Wall Street Learns to Love Software, Again

Forget the SaaSpocalypse! It's a SaaS renaissance (SaaSaissance, anyone?). Shares of Salesforce rocketed 23% on Thursday, leading a recovery for many of the most beaten-down software stocks, including ServiceNow, Figma and Asana, after Salesforce reported upbeat July-quarter earnings on Wednesday night. The rally signaled a striking change in sentiment for the sector, which has been slammed by worries about the impact of AI on traditional software. 

Thursday’s rally extended to cybersecurity-related stocks that hadn’t been swept up in the SaaSpocalypse, including CrowdStrike (up 20.5%) and Okta (up 29%), both of which also reported earnings on Wednesday. But the Salesforce rally was what got attention. Salesforce, one of the biggest and highest-profile software names, at one point this year was down 43% from where it finished 2025. Those ugly days may be over: It finished the day down just 4% for the year.