By Luke Kawa
Publication Date: 2026-03-06 20:37:00
Why software stocks withstand the fear of war
The outbreak of war in Iran has clearly unsettled investors and produced some clear winners – mainly energy stocks – and losers – consumer staples, airlines and, well, more or everything else.
But there is an interesting outlier to this Manichean market dynamic.
Software stocks – often the same companies as the market give up for dead just a few weeks ago due to the over-expectation of an AI-driven disruption – have held up remarkably well.
These companies, including Intuitive, ServiceNow, Data dog, Snowflake, IBM, working dayAnd oracleThey’ve actually had a pretty good run since the war began with a combined American-Israeli attack on Iran last weekend.
A new note from RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria suggests this is no coincidence. His team examined the performance of software stocks during periods of geopolitical stress and market volatility over the past 10 and 25 years and found that software stocks…