Software stocks have faced a significant selloff in the new year amid mounting fears of AI-driven disruption, particularly from new AI tools from Anthropic.
- Trade Desk led the declines in Thursday’s premarket, dropping nearly 17%.
- Trade Desk and Salesforce forecast forward sales below analysts’ expectations.
- Stocktwits sentiment for TTD, CRM, SNOW, and SNPS turned ‘extremely bullish’ amid stock drops.
The Trade Desk, Inc. stock fell 16.6% in early premarket trading on Thursday, leading a post-earnings slide in software shares, a sector that has been battered in recent weeks amid mounting fears of AI-driven disruption.
Salesforce shares declined 3.7%, Synopsys shares dropped 3.6%, and Snowflake shares declined 1.4%.
Although investors sold off shares in response to the company’s quarterly earnings report, the selloff signals continued stress in the software sector.
Nvidia, the bellwether for the AI sector demand, whose performance has a bearing on tech company stocks, reported blowout results on Wednesday, but its shares failed to lift.
Software Earnings Recap
Trade Desk forecast fiscal first-quarter sales below analysts’ expectations, triggering the share drop. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted profit about in line with targets and bumped up its existing share repurchase program with an additional $350 million in authorization.
Salesforce forecast fiscal 2027 revenues slightly below market expectations, but a higher-than-expected first-quarter revenue view and a $50 billion buyback plan cushioned some of the drop in shares.
The company also bumped up its 2030 revenue forecast to $63 billion, up from its October projection of more than $60 billion, citing agentic AI as a catalyst for growth.
Snowflake, which has jumped up in investors’ radars after a $200 million licensing deal with OpenAI, forecast first-quarter and fiscal 2027 sales above analysts’ targets. Some analysts said the guidance was not strong enough.
Synopsys projected its second-quarter revenue above expectations and posted higher-than-expected Q1 sales. It, however, outlined that export restrictions for the Chinese market have prevented customers from starting new chip design projects and pressured its sales.
Retail Turn Extremely Bullish
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment turned ‘extremely bullish’ across TTD, CRM, SNOW, and SNPS.
Of the group, TTD has been the worst performer, with shares losing about 71% over the past 12 months. SNOW has remained the most resilient, with a mere 1.2% drop in this period.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<