Workday Inc

AI agents are moving from experimental pilots into procurement, accounting, and finance, where they are redesigning work through role consolidation, hiring freezes, and the quiet absorption of junior positions. Workday has launched a suite of AI agents for finance, including an Accounting Agent that continuously reconciles accounts, tests controls, and catches variances, and a Procurement Agent that reviews every transaction against contract terms and SLAs. SAP has introduced Joule agents for procurement through Ariba and Fieldglass, plus an Expense Automation Agent the company says cuts report completion time by up to 30% and a Project Billing Price Verification Agent that reduces time spent resolving price discrepancies by 75%. On Oct. 7, Automation Anywhere announced the acquisition of Boost.ai, extending its Autonomous Enterprise vision, the idea that business functions can run up to 80% autonomously, into conversational and voice AI for back-office workflows. BCG's Henderson Institute reported in January 2026 that 50% to 55% of US jobs will be reshaped in the next two to three years, with 10% to 15% eliminated within five, and data from JobZone Risk in October 2026 shows that of 21 million US workers in finance and accounting, only 3% sit in what the firm calls a structurally safe zone. Ninety percent of Chief Procurement Officers are already exploring or using AI agents, according to Icertis and ProcureCon research, and 64% expect AI to transform their roles within five years, per the Hackett Group.

Strada announced a strategic partnership with Aon and a slate of new AI-powered offerings at Workday Rising U.S. 2026, where it is exhibiting at booth #C1. The Aon partnership combines Aon's consulting and benefits expertise with Strada's end-to-end Workday capabilities, giving Aon clients access to Strada's strategic advisory, deployment, optimization and ongoing operational support across the Workday platform. Strada also unveiled its new Flex Credit Calculator, an advisory tool developed with its Client Advisory Board that uses published Workday Flex Credit rate cards plus customer-specific data such as employee population, subscription type and anticipated AI usage to project AI consumption and costs. In addition, Strada Express is expanding into the U.S. market following its European launch earlier this year, targeting organizations with up to 3,000 employees with three deployment tiers — Express, Accelerate and Transform — and enabling eligible customers to go live in as little as 12 weeks. The U.S. expansion extends Strada's Workday GO offering into North America, with accreditation now spanning the U.S. and Canada.

Auditoria.AI, a partner of Workday, announced broader autonomous Cash Cycle solutions for Workday finance users, adding intelligent automation tools and finance-led governance features designed to tighten controls and oversight inside Workday-based finance workflows. The company also reported new client wins and entry into additional international markets for its Workday-focused automation platform. The expansion plugs Auditoria.AI deeper into Workday Financial Management, turning accounts payable and receivable into more automated, agent-driven workflows that keep governance in finance's hands and keep more complex cash cycle activity inside Workday rather than in side systems. Workday's narrative already leans on strong AI adoption, with roughly US$600m in AI ARR and over 25% of new and expansion ACV coming from AI-driven products, plus non-GAAP operating margins above 31%. The key question remaining is how quickly customers move to Flex Credits for AI agents and Workday Data Cloud, which is central to how these workloads turn into reported subscription revenue and cash flow.

Workday released its October 2026 Global Workforce Report, finding that 40% of business leaders expect AI to help them get more out of existing employees while just 28% expect it to reduce headcount. Demand for basic AI skills such as simple prompting peaked in January 2026 and then fell 25%, while demand for hands-on skills like building AI tools, automating workflows, and AI engineering climbed 51% between September 2025 and July 2026, based on skills data from over 550 employers using Workday Recruiting. Internal role moves fell at 57% of employers year over year and promotions stayed essentially flat, with the median number of applicants per filled job rising to 69 from 58 a year earlier, up 27% in financial services and 40% in technology and media. In a September 2026 survey of 6,000 full-time employees, 79% said they know what skills they need but only 66% said their employer helps them develop those skills, a 13-point gap. Voluntary turnover sits at roughly 16% a year and about 70% of employees remain with the same company after two years, yet employees who plan to stay are less likely to recommend their employer, a gap reaching 11 points in the public sector.

