Wall Street began the week with a shock.
A research note from Citrini Research sketched an unsettling future: mass unemployment among white-collar workers as AI agents replace human labor at scale. In Citrini's apocalyptic scenario, the U.S. jobless rate surges past 10% by 2028, with weekly unemployment claims approaching half a million.
The report exploded across trading desks and social media. Economists quickly pushed back, arguing that the assumptions stretch economic logic and underestimate the labor market's ability to adapt to technological disruption.
Nvidia's Beat Fails to Calm Investors
But markets trade on fear before they trade on models. The Dow Jones just logged its worst week of 2026.
Even Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) — the poster child of the AI boom — couldn't steady nerves.
The company delivered a blowout earnings beat and upbeat guidance. It didn't matter.
The stock fell more than 5% the next day, a striking signal that investor psychology may be shifting from euphoria to skepticism.
Then came corporate confirmation.
On Thursday, Block Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) announced it will slash its workforce from more than 10,000 employees to under 6,000. CEO Jack Dorsey said AI tools and leaner teams are fundamentally redefining how companies are built and run.
For some investors, that sounded more like validation of the disruption Citrini warned about.
Stress Spreads Beyond Technology
Banks and private equity stocks plummeted sharply on Friday, with Wall Street heavyweights including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) each posting their worst single-day decline since early April 2025.
The tremors are not confined to tech anymore.
After Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE:OWL) restricted redemptions and tightened liquidity terms in one of its largest retail-focused funds, stress is now mounting in the private-equity sector.
On Friday, MidCap Financial Investment Corp., overseen by Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE:APO), cut its dividend and marked down assets by roughly 3%, citing strain in parts of its loan book.
Apollo shares just endured their worst week since April 2025, extending a nine-week losing streak — the longest since 2022.
A Violent Rotation Takes Hold
Meanwhile, sector and style rotation is accelerating as investors increasingly conclude the AI arms race will favor asset-heavy industries over asset-light business models — and companies less vulnerable to automation.
Energy stocks have now outperformed technology for 10 consecutive weeks, an unprecedented stretch.
In the first two months of 2026, value stocks have beaten growth by 12% — the strongest relative start to a year since 2001.
The market isn't just repricing AI.
It may be repricing the entire economic hierarchy.
Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.
