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- 📈 CrowdStrike Jumps 20% Amid “AI Security Boom”
📈 CrowdStrike Jumps 20% Amid “AI Security Boom”
Plus, Canadian banks smash earnings, and the Fed is bullish on AI?
Maxwell Nicholson
August 30, 2026
TOP STORY
📈 CrowdStrike Jumps 20% Amid AI Security Boom
🔥 Markets scored a nice win this week, boosted by Nvidia’s blowout earnings (read my full breakdown here).
📊 Across the indexes:
The S&P 500 rose +0.49%
The Nasdaq 100 rose +0.43%
The TSX fell -0.18%
😰 But things took a slight turn for the worse on Friday after the new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh warned that the Fed still has ‘work to do’ to bring inflation under control, sending September rate-hike odds higher overnight (also sinking the Nasdaq ~1% and Gold down ~4%).
📈 At the same time, Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike ($CRWD) soared over 20% after releasing what its CEO called the best quarter in its history, and Canada’s “Big Six” banks went six-for-six on earnings, all beating analyst expectations (our two feature stories for today).
🤿 It’s a packed week, so let’s get into it, starting with the Fed chair’s speech in Wyoming, what it means for interest rates, and why the Fed Chair spent half his time talking about AI…
🎰 Odds of a September Rate Hike Soar
🤠 Every August, the world’s central bankers gather in Jackson Hole for the ‘economic Super Bowl’ to discuss monetary policy. Markets watch closely as it’s typically where the Fed signals future rate decisions.
👀 During his first speech as Fed chair, Warsh pointed out that more than half of the prices the government tracks are now rising 3% or more per year (above the Fed’s 2% target), calling inflation “broad” and stubborn, and saying the Fed has ‘work to do’.
😰 This sent odds of a September interest rate hike up from 34% to 57%, which would be bad for stocks as it raises borrowing costs and makes bonds more attractive (with the decision set for Sep 16).
🎰 Some think the odds of a hike are even higher, saying that if Warsh doesn’t act on his words, the market won’t take him seriously.
“You are basically setting yourself up so that if you don’t hike in September, people may ask what’s going on”
🤖 The Fed Is Also… Bullish on AI?
🤯 But apart from the regular inflation and interest rate talk, there was something very unique about Warsh’s speech… Half the entire speech was about AI (and no, that’s not normal), with Warsh saying:
“We’ve come to a hinge point in history. The potential for substantially higher growth is on the rise.”
👀 These comments come after Warsh said in 2025 that he believed AI would significantly increase productivity and, as a result, push down inflation.
🪄 But others aren’t so convinced AI will be the silver bullet:
“I think the idea that AI magically solves everything is a bit overblown… if it does sharply boost growth, that would likely lead to higher interest rates.”
💸 And the answer matters a lot for the AI boom, as the data center buildout is costing hundreds of billions in financing, and that financing becomes more expensive with every rate hike… leading some to use Friday as a chance to warn of an AI bubble (although there’s basically a new bubble call every week at this point).
🔒 And speaking of AI, there’s certainly one industry that has reached a ‘hinge point’: Cybersecurity. So let’s switch gears to CrowdStrike’s 25% stock jump and what AI means for the cybersecurity industry at large.
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TOP STORY
🚀 CrowdStrike Jumps 20% After Its Best Quarter Ever
😴 While everyone was watching Nvidia on Wednesday, another popular stock reported its Q2 earnings that same night, with the CEO calling it “the best quarter in company history.”
🚀 The market agreed, sending CrowdStrike ($CRWD) soaring nearly 21% on Thursday alone (its biggest single-day jump in over two years), with its stock now up 93% year-to-date.
📊 By the numbers:
✅ Revenue hit $1.47 billion vs. $1.44 billion expected, up 26% year-over-year
✅ EPS hit $0.31 vs. $0.29 expected, up 35% year-over-year
✅ Net new recurring revenue jumped 51% to $333 million, blowing past the high end of guidance
✅ Free cash flow rose 33% to $377 million
👀 So what’s fuelling this record growth?
🤖 Rogue AI = Cyber Profits
🛡️ CrowdStrike sells cybersecurity software that protects companies’ laptops, servers, and cloud systems from hackers. But recently, it’s also been protecting them from rogue AI, which is a huge factor driving its record growth.
😨 Because AI models are advancing so quickly, they’re also getting scary good at hacking. And if you remember back in spring, Anthropic’s “Claude Mythos” model showed it could find and exploit software vulnerabilities on its own without human intervention.
🚫 This was such a concern that Anthropic held it back from public release, before eventually launching it with safeguards. But since then, OpenAI and Meta ($META) have both disclosed their own models doing the same things.
🔓 The most recent case was OpenAI, which acknowledged its models exploited and stole credentials to break into AI platform “Hugging Face” (although there is some debate as to how much of this was due to OpenAI negligence vs AI intelligence)
💬 AI has undoubtedly made cybersecurity more important than ever. In the words of one expert:
“AI has not changed the volume of vulnerabilities in a system, but rather is a ‘force multiplier’ to how quickly these vulnerabilities are found.”
💰 All this is pushing cybersecurity budgets up across the board, which is benefiting not just CrowdStrike, but the cyber industry as a whole.
📈 What This Means for the Industry
💬 Analysts see a structural shift for CrowdStrike as a result of AI, with RBC’s Matthew Hedberg calling the quarter “a bigger beat than expected with accelerating growth driven by ongoing AI threat risk momentum… the realization that AI adoption requires a fundamentally different approach to cybersecurity.”