Guild has achieved Workday Certified Integration status with the launch of the Guild Workday HCM Connector, the workforce development platform announced. The certified connector links Workday Human Capital Management directly to Guild, replacing manual file transfers with an automatic synchronization of employee information used to determine and manage eligibility for Guild programs. Guild said the connector is designed to reduce implementation complexity and ongoing maintenance while improving the reliability and accuracy of the employee data that governs access to its programs. OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's academic health system, is among the first employers to implement the certified integration. Guild also plans to expand its integration through Workday Cloud Connect for Learning, allowing skills earned and learning completion data from Guild programs to feed directly into an employee's Workday profile.

Workday announced on Thursday that it has launched in the United Arab Emirates. Angelique De Vries-Schipperijn, President, EMEA, Workday, said in a statement that the UAE is a key market in Workday's growth strategy, with organizations pursuing transformation against some of the world's most ambitious national agendas, and that they need technology that helps them move faster, adopt new ways of working, and show clear results while maintaining the trust and control large, regulated organizations require. Workday shares slipped more than 3% in midday trading, in-line with a broader market sell-off.

Teem Finance, Inc., an AI-native procurement intelligence company, announced a partnership with Workday to integrate its supplier insights into Workday Strategic Sourcing and Workday Contract Lifecycle Management. As a Workday Partner, Teem will bring AI-powered supplier research and discovery, cost deflection guardrails, category management intelligence, and faster data-backed evaluations to the Workday ecosystem. The integration lets supplier and contract context flow directly from Workday into Teem with no manual data loading, and the Workday Strategic Sourcing integration uses Teem data to power supplier discovery and cost deflection use cases. Customers have used Teem's capabilities to reduce redundant software spend by 20% to 35% and cut sourcing cycle times in half. Teem founder and CEO Ben Mappen said joint customers can see what they already own, discover the right suppliers in minutes instead of weeks, and stop redundant spend before a purchase order is created. Teem will host a session at Workday Rising, Oct. 12-15 in Las Vegas.

Workday, Inc. has launched Total Benefits, a new artificial intelligence-powered solution that brings employees' health, financial and wellbeing programs together in one place. The platform combines four key capabilities: Workday Wellness, Benefits Guidance through Self-Service Agent, Life and Money Solutions, and Benefits Administration Services. Workday Wellness provides HR and benefits leaders real-time insights into program usage, performance and costs, and early adopters reported a 75% reduction in the time needed to onboard new providers. The services include AI-powered Benefits Guidance through Self-Service Agent, which helps employees compare plans, enroll in coverage, add dependents and update beneficiaries, while the platform also offers financial services such as earned wage access, direct deposit and employment and income verification. Through Benefits Administration Services, partners including Strada and Benefit Harbor help HR teams with plan setup, system migration and ongoing administration. Workday faces competition from Oracle Corporation and Automatic Data Processing, Inc., both of which are expanding their own enterprise AI capabilities.

Block is expanding the reach of its Square and Cash App ecosystems through separate integrations with Apple and Workday. Square has introduced an Apple Business integration that lets eligible sellers manage and synchronize business information across Apple Maps, Siri AI, Apple Wallet and other Apple services directly from Square Dashboard, with updates to branding, logos, operating hours, addresses and phone numbers synced automatically; Square noted that claimed Apple Maps locations receive 30% more views, while action links have generated 31% higher click-through rates. The integration is available across Square's eight supported markets, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, and follows recent integrations with AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude. Separately, Cash App has partnered with Workday to simplify direct deposit enrollment for U.S. employees, allowing eligible workers to select Cash App as their direct deposit destination through Workday's Enhanced Direct Deposit experience beginning Oct. 1. Cash App had 9.4 million Primary Banking Actives in the second quarter of 2026, up 17% year over year. Together, the partnerships highlight Block's strategy of embedding its products into widely used consumer and enterprise platforms.

