Markets
markets
Luke Kawa

Anthropic’s legal plug-in for Claude Cowork prompts rush out of legal software and publishing stocks

The threat of AI disruption has wreaked havoc upon software stocks over the past few months, with more powerful tools launched by Anthropic a catalyst for the selling. True to form, thanks to some new plug-ins recently added to Claude Cowork, legal software and publishing companies are facing intense selling pressure.

Anthropic, the maker of Claude, rolled out a series of plug-ins on Friday that could be added to Cowork for paying subscribers. One of them specializes in legal tasks, to “review documents, flag risks, and track compliance.”

Shares of RELX (owner of Lexis Nexis), Thomson Reuters (owner of Westlaw), and Legalzoom.com are getting hammered in premarket trading on Tuesday. One distinction: the first two companies offer proprietary data, which may insulate them a little better from the analytical threat from Claude, while LegalZoom’s business of providing legal services may be more directly threatened by the relatively low barrier to entry of using Claude Cowork instead.

Perhaps these fresh capabilities from Claude explain why the iShares Expanded Tech Software ETF dropped more than 2% on Friday and continued to struggle on Monday. Other plug-ins help with productivity, enterprise search, sales, finance, data, marketing, customer support, product management, and biology research, as well as a meta plug-in to create and customize other plug-ins.

Even without plug-ins, there have been many tales of legal professionals and laypeople alike turning to chatbots for help in this domain. Per Business Insider, short seller Andrew Left has turned to Claude to analyze legal documents and draft letters after facing allegations of market manipulation.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

markets

Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.