What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after investors showed signs of fatigue with the AI-led rally, rotating out of high-valuation growth names. 

After a fantastic run, many of the high-flying AI and technology stocks saw investors take profits: selling shares to lock in their gains. This is often called a "market rotation." Money is moving out of the red-hot tech sector (which some worry has become too expensive) and into other parts of the market that investors may currently deem more stable or reasonably-priced. 

There's a secondary reason for the cautious mood: The long government shutdown came to an end. Though it's typically interpreted as good news, it also means a flood of delayed economic reports will be released. For weeks, investors were "flying blind" without key updates on the economy's health, like inflation data and the jobs report. In typical "sell the news" fashion, investors may also be taking profits and selling in anticipation that the new data would potentially give the Federal Reserve reasons to slow or even pause future rate cuts.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

• Developer Operations company GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB) fell 4.1%. Is now the time to buy GitLab? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Advertising Software company Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA) fell 8.5%. Is now the time to buy Zeta Global? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Automation Software company SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) fell 7.7%. Is now the time to buy SoundHound AI? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Data Infrastructure company Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) fell 3.7%. Is now the time to buy Oracle? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Content Delivery company Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) fell 3.5%. Is now the time to buy Cloudflare? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.

Zooming In On Zeta Global (ZETA)

Zeta Global’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 49 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 8 days ago when the stock gained 12.9% on the news that the company reported strong third-quarter 2025 earnings that beat analyst expectations for revenue and profitability. 

The marketing technology firm posted revenue of $337.2 million, up 25.7% year-over-year, which topped forecasts. The company’s adjusted EBITDA, a key measure of profit, was also impressive at $78.06 million, well ahead of the $70.44 million consensus estimate. Looking ahead, Zeta provided a full-year adjusted EBITDA forecast that was above what analysts were expecting. This combination of a strong quarterly beat and a positive outlook on profitability appeared to fuel investor confidence in the company's trajectory.

Zeta Global is flat since the beginning of the year, and at $18.74 per share, it is trading 28.8% below its 52-week high of $26.31 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Zeta Global’s shares at the IPO in June 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $2,108.

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