Closing Bell: Artificial Intelligence Fear Grips Markets, Indexes Inch Lower

Major indexes finished lower Monday, with some cybersecurity names rallying and other tech stocks tumbling after leading AI CEOs said the pace of developing powerful advanced AI models could create serious risks. 

Meanwhile, a man-made conflict is causing humans more pressure at the pump. The price of WTI crude, the U.S. benchmark, surged another 1.6% to more than $101 per barrel Monday. With reports that a Saudi Arabian pipeline will be offline due to war damage, questions about the pace of commodity transit around the Arabian Peninsula, and tanker rates rising as floating oil storage demand rises, Brent crude rose 1.4% to more than $106. Read Oil, Tanker Rates, Move Higher as Major Saudi Pipeline Suffers Damage and see Crude Oil Supply Woes Will Take 'Quite a Bit of Time' to Fix. 

The S&P 500 SPX fell 0.48%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) fell 0.29%. The Nasdaq-100 (NDX) declined 0.82%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT) was off by 0.4%. The CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX) spiked nearly 8% to 17.10 as investors and traders watch oil price inflation and await Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate announcement. The CME FedWatch tool puts a roughly 92% probability on a 25-basis-point rate hike. See GDP Buoys U.S. Economy Despite Fed's Likely Rate Hike, 10-Year Yield Taps 5%  

A few things to note from Monday’s market: 

CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) surged more than 14% to a new all-time high as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that "like many technologies before it, AI brings risks," citing a series of concerns, including the "risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption." See Ben Watson break down the technicals for CrowdStrike and other names: Charts to Watch: CRWD, RAIL, INSW | The Watch List 

The biggest Movers in the S&P 500: The biggest advancers in the SPX were CrowdStrike (up 13.7%), Palo Alto Networks (PANW) (up 12.95%), Gartner (IT) (up 9.69%), Coinbase Global (COIN) up 9.6%), and Fortinet (FTNT) (up 9%). The biggest SPX decliners: Corning (CGLW) fell 13.25%, Teradyne (TER) slipped 12.88%, and Coherent (COHR) was off by 11.9%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) each fell more than 10%. How to think about the decliners? Watch Matthew Caruso on AI Safety Selloff 'Overreaction,' Picks AMD, DELL & HPE  

Microsoft (MSFT) shares jumped nearly 2% after it unveiled a draft code of conduct for its AI, as the company said that "humans must retain meaningful control over AI." See KG: Dip Buyers Move into AI Stocks, Crude Oil Spikes Near $105

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