Can you believe it? Red-hot AI stock Palantir (PLTR) is dropping. But don't worry, plenty of S&P 500 stocks are stepping up to fill the void.
Shares of seven S&P 500 stocks, including Dayforce (DAY), Paramount Skydance (PSKY) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH), jumped 10% or more since Palantir shares peaked on Aug. 12, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSurge.
Palantir stock is the absolutely worst-performing S&P 500 stock in that time: falling more than 15%. That puts the individual stock well into a correction and close to a bear.
Some are starting to wonder if pricey, high-growth stocks are taking a breather and allowing other parts of the market to catch up. "The key question is: at what point do valuations become punitive? That's when we may start to see real rotation and broadening," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.
A portion of the S&P 500 rotation is back into stocks that had been punished. UnitedHealth Group is a case in point.
Shares of the health insurer are down 40% this year through Aug. 12, making them one of the worst performers in the S&P 500. But they've soared more than 15% since then, turning UnitedHealth into the third-best stock since Palantir peaked.
Certainly, the purchase of the stock by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett helped. The stock, though, needs more than a weeklong rise to recover. Its RS Rating is just 8 and EPS Rating isn't great either at 59. Plus, analysts think the company's profit will fall 41% this year.
Interestingly, though, the best performer amid the Palantir crash is another richly valued stock: Dayforce. The HR and payroll services firm has seen its stock surge nearly 28% during the Palantir tumble.
And Dayforce isn't a cheap stock like UnitedHealth. It sports a trailing valuation on adjusted earnings of 222 times. That's at least 10-times higher than the valuation on the S&P 500. And while its RS Rating of 65 isn't great, it also sports a solid EPS Rating of 98.
Analysts think Dayforce's profit will rise 22% this year and 14% next year.
And investors also seem enamored with what's going on at Paramount Skydance. The media company is the product of the just-approved takeover of Paramount by Entertainment firm Skydance.
Shares are up 22% just during Palantir's sell-off. But the shares of Paramount Skydance are up 28.2% this year so far. Its RS Rating is hanging tough at 84. Earnings, though, are a work in progress. The EPS Rating is just 17. Analysts see profit dropping 16% in 2025. But they're hoping for a 10% jump in 2026.
It's unclear if Palantir's sell-off is just a short-term blip. But it's very clear other S&P 500 stocks are ready to step up.
Palantir is down 15.5% since Aug. 12, 2025
| Company | Ticker | % ch. Aug. 12 to now | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dayforce | DAY | 27.3% | Industrials |
| Paramount Skydance | PSKY | 21.5% | Communication Services |
| UnitedHealth Group | UNH | 16.0% | Health Care |
| Intel | INTC | 15.7% | Information Technology |
| First Solar | FSLR | 14.0% | Information Technology |
| Centene | CNC | 11.3% | Health Care |
| Molina Healthcare | MOH | 10.3% | Health Care |
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