What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after software stocks extended gains as the broader stock market undergoes an overhaul regarding the future of the artificial intelligence trade.
Repricing continued to unfold following the previous week’s sharp retreat in tech equities, when mounting financing hurdles weakened demand for physical artificial intelligence builders. As reported by CNBC, high-growth software stocks are looking increasingly attractive as market participants rotate money out of the semiconductor sector and into the parts of the AI trade that they believe will outperform going forward. CNBC noted that this rotation is being driven by growing investor weariness that the broader market will face a challenging environment next year due to a ballooning U.S. fiscal deficit, higher inflation, and an anticipated deceleration in the massive AI infrastructure capital expenditure cycle.
Furthermore, CNBC explained that the earlier narrative surrounding "software obsolescence"—where investors feared AI agents could replace traditional software packages—has largely receded as strong earnings expectations and new AI product partnerships revive confidence in the sector.
Ultimately, CNBC observed that this shift in sentiment has created a pronounced divergence in the market, with software sector ETFs climbing sharply in recent months while semiconductor ETFs suffer extended, historic losing streaks.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Sales Software company ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM) jumped 4.6%. Is now the time to buy ZoomInfo? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Lending Software company Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) jumped 3%. Is now the time to buy Upstart? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Automation Software company UiPath (NYSE: PATH) jumped 2.1%. Is now the time to buy UiPath? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Video Conferencing company 8x8 (NASDAQ: EGHT) jumped 6.3%. Is now the time to buy 8x8? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- HR Software company Paycom (NYSE: PAYC) jumped 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Paycom? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On 8x8 (EGHT)
8x8’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 59 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 20 days ago when the stock gained 4.3% on the news that the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 0.9% increase in personal consumption expenditures for August, signaling resilient consumer demand alongside steady economic expansion. The latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that consumer outlays advanced strongly despite a modest 0.2% uptick in personal income.
Underlying inflation trends also remained relatively subdued, with the core Personal Consumption Expenditures price index—a key inflation gauge watched closely by policymakers—increasing 0.2% month-over-month. Supporting the positive economic picture, the third estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product confirmed the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.2%.
Together, these indicators suggest that households continue to spend at a healthy pace, alleviating concerns over an impending consumer slowdown and bolstering market confidence across retail and consumer sectors.
8x8 is up 11.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $2.12 per share, it is still trading 23.4% below its 52-week high of $2.76 from May 2026. Despite the year-to-date gain, investors who bought $1,000 worth of 8x8’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $88.98.
ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable.
These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.