Workday has rolled out its AI-driven Workday Total Benefits platform and announced multiple integrations with partners including Experian, Checkr, Block's Cash App, OneSource Virtual, Tabulera, and Neeyamo, expanding its capabilities across benefits, payroll, and income verification. Together, these partnerships turn Workday further into a unified hub for payroll, benefits, and financial services data, potentially deepening customer reliance on its ecosystem and reducing administrative friction for HR teams. Workday's narrative projects $13.8 billion revenue and $2.1 billion earnings by 2029, assuming 10.7% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $0.8 billion from $1.3 billion today. The most cautious analysts saw Workday's revenue only reaching about US$13.0 billion and earnings around US$1.8 billion by 2029, expecting slower growth and tighter margins than today's headlines might suggest. Workday's forecasts yield a $208.68 fair value, an 8% upside to its current price.

Generac struck a deal with Amazon to supply backup power generators for its data centers, with initial deliveries expected to total $2.4 billion between 2027 and 2028, and also granted Amazon the right to buy up to $340 million worth of its stock. Generac shares soared 19% on the news, while Amazon's stock moved 1.3% higher. Fluence Energy shares tumbled 14% after the battery storage maker cut its full-year guidance, now expecting $2.4 billion in revenue for 2026 versus its prior guidance of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion, and anticipating a loss of $200 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, more than its previous guidance range of $30 million loss to $10 million EBITDA. Workday rose 5% after CNBC's David Faber reported that efforts to gain financing for a bid to take the cloud-based human resources software platform private are continuing, citing unidentified sources. Tower Semiconductor rose almost 9% after agreeing with privately-held New Photonics to a high-volume shipment of laser-integrated optical engines designed to meet growing demand for high-bandwidth, energy-efficient optical interconnects in AI infrastructure, and Vital Farms climbed 9% after Axios said the Austin, Texas-based pasture-raised egg and butter producer is exploring strategic alternatives, including privatization.

Workday has been named a Leader in the inaugural 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Workforce Management Technology, the company announced. Workday's workforce management suite brings time tracking, absence management, scheduling, and labor optimization together within Workday Human Capital Management, giving frontline leaders one system to manage labor costs, compliance, schedules, and time. The suite includes agentic capabilities powered by Sana, Workday's agentic experience, including a Workforce Management Agent that automates schedule changes, time tracking, shift swaps, and demand-based staffing; early-adoption customers saw up to a 90% reduction in time spent managing shift schedule changes, a 65% improvement in process automation on average, and a 75% reduction in manual time entry errors. Automotive services retailer Valvoline cut the time managers spend generating weekly schedules from more than two hours to about 15 minutes, while health and fitness company Life Time reached 95% mobile app adoption after rolling out Workday Scheduling, saving managers over 50,000 hours each year and realizing $1 million in annual labor savings and a 50% reduction in overtime costs. The Gartner report, by Sam Grinter, Ranadip Chandra, Kelsie Marian, and Anand Chouksey, was published on 14 September 2026.

Workday has named Sarah Kennedy Ellis as its Chief Marketing Officer, effective immediately. Ellis previously held senior marketing roles at Google and Adobe, bringing large scale enterprise software and cloud marketing experience to the role. Her remit covers Workday's global marketing, brand narrative and go to market messaging for its AI focused product portfolio. The appointment reinforces the existing Workday narrative that management is trying to turn strong AI product uptake into a clearer commercial story, and touches on a flagged risk that execution around AI and newer offerings needs clear messaging to address questions about slower projected revenue growth and competitive pressure in HCM and ERP. Workday, which provides enterprise cloud applications to large organisations in the US and internationally, has a market cap of $46.8b.

Workday reported a second-quarter earnings beat with faster AI adoption and a higher margin outlook, raising the stakes for fiscal 2028 growth. Revenues rose 12.8% year over year to $2.65 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.63 billion, while non-GAAP earnings of $2.75 per share topped the consensus of $2.62. Subscription revenues increased 13.9% to $2.47 billion, about 93% of total revenues, with roughly 60% of that growth from existing customers. AI products generated more than $100 million of new annual contract value, over 25% of the total, and agentic AI annual recurring revenues approached $600 million, up more than 200% year over year. Management raised its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP operating margin outlook to 31% and maintained operating cash flow guidance of $3.45 billion, while targeting about 11% subscription revenue growth in fiscal 2028 with margin expansion of at least two percentage points.

