Brokerage stocks are the latest corner of the market getting slammed by AI disruption fears

Core Insights - Financial firms and brokerages experienced a decline in share prices due to concerns over AI disruption, particularly following Altruist's announcement of its Hazel AI tool for tax planning [1][5] - The iShares U.S. Broker-Dealers & Securities Exchanges ETF dropped by 4%, indicating market anxiety [1] - The fear stems from the potential for inexpensive AI tools to impact profit margins across various financial services, similar to recent disruptions in the software sector [5] Company Performance - Interactive Brokers and Morgan Stanley showed slightly better performance on the same day, suggesting that Wall Street's concerns are more focused on retail-facing brokerage stocks [6] - Companies in the accounting sector, such as Intuit, saw a decline of about 3%, while accounting software firms like SAP SE and Xero experienced slight increases of 1% and 2% respectively [6] Market Trends - OpenAI's integration of an AI application on ChatGPT for direct insurance quotes highlights the ongoing trend of AI's encroachment into financial services [7] - Despite a recovery from the previous week's tech plunge, markets remain cautious as new disruptive tools continue to emerge [8]