S&P 500 Nears 8,000 as Software Rebound Replaces AI Hardware Trade
Updated
Updated · TradingView · Aug 21
S&P 500 Nears 8,000 as Software Rebound Replaces AI Hardware Trade
2 articles · Updated · TradingView · Aug 21
Summary
Morningstar said the S&P 500, now about 3% below 8,000, could reach that level within weeks after erasing all July losses in four trading sessions and setting fresh highs.
Dave Sekera tied the move to a rotation out of AI hardware names such as Micron, Sandisk, Ciena and Western Digital and into beaten-down software stocks including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and Microsoft.
Workday takeover talks with Silver Lake added fuel to the shift, with Morgan Stanley saying a deal would validate Workday’s moat and help lift peers such as Adobe, ServiceNow, Salesforce and SAP.
ServiceNow and Microsoft strengthened the software case with hard AI-demand data: ServiceNow’s AI contract value topped $1 billion, while Microsoft posted $90 billion in quarterly revenue and Azure revenue above $100 billion.
The rebound suggests investors are broadening AI bets beyond chips toward software platforms that can monetize enterprise adoption, even as retail sentiment on CRM, NOW and MSFT remains bearish.
Despite bearish retail sentiment, why are institutional giants quietly betting billions on these struggling software platforms to lead the next market surge?
With AI compute costs threatening traditional margins, can legacy software giants truly monetize the boom before their economic moats collapse entirely?