners and losers, company-specific earnings surprises, and forward guidance that in some cases failed to meet investor expectations. The result was a divergent pattern of winners and losers across logistics, brokerage, real estate services, semiconductor equipment, social media, networking hardware and software platforms.