New York, February 10, 2026, 15:07 (ET) — Regular session
- CrowdStrike climbed roughly 2.2% in afternoon action, stretching a comeback rally among battered software stocks.
- JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley flagged a drop in software valuations, blaming sentiment—fresh worries about AI disruption are rattling the sector.
- Next up: investors are zeroing in on March 3 results, looking for signals on demand and guidance.
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. climbed 2.2% to $417.09 in afternoon action Tuesday, part of a rally across cybersecurity names. Shares of Palo Alto Networks edged up 0.4%, while Zscaler picked up around 2.4%.
This shift stands out: the stock’s been behaving closer to a high-growth software name than to a straightforward cyber stock. Lately, that’s hurt. Investors have been wrestling with how a quicker, lower-cost batch of AI might shake up the subscription software space, and the shares have felt it the past couple weeks.
JPMorgan strategists see the recent software selloff as opening up some buying chances, after AI developer Anthropic introduced plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent—news that helped drag the S&P 500 software and services index down by as much as 17% across six sessions ending Thursday. “The market is pricing in worst-case AI disruption scenarios that are unlikely to materialize over the next three to six months,” wrote Dubravko Lakos-Bujas and his team, who flagged CrowdStrike among their preferred “higher quality and AI-resilient” picks. Over at Morgan Stanley, Katy Huberty called the drop in U.S. software valuations “sentiment-driven, not fundamental,” in a note of her own. Reuters
CrowdStrike flagged ongoing product momentum for investors. On Monday, the company announced it was the sole vendor to earn a Customers’ Choice nod in Gartner Peer Insights’ “Voice of the Customer” report for external attack surface management. “The trust organizations place in CrowdStrike,” said chief technology officer Elia Zaitsev, is behind the recognition—especially as security teams work to spot and patch vulnerabilities at scale. CrowdStrike
External attack surface management, known as EASM, is all about tracking down a company’s internet-facing assets—the ones hackers usually hit up first. That means inventory, but also early alerts. Vendors who’ve managed to integrate this into everyday security routines have found the market quick to back them.
The risk is still right there in the tape. During last week’s tumble, thirty-day implied volatility on the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF hovered around 41%—just shy of a 10-month high. Over the last three months, the software and services group trailed the S&P 500 by nearly 24 percentage points. Short interest in the ETF, meanwhile, sat close to record territory, Ortex data show.
CrowdStrike is gearing up for its next big test, with fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year numbers set to drop after the U.S. market shuts on March 3. Management will jump on a conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern that same evening.
The March 3 update pulls the conversation out of baskets and positioning, straight into numbers and guidance. Management needs to steer talk toward security demand, sidestepping any new AI-disruption worries. That’s what gives this rebound its potential legs.
