Stocks moved lower since our last CNBC Investing Club Monthly Meeting as renewed inflation concerns, sparked by rising oil prices, sent Treasury yields higher — a toxic mix for the market. In early Thursday trading, it was much of the same, with Iran war uncertainty pushing U.S. oil prices above $100 per barrel, joining international crude already above that troublesome threshold. The 10-year Treasury yield responded by rising above 4.9% to its highest level since November 2023. Shortly after the open, the Nasdaq ‘s roughly 1% drop was the worst, followed by more modest losses for the S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average . The Nasdaq later pared some of its losses. Since our last monthly meeting on Aug. 13 through Wednesday’s close, it was the Dow that led the declines, falling 2.7%, while the S & P 500 dropped 2.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.1%. Ahead of our September meeting livestream, starting at noon ET , here’s a look at what moved our top three stocks and bottom three over the past four weeks. Top performers Salesforce up 21.3% Salesforce delivered better-than-expected revenue and an upbeat outlook , providing fresh evidence that AI is helping rather than disrupting its business. CEO Marc Benioff dismissed fears of a “SaaSpocalypse” as ” nonsense ,” noting that nine of the 10 leading AI companies use Salesforce products and their spending is up 435% year over year. The software company also unveiled Claudeforce , which integrates Anthropic’s Claude with Salesforce customer data to help users automate tasks. After spending much of the year in the penalty box on AI disruption fears , Salesforce is finally showing investors that it is a beneficiary of the technology. The company’s Dreamforce showcase event is next week, which could be a further catalyst for a stock that still has some work to do to get back to even year to date. Meta Platforms up 9.9% The Facebook and Instagram parent went from one of our worst heading into the prior Monthly Meeting to one of our best performers ahead of Thursday’s meeting. How did that happen? Two major overhangs eased. Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with attorneys general across the country over claims that social media platforms harm younger users, eliminating the risk of a prolonged trial and potentially much larger penalties. Jim called the resolution a ” really big break ” for the company. Investors also grew more optimistic about Meta’s AI efforts following the release of Muse Spark 1.3 , which drew praise for its capabilities and low cost and strengthened the case that Meta can compete with leading AI labs. After months of skepticism around the company’s massive AI spending, these developments gave investors more reasons to reconsider the stock. Micron up 8.2% (remember, this gain is as of Wednesday’s close; the stock is volatile, and it was down early Thursday) Micron stock has been directionally better since its recent swoon as the outlook for AI memory demand just keeps…
Read More: Our top 3 stocks that bucked the market’s recent pullback — plus, a look at