They got whacked.
From Al Root at Barron's, February 12:
Freight brokers have taken software companies’ spot as the latest potential victim of artificial intelligence, a curious pivot because they were recently seen as winners from AI.
Both groups of companies are asset-light.
It has been a painful day for a host of shippers. Shares of C.H. Robinson Worldwide were down 23% in late trading while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were off about 1.2%.
Shares of fellow freight brokers Expeditors International of Washington and RXO were down 15% and 27%, respectively. Shares of less-than-truckload shippers were off 7.4% and 5.1%, respectively. The intermodal shipper J.B. Hunt Transport Services lost 8%.
There was no downgrade or earnings report to pin the declines on. Instead, there was widespread pain in the sector, seemingly spurred on by expectations that AI start-ups will try to disrupt traditional brokerage markets. A white paper from a company called Algorythm Holdings describing how AI tools can organize shipping better than traditional brokers may be behind the slide.
It is as if the market woke up today and decided that anyone who arranges freight will be disrupted by smart AI agents. While freight brokers have relationships with companies and owners of logistics assets, and their businesses go deeper than a website to connect buyers and sellers, that isn’t much comfort on Thursday.
The move in the stocks comes despite most management teams singing the praises of AI. The freight industry has been an early adopter of the technology, leveraging it for scheduling and routing, among other things....
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