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The S&P 500 fell nearly 2% last week, but some stocks were big winners. The Trading Desk ( TTD ) jumped 22.9% after CEO Jeff Green’s massive $148 million stock purchase. It made the trading desk number one in the entire S&P 500 index last week. Palantir ( PLTR ) and CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) also saw big jumps last week.
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CrowdStrike’s first GAAP profit amid Middle East attacks and Palantir’s defense technology position lifted the two stocks despite a general market selloff.
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of the S&P 500 ( SPY ) fell nearly 2% for the week, while the Nasdaq 100 fell about 1.2% and the Russell 2000 small-cap index fell more than 4%.
The VIX fear gauge rose to 29.49, and is now up 70% over the past month, reflecting real investor uncertainty.
Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, tariff uncertainty, and a poor macro backdrop have kept broad indices under pressure. Yet a handful of S&P 500 names rose double-digits, driven by earnings catalysts, internal sentiment, and defensive sector tailwinds.
READ: The analyst named NVIDIA in 2010 Just naming his top 10 AI stocks
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storage
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Taker
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Weekly change
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Business desk
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See more information related to TTD page on Facebook
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+22.9%
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Intuit
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INTU
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+17.6%
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Lyondell Basil Industries
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LYB
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+16.7%
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CF industry
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CF
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+16.3%
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Expedia Group
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EXP
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+15.7%
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AppLovin
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APP
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+15.5%
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CrowdStrike
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CRWD
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+15.3%
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service now
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now
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+15.1%
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Palantir Technologies
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PLTR
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+14.6%
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working day
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WDAY
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+12.9%
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Let’s take a look at why Trade Desk, CrowdStrike, and Palantir have seen such strong gains over the past five days.
CrowdStrike reported FY2026 Q4 earnings on March 3, and the headline that mattered most wasn’t revenue growth — it was the bottom line: CrowdStrike posted its first positive GAAP net income of $38.69 million, flipping from a loss of $86.29 million in the same quarter last year.
Revenue rose 23% year over year to $1.305 billion, in line with previous estimates. Ending ARR was $5.25 billion, up 24%, while net new ARR of $330.7 million was up 47% year over year, a record. Free cash flow margin came in at 29%.
CEO George Kurtz set the tone on the phone:
“FY26 will go down in our history books as CrowdStrike’s best year yet. As enterprises rapidly adopt AI, CrowdStrike is mission-critical infrastructure – securing AI at every layer, from the GPU to the agent.”
– George Kurtz, CEO, CrowdStrike
Morningstar raised its fair value estimate to $460 from $410, while Barclays maintained a buy with a $550 price target. The stock jumped more than 4% a day after earnings and ended the week up 15.3%. A geopolitical tailwind also contributed: 149 hacktivist DDoS attacks targeted 110 organizations in 16 countries following the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, putting cyber security names in the spotlight.
We’ve been liveblogging CrowdStrike earnings, and I’m generally impressed. Net new ARR came in at 47%, and the company’s guidance for fiscal 2027 slightly exceeded Wall Street’s expectations on the revenue side.
Palantir has gained 14.6% this week, driven more by geopolitics than earnings. US military strikes against Iran saw defense stocks soar, with Palantir joining Lockheed Martin and RTX nearing all-time highs.
Palantir sits at the intersection of AI and national security. Its AI platform is deeply embedded in the Pentagon’s intelligence operations, making it a direct beneficiary when it comes to boosting defense spending sentiment. The company’s 4Q 2025 results showed US government revenue of $570 million, a 66% year-over-year increase, and management guided for full-year 2026 revenue of more than $7.18 billion.
Forecast markets confirmed the bullish conviction: the Polymarket contract for PLTR almost certainly resolved “yes” by closing above $144 for the week, with the market drawing the highest trading volume of any price bracket.
The trading desk was the week’s biggest gainer at +22.9%, fueled by a surprising display of domestic sentiment. CEO Jeff Green bought shares worth about $148 million, near the stock’s multiyear lows, acquiring nearly 6.4 million Class A common shares — the largest insider purchase in the company’s history.
TTD is down nearly 55% from last year, hurt by a disappointing Q3 2025 revenue miss and competition concerns from vertically integrated platforms like Google and Amazon. A green buy at these levels indicates that he believes that selling is oversold.
The market agreed, at least for now. Reddit’s r/stocks lit up with over 550 upvotes and 100 comments under the headline “Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green Bought $148 Million in Shares in Last 2 Days.” A thread on r/wallstreetbets received more than 838 upvotes, with retail investors widely reading the buying as a signal of confidence.
Reports of early-stage talks between OpenAI and Trade Desk about a potential advertising partnership surfaced mid-week, providing yet another reason for Bills to gather. The analyst consensus sits at a $31.89 target price, with 15 holds versus 19 buy or strong buy ratings. The stock closed the week at $29.28, still well below its 52-week high of $91.45.
In a week where the broader market struggled and the VIX climbed, these three stories showed individual catalysts still moving stocks.
Income trends, geopolitical theory, and management convictions can each cut through the macro noise.
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