What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after solid economic data, including a beat on consumer confidence boosted sentiment. 

The positive reports fueled a "Turnaround Tuesday" relief rally across the market, with the technology sector among the leaders. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 91.2 in February, indicating a more optimistic outlook from consumers about income and business conditions. 

Also, a recent announcement from Anthropic regarding new collaborative tools for its Claude AI agent software helped calm investor nerves. The company's move to expand its AI tools into sectors like human resources and investment banking signals a potential for partnership rather than replacement. This shift in sentiment was reflected in the market, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF surging 2.4% as investors bought back into beaten-down software stocks.

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:

• Advertising Software company LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) jumped 5.3%. Is now the time to buy LiveRamp? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Project Management Software company monday.com (NASDAQ: MNDY) jumped 8%. Is now the time to buy monday.com? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Marketing Software company Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE) jumped 9.8%. Is now the time to buy Braze? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Advertising Software company Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) jumped 12.2%. Is now the time to buy Zeta Global? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Vertical Software company Guidewire Software (NYSE: GWRE) jumped 5.4%. Is now the time to buy Guidewire Software? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On Zeta Global (ZETA)

Zeta Global’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 48 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Zeta Global and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 12 days ago when the stock dropped 6.8% on the news that investors continued to distinguish between the winners and losers in the artificial intelligence boom, leading to a broad sell-off. The Nasdaq fell 1.5%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average also saw significant declines. This market shift indicated that investors were becoming more selective, moving beyond the initial excitement surrounding AI. In addition, a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report dampened investor expectations for near-term interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Data showed the U.S. labor market remained resilient, with non-farm payrolls indicating impressive job creation and falling unemployment. This positive economic signal led markets to re-evaluate the timeline for monetary policy easing, which is the process by which a central bank reduces interest rates to stimulate economic growth. Investors priced in the first potential rate cut for July, a shift from previous expectations of June. This delay created a headwind for growth-oriented sectors like software, as higher interest rates can reduce the present value of future earnings.

Zeta Global is down 16.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $16.66 per share, it is trading 31.7% below its 52-week high of $24.40 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Zeta Global’s shares at the IPO in June 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $1,874.

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