Workday has reported strong adoption among U.S. state and local governments replacing legacy HR and finance systems with its cloud platform, with large deployments in states including Georgia and Ohio highlighting new public sector clients and recent go lives across core payroll, HR, and finance functions. The company is rolling out AI-driven automation and agents to handle tasks such as payroll processing, workforce management, and financial workflows for government users. The scale of these projects signals deeper penetration into the public sector market at a time when many governments are modernizing outdated technology. Workday, a US-based software company with a market cap of $47.6 billion, provides cloud applications for HR and finance, positioning it directly in the path of governments replacing older on-premises systems. For investors, this wave of state and local government wins reinforces the existing narrative catalyst around AI-driven adoption, rather than creating a new story, with governments standardizing critical HR and finance work on Workday's platform and already using agents like Self Service Agent, Payroll Agent, and Financial Audit Agent in live environments. The next marker to watch is Workday's reported subscription backlog and AI-related expansion revenue in upcoming quarterly results, especially as more large projects like Georgia's 70,000-employee rollout move from deployment into ongoing use.

BDO Canada has announced a partnership with Workday, Inc., the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT, to help organizations modernize critical business functions. As a Workday Sales and Services Partner, BDO will combine its business advisory and Human Resources Technology & Transformation expertise with Workday's platform to accelerate digital transformation and create greater business value. The partnership will offer advisory, implementation, and optimization services across Workday Human Capital Management, Financial Management, and Adaptive Planning, aiming to improve visibility and decision-making. Edward Charter, country manager for Workday Canada, noted that this builds on Workday's $1 billion, five-year investment in the Canadian market. Jesaiah Mills, Partner at BDO Canada, emphasized that clients seek solutions combining leading technology with trusted advisory expertise for meaningful transformation.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions has been named a Workday Wellness partner, integrating its family care and education benefits into the Workday platform to simplify benefits administration and provide employers with greater visibility into program participation and impact. The collaboration enables employees to discover, enroll in, and access support directly within their existing Workday environment, while employers gain insights into utilization and the benefits' effect on wellbeing, productivity, retention, and career growth. Phil Barr, Chief Development Officer at Bright Horizons, emphasized that the partnership makes benefits easier to implement, measure, and access, delivering a more seamless experience for employees and better data for employers. Bright Horizons operates approximately 1,000 early education and child care centers across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and India, serving more than 1,450 leading employers.

Marvell Technology Inc.'s shares plunged 10.3% after the company provided weak guidance for third-quarter fiscal 2027 adjusted gross margin. In contrast, Workday Inc. climbed 5.8% after posting first-quarter fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings of $2.75 per share, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.62 per share. The Gap Inc. jumped 12.9% after reporting second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $0.52 per share, outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.50 per share. Meanwhile, MINISO Group Holding Ltd.'s shares tumbled 4.4% after reporting second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $0.26 per share, lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.31 per share.

Shares of Workday jumped 5.8% in afternoon trading after the company reported second-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street expectations, driven by strong subscription revenue growth and accelerating artificial intelligence adoption. The company reported revenue of $2.65 billion, up 12.8% year over year, and adjusted profit of $2.75 per share, topping estimates of $2.64 billion and $2.61 per share. Subscription revenue rose 13.9% to $2.47 billion, exceeding guidance, while AI solutions drove over 25% of new annual contract value, with more than 5,500 customers deploying at least one organic AI agent. The company raised the lower end of its full-year subscription revenue guidance to between $9.94 billion and $9.95 billion, representing 13% growth, and authorized a new $4 billion share repurchase program after completing its previous $5 billion buyback. The stock closed at $204.70, up 4.6%.

Enterprise software and cybersecurity stocks rallied sharply on Thursday, driven by strong earnings and a shift in the AI narrative. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) surged over 6%, on track for its largest single-day gain since April 9, 2025, when it jumped 11.7%. The rally began after Salesforce and CrowdStrike reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declaring, "This nonsense of this SaaSpocalypse, I think it's time for it to stop." ServiceNow surged 9%, Workday rose nearly 4%, and Adobe and Autodesk each climbed 6%. Cybersecurity names led the gains, with CrowdStrike up 18%, Okta rocketing over 25%, and SailPoint surging nearly 14%. Palantir increased 4% as its Maven Smart System is on track to generate at least $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, while UiPath climbed nearly 9% ahead of its earnings report.

