By George Glover and Kit Norton
Earnings from Snowflake beg the question: Is software back?
That could be the biggest narrative in the market Thursday even as stocks took a slightly more defensive tilt with oil prices climbing after the U.S. conducted fresh military strikes against Iran. Investors also received another data point on inflation, as the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE price index, accelerated to 3.8% in April, well above the 2% target.
The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite all trended lower Thursday.
Balancing the macro trends, Snowflake stock surged 36% after fiscal first-quarter profit smashed Wall Street's target, potentially dispelling fears that artificial intelligence would destroy its business. Snowflake also announced an expanded collaboration with Amazon.com's AWS.
Software stocks have been struggling for months due to fears of AI disruption, but Snowflake's better-than-expected results were boosting the industry on Thursday.
Oracle added 2.3% and ServiceNow jumped 6.9%. Datadog rose 0.6% while Salesforce gained 2.8% after issuing mixed second-quarter guidance.
MongoDB jumped 11% ahead of first-quarter earnings, due after Thursday's close of trading.
While software rallied, red-hot chip stocks were mixed as the market appeared to use the flare-up in tensions between the U.S. and Iran as a good excuse to take some profits following a stellar rally.
Advanced Micro Devices added 0.2% and Intel dropped 4%.
Micron Technology declined 2.2%, two days after hitting a $1 trillion valuation. Marvell Technology was little changed after the chip company's revenue beat expectations and earnings were in-line with estimates late Wednesday.
Cloud-computing company Nebius gained 6% after prominent investor Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fund disclosed a stake.
Synopsys fell 6.3%, placing the stock at the bottom of the S&P 500. The chip-design software and hardware company reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday. Synopsys also raised its full-year revenue guidance to a midpoint of $9.67 billion, up from previous guidance of $9.6 billion. But none of that seemed to help the stock and nor did the announcement of a cooperation agreement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management.
Among other stocks making big moves Thursday were Dollar Tree and Unusual Machines.
Shares of discount retailer Dollar Tree advanced 17%, leading the S&P 500, after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, lifted its fiscal-year guidance, and unveiled a partnership with DoorDash.
Unusual Machines stock surged 46% after The Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration was in negotiations to fund multiple private-sector drone companies.
Unusual Machines was one of the companies the Pentagon identified for potential funding, according to the report. The drone-parts supplier counts Donald Trump Jr. as an advisory board member. Neither the Defense Department nor Unusual Machines responded to requests for comment from Barron's.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com and Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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May 28, 2026 10:16 ET (14:16 GMT)
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