CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday that August was a comeback month for stocks that had been hurt by Wall Street’s strongest bearish narrative.
His comments were made on the last trading day of August. Some of them are S&P500August’s biggest winners have spent months under pressure from concerns ranging from disrupting artificial intelligence to slowing growth. Kramer said improving fundamentals helped dispel those concerns and fuel the sharp recovery.
August’s S&P 500’s biggest winners
Source: FactSet Data
moderna led the index in August after announcing promising results for an experimental melanoma vaccine it developed. Merckchallenged skepticism about whether its mRNA technology would lead to further major advances. “It’s been a miraculous reception because it’s a miraculous thing,” Kramer said. Before 2026, Moderna stock had been under pressure for years as demand for its coronavirus vaccine waned.
Much of August’s other big rebound came from enterprise software. Palantir, Viva Systems, sales force and ServiceNow The companies faced varying degrees of selling as investors questioned the durability of their software in the age of AI. Cramer said these declines were further exacerbated by the presence of Situational Awareness, a highly leveraged fund that had made large bets against software stocks based on that theory. Situational Awareness was forced to exit the deal in late July.
“As August draws to a close, it’s hard to believe that the fallout from the hedge fund implosion will dictate much of what happens this month,” he said.
Kramer said Palantir’s early decline never made sense, given Palantir’s exceptional combination of revenue growth and profitability. Salesforce rebounded after a strong quarter that waned concerns about SaaSpocalypse, while ServiceNow rebounded by showing it can successfully integrate AI into its existing business. Veeva, which focuses on the life sciences industry, also bounced back along with the broader software group after fears that AI would disrupt its business turned out to be overblown.
“It’s been breathtaking to see software come back from such an incredibly depressed level,” Kramer said.
gartner joins the backlash, having long been plagued by concerns that AI models such as Anthropic’s Claude could reduce the need for its own technology research. Kramer said those concerns ultimately weren’t reflected in the company’s business.
external software, miner Newmont It benefited from the recovery in gold prices, which rose from last year to early 2026, before plateauing. Indeed, Kramer said he prefers his fellow miners’ stocks. Agnico Eagle Mines Over Newmont.
paramount skydance also objected to the proposal. warner bros discovery The acquisition was still delayed. Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled a meeting with Paramount Skydance.
This is because the company showed a “lack of good faith” in early settlement negotiations. Cramer said investors believe Paramount is overpaying, meaning obstacles to completing the deal are actually helping the stock price.
super microcomputer and sandisk The stock price also rose due to the surge in demand for memory used in AI data centers. Supermicro’s rise comes despite continued scrutiny of its China operations. Meanwhile, SanDisk’s strong August performance comes after a tough July, when its stock price fell more than 46%. The stock remains about 33% below its closing high in late June.
coinbase Following the recovery of cryptocurrencies, it also ranked among the month’s top performers. The rally comes as concerns about ballooning government spending and rising U.S. debt costs led investors to turn to physical assets as a hedge against a weaker dollar. Cramer noted that the stock has become a popular vehicle for investors seeking exposure to the broader crypto market.