🏆 But the trend goes beyond CrowdStrike. Despite not reporting its earnings until next week, the CEO of one of CrowdStrike’s biggest rivals, Palo Alto Networks ($PANW), said back in June that over 1,200 customers had already reached out to the company specifically in the wake of the Mythos moment, and its shares are up more than 107% YTD betting on that demand.
🔑 Identity-security company Okta ($OKTA) also popped nearly 30% after its own earnings this week, but for them, management was upfront that AI-agent security revenue is still immaterial, even as the pipeline for it is reportedly “bigger than anything [they’ve] ever seen.”
💸 So… is CrowdStrike A Buy?
👀 Well, the story is definitely a good one, but let’s look at the price.
📊 After Thursday’s jump, CrowdStrike’s market value sits at ~$222B against $5.4B in trailing-12-month sales, or roughly 43x revenue, it’s highest level since 2022. For context, the S&P 500 is trading at ~4x revenue
⚖️ That means a lot of that future success is already baked in the price:
“I think the business deserved the applause. But I’m still not buying the stock. The reason is the price - and what a buyer at this price needs the next several years to deliver.”
🎯 That said, analysts still see upside, with the average price target on TipRanks sitting at $236 and the stock rated a ‘Strong Buy’ by analysts.
Analysts argue that accelerating AI-driven demand justifies the high valuation, praising CRWD’s ‘Falcon Flex’ model, which grew 101% year over year.
🌼 What the Blossom Community Is Doing
🌼 In the Blossom community, trading volume on CrowdStrike hit a new record, jumping to nearly $1M (excluding the top 1% whales).
💡 The volume was overwhelmingly profit-taking: selling outweighed buying nearly 3-to-1, with the biggest wave of sells hitting right after CrowdStrike's earnings beat sent the stock up 11%.
👀 This was classic swing-trade behavior, with 53% of sellers making their first CRWD trade on Blossom within the last 30 days, and 69% completely exiting their position.
💰 Despite the selling, CRWD remains a popular stock in the community, with over 3,500 members holding $6M, ranking it as the #73 stock based on total assets invested. CRWD is more popular among the US community, ranking #55 compared to #93 in Canada.
🍁 Alright, enough about US stocks. For our final story today, let’s switch gears to Canada and the incredible earnings of the Big Banks!
📊 But first, another quick word from our sponsor, Fidelity Investments Canada
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MEANWHILE IN CANADA
🏦 Canada’s “Big Six” Banks Go Six-for-Six Against Analyst Expectations
🏦 Aside from tech and Fed news, this week also wrapped up Q3 earnings season for Canada’s biggest banks. And despite a trade war, tariffs, and all the economic uncertainty you could ask for, every single bank beat analyst estimates.
📊 For the quarter, here’s where each bank landed:
RBC ($RY): Adj. EPS $4.28 vs $4.08 expected, +11% year-over-year
TD ($TD): Adj. EPS $2.77 vs $2.47 expected, +26% year-over-year
BMO ($BMO): Adj. EPS $3.96 vs $3.74 expected, +22% year-over-year
Scotiabank ($BNS): Adj. EPS $2.28 vs $2.10 expected, +21% year-over-year
CIBC ($CM): Adj. EPS $2.73 vs $2.53 expected, +26% year-over-year
National Bank ($NA): Adj. EPS $3.39 vs $3.21 expected, +26% year-over-year
💵 Together, the Big Six reported $20.6 billion in profit for the quarter, up from about $17.5 billion a year ago, or an ~18% increase year-over-year.
🏆 Capital Markets Strike Again
🏆 Across the board, capital markets was the primary driver of the earnings beat (yet again), with segment profits growing 35% year-over-year, even stronger than the collective 27% growth the segment saw last quarter.
🚀 TD posted record results at its capital-markets unit, with net income surging 87% year-over-year. RBC (which has the largest capital-markets business among the Canadian banks) saw capital markets earnings reach $1.54 billion, up from $1.33 billion, easily clearing the $1.45 billion analysts had forecast.
📈 BMO’s Capital Markets net income also jumped 45%, while Scotiabank’s Global Banking and Markets division hit a record $647 million, up 37%.
🌍 TD’s CFO Kelvin Tran described the quarter’s capital-markets results as ”broad-based,” pointing to equities and commodities trading, equity underwriting, and advisory fees as the drivers behind the record.
⚔️ A Trade War, and a Rocky Economy
👊 Amid the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade war, damage to banks has so far been contained.
🌊 TD’s CFO Kelvin Tran said he feels ”very comfortable with the reserve we have... the situation is still quite fluid,” adding that TD is watching the specifics of the tariffs and how long they last. CIBC’s chief risk officer Frank Guse also said its most tariff-sensitive clients represent less than 1% of the bank’s loan portfolio, with Scotiabank’s numbers showing a similar exposure.
🧭 But despite the positives, executives across the banks remain measured. CIBC’s CEO Harry Culham noted:
“We recognize that rising trade and geopolitical tensions are having real consequences on the economy. The developments over the past week are a reminder that the path forward will not be linear, and we plan for a range of outcomes.”
😌 Scotiabank’s CEO Scott Thomson leaned more bullish, framing the tariffs currently in place as ”a small impact on GDP” around 0.2% to 0.3%, and stating that strong job growth and Canada’s fiscal capacity, boosted by oil prices, are reasons the outlook is “pretty good.”
📈 Overall, Canadian banks have been absolutely crushing it, with the ZEB equal-weight banking ETF jumping another 2% this week, now up ~50% over the past year, more than double the return of the S&P 500.
FROM THE BLOSSOM COMMUNITY
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