Anthropic unveils new AI plug-ins, sparking relief rally in battered software stocks

Analysts' comments after Anthropic unveils new plug-ins

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled 10 new ways for business customers to plug in its technology to key areas of their work, weeks after other releases sparked an aggressive selloff of traditional software company shares. The San Francisco-based startup said its plug-ins could now help with investment banking tasks, such as reviewing deals, wealth-management tasks like portfolio analysis and human resource-related tasks, such as making new-hire materials reflect a brand's tone and policies. MARKET REACTION: The S&P 500 index (.SPX), opens new tab was up 0.6%, while Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab rose 1%, boosted by technology shares. Salesforce advanced 3.4%, making it one of the biggest gainers on the blue-chip Dow (.DJI), opens new tab. The S&P 500 software and services index (.SPLRCIS), opens new tab climbed 0.5%, recovering some losses. It has lost 23.5% so far this year, as the sector grapples with AI-disruption fears. COMMENTS: ROBERT PAVLIK, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, DAKOTA WEALTH, FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT: "Anthropic's been busy with announcements that their product is going to do all these new and sort of wonderful things. It's still early in the process and certainly acceptance and the application of these tools is probably still a ways away. I can see how parts of these products would be welcomed by corporations trying to reduce overhead and costs, if they work. "But we know from experience that you definitely need human intervention, otherwise problems develop. I don't think that people anticipate AI will taking over for real humans and real tasks. Regarding labor market disruption: "I think it's still too early to tell. I don't think adaptation or implementation of these AI products is that fully done yet. We're still a ways away from it being fully implemented in the actual workforce." KEN POLCARI, PARTNER AND CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT SLATESTONE WEALTH IN JUPITER, FLORIDA: "Investment banking - that got hit a couple of weeks ago when they did the legal and financial services, so that was a known. Yesterday's reaction was so overdone that it can't help but bounce a little bit. I don't think it's going to hold. I think it's going to continue to weaken a little bit. The opening is just a reflection of the disaster that took place yesterday. I think it probably settles in and then trades lower again. Not like yesterday, but I think it churns lower. "There's some people getting fatigued. I also think there are some names that have gotten absolutely clobbered that are actually looking like opportunities. Even though they're down, and even though it's an AI story, and even though it's blah, blah, blah, everyone's talking negative, it does create an opportunity where there's some value in these stocks that have gotten crushed. "Some of it is that 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality all driven by algorithms. And then like anything, the pendulum swings too far to the left and it swings too far to the right. "I'm not saying that AI is not going to disrupt the world. It clearly is. And it will continue to disrupt the world, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Like every industrial revolution, there'll be anxiety going through it, but then when it comes out the other side, there will be new opportunities. We don't know yet what they are. Some opportunities, they won't exist anymore. "I'm not in that camp that's lighting my hair on fire. I'm in a camp that as long as you remain relevant and change with it and keep yourself up to date and educated, then you just kind of move along." Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Software stocks rebound as Anthropic announces new partnerships

The market is 'very spooked' on recent AI fears, says SandboxAQ's Jack Hidary Software stocks made a comeback on Tuesday after Anthropic hosted its enterprise agents event, where it revealed new partnerships, quelling some investor fears that the sector could be displaced by artificial intelligence. The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps, such as Salesforce-owned Slack, Intuit, Docusign, LegalZoom, FactSet and Google's Gmail. Organizations can also deploy customizable plugins across sectors like financial analysis, engineering and human resources, Anthropic said.

US software stocks climb as Anthropic announcement sparks relief rally

Software stocks saw a strong rebound on Tuesday. This followed news of new AI tools developed by Anthropic with its partners. These tools aim to assist in areas like investment banking and HR. Shares of companies like LSEG, FactSet, Salesforce's Slack, and DocuSign saw gains. This positive movement comes after recent fears about AI's impact on the sector. Shares of U.S. software companies that entered into partnerships with AI startup Anthropic on Tuesday helped lead a rebound in the sector that has been hammered by fears about the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence. Anthropic said it was developing new tools, the so-called "plug-ins", with its partners that could help with investment banking, wealth management and HR ⁠tasks, ⁠including deal reviews, portfolio analysis and making new-hire materials reflect a brand's tone and policies. Shares of its partners, including LSEG, FactSet , Salesforce's Slack, and DocuSign, climbed between 0.4% and 5.3%. The S&P 500 software & services index also rose 1.4% and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF jumped 2.4%. The software index touched a 10-month low on Monday after Citrini Research laid out a 2028 ⁠scenario where unemployment rises to 10.2%, triggered by layoffs as AI rapidly turfs out software and delivery applications. "Software stocks and the IGV ⁠particularly are just massively oversold. So any incremental news that we're getting about more disruptions is like getting to a point where how much is priced in already," said Dennis Dick, chief market strategist at Stock Trader Network. "Some of this disruption is not imminent and a lot of this is probably years out yet. The market's telling us that now." A week-long selloff earlier this month wiped out about $1 trillion in market value on Wall Street that analysts dubbed 'Software-mageddon' and hurt sectors spanning from software to logistics companies on both sides of ⁠the Atlantic and India. Anthropic said on Monday its Claude Code tool could be used to modernize a programming language run on IBM systems, resulting in the biggest daily drop in shares of the legacy company in more than 25 years. IBM shares were up 3.5% on Tuesday. Tax-preparation software Intuit gained 2.8% and AI-solutions provider Intapp climbed 7.1% after the companies announced separate partnerships with Anthropic on Tuesday. (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

