The first two months of the year were a year to forget for the software sector. In just two months, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) fell more than 22%, taking its total decline from its peak to over 30%. In the early weeks of 2026, it seemed as though every weekend a new negative article about the sector was published, allowing nervous investors to worry all weekend about the death of software stocks at the hands of AI.
The most notable of these reports, so far, was the Citrini essay titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis”. Published on 2/22, it also coincided with a weekend blizzard in the northeast. When the markets opened for trading the following Monday on 2/23, the magnitude of the decline was likely exaggerated given the lower market liquidity. Looking back at that report, though, in the short-term at least, its publication appears to have been a clearing-out event for the market, as IGV has rallied 13.9% since the close on 2/23.
Over the course of that 13% rally, IGV has traded higher in eight of the last nine trading days, including today’s fractional gain as of midday. Not only has IGV traded consistently higher, but there has also been steady buying throughout the trading day. In each of those nine days, even on the one day it traded lower, IGV traded higher from the open to close. While there have been five other streaks where IGV had more consecutive days of gains from the open to close, the current streak is tied with four other periods for the sixth-longest streak in the ETF's history. It’s always easier to see in hindsight, but underneath all the snow on 2/23, there was plenty of blood on the software streets.
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