3 of our stocks rode the AI rally, while 3 others fell out of favor since last month

Breaking news from the markets: The stock market continued its march higher since our last CNBC Investing Club Monthly Meeting, though the leadership shifted beneath the surface. The Dow led the way, climbing 2. 3% from June 17 to Wednesday's close.

The 30-stock average finished at a record high on July 6, before pulling back a bit in recent days. The S & P 500 gained 2. 1% since our June meeting, while the Nasdaq rose a more modest 1%.

Economic Details

Investors are getting increasingly selective about their artificial intelligence exposure, as further evidenced by Thursday morning's losses. Cybersecurity stocks moved another leg higher over the past month as Wall Street's newest AI winners continued their recovery from their late 2025 slide into the spring of this year. Companies offering clearer paths to monetizing their massive AI investments also attracted buyers.

At the same time, investors rotated into more defensive areas of the market as renewed concerns about the Iran war added another layer of uncertainty. (We've excluded Honeywell Aerospace from the list because it didn't spin off until June 29. ) Ahead of our July Monthly Meeting livestream, which starts at noon ET , here's a look at what moved our three top and bottom performers since our last meeting.

Top performers Palo Alto Networks up 25. 5%, CrowdStrike up 21. 7% These two cybersecurity names both hit record highs since our last Monthly Meeting as the sector cemented itself as an AI winner and not a loser.

Analyst Views

Earlier this year, investors worried artificial intelligence would disrupt the industry. Now, they're betting AI will only increase demand for cybersecurity , a theme that first gained traction after Anthropic's Mythos models reignited concerns about AI-powered cyber threats in April. The latest rally began after The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese AI models are becoming nearly as capable as leading U.

platforms at identifying software vulnerabilities. Rather than viewing that as a threat, investors saw another reason companies will need to spend more to defend their systems. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna gave Palo Alto and CrowdStrike another boost this week when the company preannounced disappointing second-quarter results ahead of next week's scheduled earnings release.

He said cybersecurity is one of the three areas businesses are increasingly prioritizing for IT spending. We took advantage of the sharp run in both stocks to trim our positions, locking in gains of nearly 150% in Palo Alto and 105% in CrowdStrike while maintaining our long-term conviction in both companies. Both stocks are near all-time highs.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.