The software rebound is real, but not every big name is back: Chart of the Day

Software stocks posted their best week in two and a half decades, flipping from one of the market’s weakest trades to one of the strongest in only five days.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) surged about 14% for the week, outpacing nearly every major leadership ETF on the board and even beating the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), which rose about 7.5%.

Software (IGV) vs Semiconductors (SOXX) — 5 Days

That’s a notable shift inside tech. Semis led the first leg of the rebound. This week, software took the baton.

The weekly winners make that clear. Oracle (ORCL) jumped over 25%, while RingCentral (RNG), Datadog (DDOG), Snowflake (SNOW), Shopify (SHOP), Atlassian (TEAM), and ServiceNow (NOW) all rose 15% or more.

That’s not a sleepy move for a group that had been badly lagging. It’s the kind of surge that shows investors are suddenly willing to pay up for cloud and higher-beta growth names again.

Software Heat Map (5 Days) — April 17, 2026

Microsoft (MSFT), the giant of the group, is telling the story in a different way. The stock posted its best week since the March 2020 pandemic panic low and rallied back to kiss its 100-day moving average.

But it still sits 24% below its all-time high, the furthest off its peak of any Magnificent Seven stock. The rest of software tells a similar story: Even after this week’s surge, many of the group’s biggest names remain far below their peaks.

Software Stocks Heat Map — Percent Down From 52-Week High

That same split is showing up over the full 13-day rally from the March 30 low. Snowflake is down about 6%, while ServiceNow, HubSpot (HUBS), and Intuit (INTU) are also down single digits. Salesforce (CRM) is slightly negative despite a 10% weekly jump.

That’s what is making this rebound so interesting. It’s big enough to matter, broad enough to notice, and strong enough to change the conversation around software. But it still falls short of a full repair.

Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.