Squawk on the Street · Oct 16, 2026 · 16m · 11m saved
With Thomas Peterffy, Founder and Chairman of Interactive Brokers · Bruce Van Saun, Chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group
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Thomas Peterffy, founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, told CNBC's Squawk on the Street that his firm has real fears about autonomous AI trading: orders a customer never meant to place, and customers who blame the AI for trades that lost money.
Most of the segment treated AI as a financing story. Thomas raised a different risk, one that sits inside his own brokerage.
"So that is the big fear."
Thomas built Interactive Brokers into the brokerage he still chairs, which means any dispute over a trade an AI placed lands on his firm. The same segment carried a debate over CoreWeave's debt and an interview with Citizens Financial Group CEO Bruce Van Saun on his bank's third quarter.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it. 16 minutes of audio, 5 minutes of reading.
Here are the 5 calls that matter.
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Key Takeaways
Interactive Brokers fears AI agents placing trades customers didn't intend, and customers disowning the losers
The AI selloff is about financing the buildout, not about demand
CoreWeave's unsecured bonds yield as much as 15%
Investors moved into defensive and dividend stocks as rising rates repriced credit risk
Citizens' CEO projects net interest income growth above 12%, against Street estimates above 9%
Bank CEOs now spend a "very dramatic" share of their time defending against criminals armed with AI
1. Defensive Stocks Take Over
Carl Quintanilla, David Faber and Sara Eisen reviewed a week in which the Dow neared its best week since August while several AI stocks fell 30% or more from their highs. Sara described a rotation into safer stocks as bond yields fell.
Investors shifted into defensive and dividend-paying stocks during the AI selloff
"Defensive stocks have been working this week. Dividend stocks have been working this week." — Sara Eisen
Sara tied the anxiety to the cost of borrowing. When rates rise, lenders demand more from companies carrying heavy debt, and this week CoreWeave was the company in focus.
"Last week it was France we were all worried about. This week it's CoreWeave... credit risk rises when rates rise." — Sara Eisen
