Whipsaw Week as Software v Semis Inverse Correlation Spikes

Research evidence excerpt

Whipsaw Week as Software v Semis Inverse Correlation Spikes

Foundation

August 2, 2026 03:00 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc+MSoftware Snippets | Europe George W Webb

Equity Analyst

Whipsaw Week as Software v George.Webb@morganstanley.comMark Hyatt +44 20 7425-2686

Mark.Hyatt@morganstanley.com +44 20 7677-3663

Semis Inverse Correlation William Richards

Research Associate

William.Richards1@morganstanley.com +44 20 7425-0269

Spikes

Technology - Software & Services

Europe

Important events in the world of Software & Services in the Industry View In-Line

week ahead, and key MS research / stories from the past week.

Key Takeaways

A choppy week of price action across Software Services and Semiconductors

(#Software, #IT Services)

Hyperscalers: The Paths to 25-50% GenAI ROIC

Global IT Services: Quantifying The Re-Skilling Race (#IT Services)

European Software & Services: Broadly positive 2Q earnings continue

Legora announces its fifth and largest Legal Tech acquisition in 2026 (#RELX,

#Wolters Kluwer)

1) A choppy week of price action across Software & Services and Semiconductors

(#Software, #IT Services): Following on from a strong last Friday, the Software &

Services sub-sectors enjoyed a further sharp rally across Monday to Wednesday,

with much of our coverage up over 15% by the end of Wednesday. These sub-sectors

having been on the receiving end of more negative AI debates for around a year now

(with a sharp downward move in February dubbed the 'SaaSpocalypse'). We think

there is ongoing inverse thematic pairing between Software & Services (S&S) and

Semiconductors (& Semicap); Semis as a beneficiary from positive sentiment around

AI infrastructure build out, whereas S&S is still perceived as potentially disrupted

over time as AI models evolve.