Live Markets: Software: Will Odysseus make it back to Ithaca?

Adobe

07/08/2026 17:53

Main U.S. indexes rise, Nasdaq out front, up >1%
Cons Disc leads S&P 500 sector gainers; Energy weakest group
Euro STOXX 600 index up ~0.3%
Dollar falls; bitcoin gains; U.S. crude rises >1%; gold up >2%
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dips to ~4.65%
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SOFTWARE: WILL ODYSSEUS MAKE IT BACK TO ITHACA? 
OK, maybe some of us have been dwelling too much on the movie they most recently watched, but maybe there might be a parallel, depending, of course, on how the software script continues.
The volatile S&P 500 Software and Services Index .SPLRCIS is up 1.5% on Friday after touching its highest level since mid-January and it is on track for its 10th advance in 11 sessions, with just one drop of 0.9% on Wednesday this week. This would make for a gain of more than 25% over 11 sessions if the index were to close around current levels. 
But before we get ahead of ourselves, it should be noted that the index also traded very close to these levels on June 1 with a session high of 5278.32 that day versus Friday's 5279.42 high of the day, so far. 
And of course, that the early June peak was followed by a massive selloff with just two sessions of gains between June 2 and June 25.
Mid-January levels are important because that is when a huge selloff began as investors made a run for it because they really started to worry that artificial intelligence would eat the sector's lunch with new competition and completely upend its pricing models. This was an exodus that had started in late October, after the index hit its last record high.  
So the question now is whether the sector can continue climbing back up or if it will get stalled again on some distant island of selloffs, similar to what happened in June.
Some investors may find hope in the fact that much of the recent gains came after earnings reports from big software companies. For example, results from Microsoft MSFT.O were very well received as was Palantir's PLTR.O. The same can't be said for IBM IBM.N or ServiceNow NOW.N.    
Companies that still have to report results for the second quarter include Workday WDAY.O, Intuit INTU.O,  Autodesk ADSK.O, Salesforce CRM.N, Adobe ADBE.O and Oracle ORCL.N.
(Sinéad Carew)
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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:
US EQUITIES RISE WITH FOCUS ON RATES AS JOB MARKET WEAKENS CLICK HERE
WARSH'S PUSH FOR A QUIETER FED DRAWS WARNINGS FROM SOME WALL STREET STRATEGISTS CLICK HERE
S&P 500 FUTURES STRENGTHEN, YIELDS SLIDE AFTER JOBS DATA CLICK HERE
LATEST YEN INTERVENTION FORMAT BURNISHES DOLLAR'S STATUS, SAYS GOLDMAN CLICK HERE
EUROPE INC POWERS PAST LOFTY Q2 PROFIT EXPECTATIONS CLICK HERE
STOXX HEADS FOR DECENT WEEKLY RISE CLICK HERE 
EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: CAUTIOUS START BEFORE PAYROLLS, OIL RISES CLICK HERE
HOPING FOR A CLEAN AND TIDY JOBS REPORT CLICK HERE