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The Nasdaq-100 just had its worst month since March 2025. These stocks held up and are expected to outperform ahead 66%
By Deena Zaidi86%
8/2/2026, 4:59:15 AM
Keywords: Investment Strategy, Stock Markets, Autodesk Inc, Nasdaq 100 Index, Intuit Inc, Broadcom Inc, Horizon Nasdaq 100 Defined Risk Etf, Invesco Qqq Trust, Tesla Inc, Alphabet Class A, Ishares Expanded Tech Software Sector Etf, Lco26u, Ishares Semiconductor Etf, Meta Platforms Inc, Technology Select Sector Spdr Fund, Iran
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Negativity Bias, and Anchoring Bias, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 26% saturation with 149 hits. Analysis detected 1,323 faulty-reasoning hits from 574 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 53.7% and a BS Rank of 66% (8,933 of 25,759 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 65.30% of the article peer group.
The Nasdaq-100 just suffered its steepest monthly decline in more than a year.
The tech-driven benchmark fell more than 7% in July, the most since a loss of 7.7% in March 2025.
Attacks in and around the Persian Gulf and Iran, off again, on again oil shipments and volatile energy prices, questions over Federal Reserve policy and plunging semiconductor shares weighed on the Nasdaq-100 last month.
Investors also challenged lofty tech stock valuations and doubted whether surging capital spending will generate adequate returns.
Tesla and Alphabet recently lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value after reporting their latest earnings .
CNBC Pro looked for bright spots in the Nasdaq-100, comprised of the 100 largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq.
First, we started by finding those few who advanced in July, weeding them down further by limiting our search to stocks rated buy by at least 60% of analysts and with potential upside of at least 25% based on consensus price targets.
Here are the eight stocks that made the cut.
Autodesk surged nearly 21% in July, lading the gainers.
Roughly 75% of analysts rate it a buy and the average price target implies about 34% upside.
The design software provider posted a strong fiscal first quarter, reporting 18% year-over-year revenue growth and announcing its intention to acquire MaintainX, a maintenance and operations software provider.
Autodesk uses AI extensively across its software portfolio through a dedicated initiative called Autodesk AI and is investing $200 million in World Labs to strengthen a long-term AI foundation.
"Our goal with MaintainX is to bring deep operational expertise, contextual data, and workflows that enhance our ability to use AI to converge digital and physical worlds," CEO Andrew Anagnost said at the time.
Intuit , a close second to Autodesk, climbed roughly 20% in July.
Sixty percent of analysts rate it a buy with the average price target implying 41% upside.
The tax preparation software company delivered solid fiscal third quarter results , driven by an AI-driven expert platform strategy.
Revenue grew to $8.6 billion, up 10% from $7.7 billion a year ago.
The owner of TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp raised full-year revenue guidance in May after QuickBooks revenue grew 22%.
"The powerful combination of Intuit's proprietary data, domain-specific AI platform capabilities, and AI-powered human expertise is setting the standard for trusted financial intelligence," Intuit CEO and chairman Sasan Goodarzi said then.
"As we look ahead, we are further scaling our growth engines."
Broadcom gained 2% in July despite a broader sell-off in semiconductor stocks.
More than 76% of analysts rate the stock a buy, the highest proportion in the screen, and the average price target suggests 37% upside.
The chipmaker's AI business has continued to rapidly expand.
Broadcom's revenue soared 48% to $22.2 billion in the second quarter ended in early May from the year-earlier period.
AI semiconductor revenue more than doubled, climbing 143% to $10.8 billion, driven by demand for custom AI accelerators and networking products.
"The momentum continues and in Q3 we expect semiconductor revenue from AI to grow over 200 percent year-over-year to $16 billion," CEO Hock Tan said during the last financials.
Broadcom expanded a multiyear partnership with Meta Platforms earlier this year to develop successive generations of custom AI accelerator chips, supporting the Instagram and WhatsApp parent's growing AI infrastructure.
Analysis
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