The S&P 500 (SPY ETF) notched another modestly higher S&P 500 weekly close for the week ending 29 August 2026, up 0.6% to 769.33. Beneath that quiet headline number sat one of the more lopsided weeks of the summer: enterprise software stocks tore higher while payments and consumer names were marked sharply down.
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) led the entire market with a 22.13% weekly gain to $256.48, while PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) shed 12.69% to close at $53.74. That gap – more than 34 percentage points between the week’s best and worst large-cap movers – is the story of the week.
The scoreboard: a third calm week for the S&P 500 weekly close
All three major US benchmarks finished higher. The S&P 500 weekly close of 769.33 marked a 0.6% gain on the week. The Nasdaq 100 (QQQ ETF) outperformed, up 0.98% to 716.25, while the Dow (DIA ETF) added 0.65% to close at 535.55.
The order of finish – Nasdaq ahead of Dow ahead of S&P – points to a market still leaning on its largest technology names to do the heavy lifting, even as the headline index itself moved by less than a percentage point.
Winners: software stocks dominate the leaderboard
Salesforce’s 22.13% surge to $256.48 was the standout move of the week among large-caps. CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ: CRWD) was close behind, up 14.31% to $218.10, extending a run that followed the company’s own raised FY27 guidance after record second-quarter ARR growth.
Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) climbed 11.58% to $276.65, Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS) rose 11.13% to $441.99, and ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) added 11.12% to close at $143.13. All five of the week’s biggest gainers were enterprise software names, a clustering rarely seen even in a market that has favoured the group for much of the year.
Losers: payments, packaged food and space stocks fall back
PayPal’s 12.69% decline to $53.74 topped the week’s fallers. Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) dropped 11.61% to $21.55, and Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) fell 10.11% to $64.39.
Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY) slipped 9.07% to $766.20 and Generac Holdings (NYSE: GNRC) lost 8.81% to close at $184.50, rounding out a bottom five that spanned payments, food, space launch and backup-power names with little in common beyond the week’s selling pressure.
The insider ledger
No disclosed insider sales of significant size surfaced this week among the companies that moved markets. That is itself notable in a week when Salesforce and CrowdStrike posted double-digit gains – executives at both firms left any stakes untouched through the rally, at least in filings visible so far.
The macro shift: yields hold, curve flattens, oil slips
Treasury yields were largely steady on the week. The 10-year yield ticked up to 4.67% from 4.66%, while the 2-year yield edged to 4.20% from 4.19%, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The more telling move was in the curve itself. The 10-year/2-year spread compressed to 0.39 percentage points from 0.47 the prior reading – a flattening move that came even as both individual yields rose, implying the short end firmed slightly faster than the long end. WTI crude fell to $83.90 a barrel from $86.34, continuing a retreat that has taken pressure off energy-sensitive input costs.
The number of the week
Set against a 0.6% weekly move for the S&P 500, Salesforce’s 22.13% gain stands out as the week’s defining figure – a single-stock swing worth more than 35 times the index’s own weekly change, and a reminder of how concentrated this year’s biggest single-week moves have become even in an index-level week that looked, on the surface, entirely unremarkable.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Markets move quickly; figures are correct as sourced at the time of writing. Always do your own research before making financial decisions.
