In the third quarter, corporate software stocks staged the most pronounced rebound in the U.S. stock market.

On Wednesday, CNBC reported that Jim Cramer reviewed the third quarter and said software shares returned to leadership after escaping selling pressure driven by concerns about artificial intelligence (AI).

Major indexes posted limited gains in the third quarter, but sector performance diverged sharply. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF rose 17 percent during the quarter, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell 11 percent. That suggests software regained market attention as data centre and semiconductor-related stocks that had surged in the first half cooled.

Cramer said the third quarter would be remembered as the period when software rebounded and some data centre beneficiaries were pushed back by profit-taking. He singled out Salesforce as a 대표 stock. Salesforce climbed 46 percent during the quarter. Investors shifted their view toward AI being a growth engine for the company rather than a threat to its business.

Salesforce unveiled “Cloudforce,” which links Anthropic’s Claude to Salesforce data so it can handle tasks such as writing emails and updating records. Quarterly results were also strong, and the company continued buying back shares using its lower stock price. Cramer said he saw the stock rising further.

He offered a similar view on Microsoft. Microsoft rose 37 percent in the third quarter. Cramer said Microsoft’s rally was only just beginning. He pointed to strong demand for Copilot, faster growth in Azure and data centre investment gradually starting to deliver results.

Easing worries that AI could disrupt established software companies also supported other stocks. Workday and Veeva rose 55 percent and 60 percent, respectively. Cybersecurity also remained a strong sector. CrowdStrike gained 39 percent. Cramer said more powerful AI is increasing the need to protect companies from new threats.

Some data centre-related stocks that had risen sharply earlier, meanwhile, saw pullbacks. Corning fell almost 40 percent after a steep run-up. Cramer viewed that as profit-taking rather than a structural negative. He said he would be willing to buy again if the stock fell further. Caterpillar also dropped 24 percent. He said the company’s engines are becoming increasingly important as data centre power sources and could present an opportunity.

The market’s next focus is shifting toward the path of interest rates rather than fourth-quarter earnings. Cramer said his biggest concern heading into the new quarter was the possibility of additional U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes. The Fed raised its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point in September, weighing on rate-sensitive stocks such as Home Depot.

He said his biggest fear now is the impact of higher rates on the stock market. He added that the coming earnings season would provide a clearer picture of how rising borrowing costs are affecting companies.

Ultimately, the third-quarter trend in U.S. technology stocks became a test of whether the direction of AI benefits shifted in part from semiconductors to software. In the fourth quarter, key points to watch remain the earnings resilience of software stocks, whether the pullback in data centre-related shares is temporary, and how much the rate burden affects growth stocks overall.