Stocks are solid in the early going after another round of gains Tuesday. Crude oil is up along with gold, silver, and Bitcoin. The dollar and Treasuries are mostly flat.
Big Tech name Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is getting a LOT bigger today, with the stock recently up a stunning 31% on blockbuster backlog data (after being up 46.1% year-to-date through yesterday). The cloud computing, database software, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) play said it had a $455 BILLION pipeline of contracts, compared with just $138 billion at the end of the fiscal first quarter. Multibillion dollar contracts were signed with several companies, helping overshadow the fact the recent quarter’s sales and earnings were a bit light.
ORCL, IPO (YTD % Change)
Data by YCharts
Markets are getting a look at the final round of inflation data ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting, starting with the Producer Price Index this morning. Both the headline and core PPI FELL 0.1% in August, compared with expectations for increases of 0.3%. That helped bring down annual wholesale inflation rates to 2.6% and 2.8%, respectively – encouraging news for the Fed.
Another fintech name is set to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange – Klarna Group (KLAR). The Swedish firm is a buy-now, pay-later lender, and it sold 34.3 million shares at $40 each in its Initial Public Offering (IPO). That values the BNPL company at $15.1 billion, down from its peak private-market valuation in 2021 but well above its 2022 nadir. IPO activity is coming back strong in 2025, and the Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) has returned 18.1% year-to-date.
Investors have largely looked past the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Equities are powering ahead despite the unresolved conflict, even as SOME of the rise in gold likely stems from lingering geopolitical concerns. But several Russian drones violated Polish airspace overnight -- and NATO jets shot them down. European officials called it an “intentional” move rather than an accident by Russia, ratcheting up tensions another notch.