Workday enters its August 27 earnings report with a 91% beat probability, four straight EPS beats, and Silver Lake buyout talks anchoring the stock. The company guided Q2 fiscal 2027 subscription revenue to approximately $2.455 billion, growth of 13%, and CRPO growth of 13.5% to 14.5%, while new ACV from agentic AI products grew more than 200% year over year, approaching $500 million in ARR. A forward P/E of 18 and PEG of 0.75 reframe Workday as reasonably priced, with free cash flow yield at 7.00% and fiscal 2027 free cash flow guided to $3.180 billion, growth of 15%. Workday's 14% subscription revenue growth outpaces Salesforce, while 97% gross revenue retention and a pure cloud model give it an edge over Oracle. Shares are up 39.77% over the past month, and the average one-week post-earnings move is +7.83%.

Workday has launched Workday AI Research, a dedicated technical research team focused on developing reliable, trustworthy and efficient enterprise artificial intelligence. The initiative aims to address key challenges associated with deploying AI agents across business operations, including memory, accuracy, privacy, explainability and governance. Workday's researchers are focusing on areas such as AI memory, multi-agent collaboration, recommendation systems, AI training and resource optimization, and the company has introduced an AI Research PhD Fellowship offering $50,000 in annual funding. Recent research found that a selective AI memory system improved precision by 12%, overall quality by about 8% and speed by around 31%, while multiple specialized AI agents increased accuracy by 5.8%. Workday faces competition from Oracle and ADP, which are also expanding enterprise AI capabilities through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and ADP Assist.

Analysts and investors viewed U.S. private equity giant Silver Lake's talks to acquire Workday, a provider of human resources and financial management software, as a sign of confidence in the software industry's growth prospects. After Reuters reported on the 13th that discussions were progressing, Workday shares surged about 18 percent that day, pushing its market capitalization above 51 billion dollars. Brian Mulberry of Zacks Investment Research noted that if Silver Lake takes Workday private at a substantial premium, it would be one of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the view that traditional enterprise software has been overly pessimistically assessed because of AI. Morgan Stanley's analyst team said that if the acquisition goes through, it would affirm the view that Workday has strong competitive advantages and significant growth opportunities in automating back-office operations, and could help restore confidence among financial sponsors in software investments and potentially trigger additional buyout proposals. In European markets on the 14th, SAP led software stocks higher, while in the previous day's U.S. session, Salesforce, Adobe, and ServiceNow rose between 1.9 and 4.5 percent.

Workday shares jumped about 18% after Silver Lake was reported to be considering an acquisition of the human-resources and financial-management software company, lifting its market capitalization to more than $51 billion. The company generated $9.55 billion of revenue in fiscal 2026, up 13.1%, with subscription revenue rising 14.5% to $8.83 billion, and first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue climbed another 13.5% to $2.54 billion. A hypothetical $227-a-share offer would value Workday at nearly $53.8 billion, potentially ranking among the biggest software takeovers ever, though talks could still break down and no deal has been announced. The report also lifted other software stocks, with SAP, Salesforce, Adobe, and ServiceNow gaining between 1.9% and 4.5%, and the S&P 500 Software & Services index up almost 25% quarter-to-date. Morgan Stanley analysts said a prospective acquisition would feed into the notion that Workday has a strong moat and a big chance to automate back-office tasks over time.

Workday shares jumped about 18% on August 13 after Reuters reported that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire the human-resources and finance software maker in a deal that could value the company at around $43 billion. The stock rose as much as 26% to $220.50 intraday before being halted several times for volatility, marking its best trading day since 2016. Negotiations have been ongoing in recent months but no transaction is guaranteed, and Silver Lake may seek other investors to help finance what would be one of its largest technology investments to date. Workday has been under pressure in 2026, trading more than 40% below its 2024 peak amid concerns that AI could erode demand for traditional enterprise software, and co-founder Aneel Bhusri returned as CEO in February to guide the company through the AI transition. Short interest of 12.74% and a decline in hedge fund ownership from 70 funds in the fourth quarter of last year to 63 in the first quarter of this year reflect continued skepticism about a deal closing.

