What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after software stocks declined for a second consecutive session, extending the profit-taking that began earlier in the week. 

The broader market was essentially flat when the correction started the previous day: the S&P 500 was unchanged, the Nasdaq barely moved, confirming this was sector-level digestion, not broad risk-off selling. To understand the pullback, you need to understand the depth of what preceded it. In a 48-hour span in early February 2026, roughly $285 billion was wiped from software stock valuations after Anthropic's Claude Cowork platform raised genuine fears that AI agents could make per-seat SaaS licensing obsolete, a moment the market called the "SaaSpocalypse." 

Over the following months, the IGV fell more than a third from its September 2025 peak, hitting a 52-week low on April 10. At that point, approximately 75% of software stocks were screening as technically oversold. The recovery was fast. The IGV rose 21% in May alone, its best monthly performance since October 2001, and gained approximately 40-44% from the April low. By June 2, it had crossed back into positive YTD territory for the first time, sitting approximately 11% below its all-time peak. Strong results from Snowflake and MongoDB gave the rebound fundamental cover. But the final push was options- and retail-driven, not institutional. On June 2, call volumes in the IGV outpaced puts, and Oracle options saw billions in premium trade with a three-to-one call-to-put ratio. That is the key to understanding why portfolio managers are likely not defending these levels. 

Most institutional managers who cut software exposure during the SaaSpocalypse would have faced a recovery that moved faster than their mandates allowed for rebuilding positions. Rather than chase, watching for a pullback and a better entry might be better. For those already positioned from the early recovery, the rational move was to let names reset before adding.

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:

• Banking Software company Q2 Holdings (NYSE: QTWO) fell 6.8%. Is now the time to buy Q2 Holdings? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Sales Software company HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) fell 7.3%. Is now the time to buy HubSpot? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Payments Software company Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) fell 7.6%. Is now the time to buy Marqeta? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On Marqeta (MQ)

Marqeta’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 12 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 2 days ago when the stock gained 6.2% on the news that software stocks extended their rally, carrying momentum from one of the sharpest sector reversals of 2026. 

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF closed May up 21%, its best monthly performance since October 2001, after Snowflake's Q1 results and Dell's Q1 print over two consecutive evenings combined to break the "SaaSpocalypse" narrative that had driven enterprise software stocks 20-40% below their highs. Snowflake's revenue grew 34% to $1.39 billion, AI accounts jumped from 9,100 to 13,600 in a single quarter, and Dell confirmed $16.1 billion in AI server revenue (up 757%) against a $51.3 billion committed backlog. The combined message was that AI is accelerating enterprise software demand, not displacing it. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's Computex keynote in Taipei framed agentic AI (autonomous systems executing tasks across enterprise infrastructure) as the defining platform shift ahead, directly validating the demand case for the software layer that governs, secures, and orchestrates those agents. ServiceNow rose 10%, bringing its two-session gain to 26% from the May 28 close of $108. Okta held its 30% post-earnings surge, with its identity platform increasingly positioned as infrastructure for enterprise AI agent deployment. MongoDB sustained its post-Q1 momentum after 25% revenue growth and a fourth consecutive quarter of Atlas growth at or above 29%. CrowdStrike held near its 52-week high of $731 ahead of its June 3 earnings.

Marqeta is down 18.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $3.78 per share, it is trading 44.7% below its 52-week high of $6.83 from August 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Marqeta’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $123.69.

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