US software stocks climb as Anthropic announcement sparks relief rally

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. software companies that entered into partnerships with AI startup Anthropic on Tuesday helped lead a rebound in the sector that has been hammered by fears about the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence. Anthropic said it was developing new tools, the so-called "plug-ins", with its partners that could help with investment banking, wealth management and HR tasks, including deal reviews, portfolio analysis and making new-hire materials reflect a brand's tone and policies. Shares of its partners, including LSEG, FactSet, Salesforce's Slack, and DocuSign, climbed between 0.4% and 5.3%. The S&P 500 software & services index also rose 1.4% and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF jumped 2.4%. The software index touched a 10-month low on Monday after Citrini Research laid out a 2028 scenario where unemployment rises to 10.2%, triggered by layoffs as AI rapidly turfs out software and delivery applications. "Software stocks and the IGV particularly are just massively oversold. So any incremental news that we're getting about more disruptions is like getting to a point where how much is priced in already," said Dennis Dick, chief market strategist at Stock Trader Network. "Some of this disruption is not imminent and a lot of this is probably years out yet. The market's telling us that now." A week-long selloff earlier this month wiped out about $1 trillion in market value on Wall Street that analysts dubbed 'Software-mageddon' and hurt sectors spanning from software to logistics companies on both sides of the Atlantic and India. Anthropic said on Monday its Claude Code tool could be used to modernize a programming language run on IBM systems, resulting in the biggest daily drop in shares of the legacy company in more than 25 years. IBM shares were up 3.5% on Tuesday. Tax-preparation software Intuit gained 2.8% and AI-solutions provider Intapp climbed 7.1% after the companies announced separate partnerships with Anthropic on Tuesday. (Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Sruthi Shankar and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Analysts' comments after Anthropic unveils new plug-ins

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled 10 new ways for business customers to plug in its technology to key areas of their work, weeks after other releases sparked an aggressive selloff of traditional software company shares. The San Francisco-based startup said its plug-ins could now help with investment banking tasks, such as reviewing deals, wealth-management tasks like portfolio analysis and human resource-related tasks, such as making new-hire materials reflect a brand's tone and policies. MARKET REACTION: The S&P 500 index was up 0.6%, while Nasdaq rose 1%, boosted by technology shares. Salesforce advanced 3.4%, making it one of the biggest gainers on the blue-chip Dow. The S&P 500 software and services index climbed 0.5%, recovering some losses. It has lost 23.5% so far this year, as the sector grapples with AI-disruption fears. COMMENTS: ROBERT PAVLIK, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, DAKOTA WEALTH, FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT: "Anthropic's been busy with announcements that their product is going to do all these new and sort of wonderful things. It's still early in the process and certainly acceptance and the application of these tools is probably still a ways away. I can see how parts of these products would be welcomed by corporations trying to reduce overhead and costs, if they work. "But we know from experience that you definitely need human intervention, otherwise problems develop. I don't think that people anticipate AI will taking over for real humans and real tasks. Regarding labor market disruption: "I think it's still too early to tell. I don't think adaptation or implementation of these AI products is that fully done yet. We're still a ways away from it being fully implemented in the actual workforce." KEN POLCARI, PARTNER AND CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT SLATESTONE WEALTH IN JUPITER, FLORIDA: "Investment banking - that got hit a couple of weeks ago when they did the legal and financial services, so that was a known. Yesterday's reaction was so overdone that it can't help but bounce a little bit. I don't think it's going to hold. I think it's going to continue to weaken a little bit. The opening is just a reflection of the disaster that took place yesterday. I think it probably settles in and then trades lower again. Not like yesterday, but I think it churns lower. "There's some people getting fatigued. I also think there are some names that have gotten absolutely clobbered that are actually looking like opportunities. Even though they're down, and even though it's an AI story, and even though it's blah, blah, blah, everyone's talking negative, it does create an opportunity where there's some value in these stocks that have gotten crushed. "Some of it is that 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality all driven by algorithms. And then like anything, the pendulum swings too far to the left and it swings too far to the right. "I'm not saying that AI is not going to disrupt the world. It clearly is. And it will continue to disrupt the world, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Like every industrial revolution, there'll be anxiety going through it, but then when it comes out the other side, there will be new opportunities. We don't know yet what they are. Some opportunities, they won't exist anymore. "I'm not in that camp that's lighting my hair on fire. I'm in a camp that as long as you remain relevant and change with it and keep yourself up to date and educated, then you just kind of move along."

Wall St muted after Anthropic announces new AI tools

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were subdued on Tuesday as investors assessed Anthropic's announcement of new AI tools, including plug-ins that could help with investment banking tasks, private equity, engineering and design. Anthropic unveiled 10 new ways for business customers to plug in its technology to key areas of their work, weeks after other releases sparked an aggressive selloff of traditional software company shares. At 09:31 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.93 points, or 0.01%, to 48,789.46, the S&P 500 lost 4.18 points, or 0.06%, to 6,832.89 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.66 points, or 0.02%, to 22,635.01. (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)