Several major acquisition deals were reported across sectors this week. Workday soared 19% on a report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy the software company. Diversified Energy is in advanced talks to acquire Elliott Investment Management-backed oil and gas company Birch Resources for more than $1.7 billion in cash. EQT Infrastructure offered to buy Cleanaway Waste Management in a deal that values the Australian listed firm at about A$6.9 billion, or $4.9 billion. H.B. Fuller said it received an unsolicited proposal from Ancora Holdings to buy its building adhesives solutions business for $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion in cash. Aurora Cannabis soared 21% after Curaleaf Holdings said it plans to make a $4 per share takeover bid, with Curaleaf rising 6.7%. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust agreed to be acquired by GO Residential Real Estate Investment Trust and a consortium including Blackstone, Crestpoint, PSP Investments and a company controlled by members of the family of H&R CEO Tom Hofstedter in a deal valued at about C$6.7 billion, including assumed debt. Israeli AI startup Decart is in advanced talks to be sold to a major tech firm for $6 billion to $7 billion. Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced it will acquire privately held Actio Biosciences for $820 million upfront and up to $500 million in potential milestones.

Intel priced an upsized $20 billion public stock offering this week, selling over 210 million shares at $95 each and expecting net proceeds of about $19.7 billion to fund AI-related growth opportunities. Super Micro Computer closed 19% higher on Wednesday after issuing fiscal first-quarter guidance well above Wall Street forecasts, while Lumentum rose 14% on strong fiscal fourth-quarter results and outlook. Workday jumped nearly 18% on Thursday after Reuters reported private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy the software company, with Needham analysts estimating a potential takeover price of $240 to $250 per share. NVIDIA confirmed it is working with a consortium of lenders including Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to raise $500 billion for AI infrastructure, signing a memorandum of understanding to establish first-of-their-kind compute financing platforms at global scale. AMD filed a mixed shelf debt offering that could raise up to $5 billion in four tranches, and Argus upgraded Sandisk to Buy from Hold with a $1,600 price target.

Workday could be acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake, with analysts suggesting a takeover value of roughly $240 to $250 per share. BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski said Workday's 98% renewal rates, seat-based model, data moat, and potential for increased margins make it attractive for an acquirer, and the company is targeting the Rule of 35 metric by fiscal 2028, implying operating margins of around 23%. RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria said a deal could happen but is more likely a management-led buyout, given co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri and co-founder and CEO Emeritus David Duffield hold around 70% of the voting power. KeyBanc analyst Jason Celino said the deal makes sense, especially since Bhusri only returned as CEO earlier this year and was never thought to be a long-term solution.

Insperity reported second quarter 2026 earnings with modest sales growth, a return to quarterly profitability, fresh guidance, and new capital actions including share repurchases and a shelf registration. The stock has climbed strongly this year, posting a 77.39% three-month share price return and a 31.05% year-to-date return, though the five-year total shareholder return remains down 40.51%. The most followed valuation narrative pegs fair value at $43.75, labeling the stock overvalued at the latest close of $50.61, while a discounted cash flow model suggests a fair value of $166.67, implying deep undervaluation. The upcoming launch of Insperity HRScale, a joint solution with Workday targeting the mid-market segment, is expected to support higher revenue growth and improved operating leverage.

U.S. stock indexes were mixed on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing to a 1.5-week high while the Nasdaq 100 fell to a 2.75-month low. The Dow rose 0.738% and the S&P 500 edged up 0.05%, but the Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.12% as a deepening rout in chipmakers and AI-infrastructure stocks weighed on the market. Better-than-expected earnings from Coca-Cola and Sherwin-Williams provided support, while an unexpected decline in the Conference Board's July consumer confidence index to 90.8 added to cautious sentiment. The iShares Semiconductor ETF fell more than 5% to a 2.5-month low, with Sandisk down over 14% and Western Digital down over 13%. In contrast, software stocks gained, with Workday up over 7% and Thomson Reuters up over 6%.