Shares of software companies extended their winning run to a seventh day on Tuesday, with cybersecurity firms among the strongest performers.
The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF climbed 2.6%, marking its longest streak of daily gains since January 2025. The fund has risen 11% over the past five days but is still down 17% for the year, a decline attributed in the article to concerns about potential disruptions from artificial intelligence on software-as-a-service companies.
Within the ETF, several large-cap positions moved higher. Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) was up 1.5%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 1.75%, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) gained 3%, and Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) increased 4%.
Cybersecurity stocks were notable leaders in Tuesday's advance. CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) added 4.9%, Varonis Systems (NASDAQ:VRNS) rose 4.3%, and SentinelOne (NYSE:S) climbed 3.9%.
Cloud-related names participated in the rally as well. Rubrik (NYSE:RBRK) rose 4.4%, RingCentral (NYSE:RNG) jumped 7.88%, Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) added 2.4%, and Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) climbed 1.9%.
IT services and consultancy firms also posted gains. Gartner (NYSE:IT) increased 2.7%, Kyndryl Holdings (NYSE:KD) gained 1.2%, and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) added 1.4%.
Other notable movers cited included ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW), which rose 4.2%, Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) up 2.8%, HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) higher by 4.9%, Palantir again listed at a 1.9% gain, and Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) which was up 6.7%.
Context and takeaways
The seven-day advance highlights concentrated strength in cybersecurity stocks within the broader software complex, while cloud platforms and IT services also benefited. Despite the recent positive momentum, the sector's year-to-date decline underscores ongoing investor concern about how artificial intelligence could disrupt software-as-a-service business models.