New York, February 16, 2026, 17:17 EST — The market has closed.
- Salesforce (CRM) finished Friday’s session 2.3% higher, closing at $189.72.
- No trading in U.S. stocks this Monday, with exchanges closed for Presidents Day.
- Attention swings back to Salesforce’s AI commerce strategy, with eyes now on its quarterly report due next week.
Shares of Salesforce, Inc. finished Friday at $189.72, up 2.3% after ranging from $184.31 to $193.43 during the day. ServiceNow advanced 3.6%. Oracle picked up 2.3%. Microsoft slipped 0.1%.
U.S. markets are shuttered Monday for Washington’s Birthday — more commonly called Presidents Day. The exchanges reopen for trading on Tuesday. 1
Big software stocks have been taking hits lately, as investors spar over whether AI will boost business or just eat into old-school licensing. Salesforce, with its upcoming results and product news, is right in the thick of that argument.
Wall Street’s major indexes paused on Friday, with inflation numbers coming in softer than forecasts. Still, tech stocks lost some ground—lingering concerns about artificial intelligence disruption weighed on the sector, according to Reuters. “Large cap tech stocks continue to be an anchor on the market,” Rosenblatt Securities managing director Michael James told the outlet. 2
Last week, Salesforce announced it’s reached a definitive agreement to buy Cimulate, calling the target an AI-driven product discovery specialist focused on retail. According to the company, the acquisition is meant to speed up search and discovery within Agentforce Commerce. 3
“The future of commerce is agentic,” Salesforce SVP and general manager for commerce and retail Nitin Mangtani said, referencing AI “agents” that steer shoppers through discovery and checkout. Cimulate CEO John Andrews, for his part, said the deal would bring the company’s technology to “the world’s leading retailers,” as stated in the release. 3
Keith Kirkpatrick, research director at the Futurum Group, described the Cimulate deal as “a bold bet on the future of commerce.” He argued it ups the pressure on competing platforms like Adobe, Shopify and SAP, all ramping up their own AI-powered shopping tools. 4
Salesforce is gearing up for its Spring ’26 product release, set to begin rolling out Feb. 23. The company is promising new AI, data, and automation tools, all aimed at connecting sales, service, and data workflows. 5
Up ahead: earnings. Salesforce has pegged Feb. 25 for its fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2026 report, set to drop after the bell. The conference call is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET. 6
The setup isn’t all upside. Should customer spending cool off, or if investors start to worry that automation from AI will weigh on per-user software prices, Salesforce might surrender last week’s gains in a hurry. There’s also deal integration risk lurking—even before any results show up.
Traders eye software for signs of momentum as markets open Tuesday, following a stretch of volatility last week. Next up, the Spring ’26 rollout lands on Feb. 23. Just two days later, Salesforce is due to report, on Feb. 25.
