What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the United States and Iran agreed to halt their tit-for-tat military exchanges, easing fears of a wider Middle East conflict that had rattled markets over the weekend.
The relief lifted the whole risk complex. The pre-existing trigger was the chip-to-software rotation, sparked by a June 25 report that OpenAI may delay its IPO, which softened the "SaaSpocalypse" fear that AI labs would quickly cannibalize incumbent SaaS. The Iran news matters for software through the rate channel.
Lower oil eases the inflation impulse that had pushed traders to price in a Fed rate hike later in the year, and falling rate-hike odds disproportionately help long-duration, high-multiple growth software exactly the cohort hit hardest in 2026. So, the de-escalation removed a macro overhang, at the same moment the micro narrative (OpenAI's constraints) reduced the existential AI-disruption fear.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Network Security company Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) jumped 8.4%. Is now the time to buy Palo Alto Networks? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Vulnerability Management company Tenable (NASDAQ: TENB) jumped 7.7%. Is now the time to buy Tenable? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Palo Alto Networks (PANW)
Palo Alto Networks’s shares are quite volatile and have had 17 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 18 days ago when the stock gained 5.2% as the Nasdaq rebounded, up 1.8%, as Trump's Iran peace deal announcement released the rate pressure that weighed on the sector.
Oil prices fell more than 3% following the cancellation of planned strikes on Iran, easing the inflation pressure that had been driving rate hike expectations. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.47% from 4.55%, a move that expands the forward earnings multiples tech stocks trade on. Every basis point of yield reduction matters more to a company priced on earnings years into the future than to almost any other sector. The combination of lower oil, lower yields, and geopolitical risk being removed from global supply chains was precisely the backdrop tech needed to recover after three consecutive sessions of selling.
Palo Alto Networks is up 83.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $329.48 per share, it has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Palo Alto Networks’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $5,262.
ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable.
These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.
