Stocks Rise to Record Highs as CPI Report Keeps Rate Cut Hopes Alive; Oracle Stock Retreats

The Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Thursday

1 hr 14 min ago

Advancers:

• Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) skyrocketed 29%, outpacing all other S&P 500 constituents, following a report that fellow media giant Paramount Skydance (PSKY) was exploring a takeover bid. According to The Wall Street Journal, the deal is backed by the family of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, son of multibillionaire Larry Ellison. Paramount Skydance stock surged 16%.
• Shares of Synopsys (SNPS) jumped 13%, clawing back a portion of the previous session’s 36% plunge. The volatility came after the electronic design automation software provider missed sales and profit estimates for its fiscal third quarter and reduced its guidance, citing challenges in its intellectual property business and a negative impact from U.S.-China trade tensions. Mizuho analysts said the sharp post-earnings drop could be an overreaction.
• Centene (CNC) shares popped 9% after the health insurer affirmed its annual profit guidance. Centene also provided a positive update on the ratings of its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, with preliminary data showing a higher-than-expected percentage of members in high-quality plans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issues annual scores for MA plans that can affect enrollment and government reimbursement rates. Centene’s strong forecast helped lift other health insurance stocks, with Molina Healthcare (MOH) adding 5.2%.

Decliners:

• Oracle (ORCL) shares sank 6.2%, posting the weakest daily performance in the S&P 500. The downturn on Thursday reversed just a fraction of Oracle stock’s 36% surge in the previous session, marking the best trading day for shares of the enterprise software maker since 1992. Oracle’s increasing backlog and blowout guidance for cloud revenue contributed to a renewed wave of optimism around AI and helped drive the stock’s sharp post-earnings climb.
• Netflix (NFLX) stock fell 3.5%. The video streaming giant on Wednesday said that Eunice Kim would be stepping down from her role as chief product officer and leaving the company. In around five years at Netflix, Kim played a role in efforts to prevent users from sharing their passwords as well as the platform’s expansion into live events and games.
• Boeing (BA) CEO Kelly Ortberg spoke at an investor conference, discussing inflationary pressure affecting the company’s supply chain. Despite the inflationary challenges, he said Boeing is targeting an increase in production of its 737 MAX planes by year-end. Boeing also reportedly reached a tentative agreement with striking workers from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union, with a final vote set for Friday morning. Shares of the aircraft manufacturer declined 3.3%.

-Michael Bromberg

We Still Don’t Know Who’s Voting on Interest Rates Next Week

1 hr 51 min ago

The Federal Open Market Committee is set to vote on whether to lower the Federal Reserve’s key interest rate next Tuesday, but it’s not yet clear who exactly will be on the committee.

The biggest question concerns Fed Governor Lisa Cook, whom President Donald Trump fired last month, citing allegations of mortgage fraud—the first time a president has attempted to fire a leader of the independent central bank. Cook sued the Trump administration to prevent her dismissal. On Tuesday, a court sided with her, agreeing that the president likely exceeded his authority. The judge ordered that she be allowed to continue her job while the case plays out. The Trump administration appealed the order.

In addition, Trump is trying to fill the temporary vacancy on the Fed’s board of governors created when Adriana Kugler abruptly resigned last month. On Wednesday, a Senate panel voted to advance his nomination of Stephen Miran, a White House economic advisor, to replace her. The full Senate could vote as early as Monday, clearing the path for Miran to vote at the Fed’s meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday, Politico reported.

At stake is control of the 12-person committee that votes to set the fed funds rate, which dictates the interest rates at which banks lend money to one another. The fed funds rate affects borrowing costs for all kinds of loans, including credit cards and car loans. Trump has repeatedly demanded the central bank lower interest rates and has at times threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter-point at the meeting, regardless of who is on the committee. A slowdown in the job market has added pressure on the Fed to cut rates to boost the job market and prevent a surge in unemployment.

Still, that’s far short of the steeper cuts Trump has called for. Future interest rate decisions could be more controversial, and every vote could count, as the Fed’s dual mandate to control inflation and keep employment high could pull it in different directions.

-Diccon Hyatt

Warners Bros. Discovery, Paramount Skydance Stocks Pop on Takeover Reports

2 hr 41 min ago

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) soared on Thursday following reports competitor Paramount Skydance (PSKY) was preparing a takeover offer. 

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported Paramount Skydance was preparing a majority cash bid for the entirety of the media company. Warner Bros. Discovery shares soared 27% following the reports, while Paramount Skydance stock gained 12%. 

Warner Bros. Discovery late last year announced plans to restructure into two operating divisions, one focused on its legacy cable networks, including CNN, TNT, and HGTV, and another focused on its production studio and streaming service, HBO Max. CEO David Zaslav said the restructuring “enhances our flexibility with potential future strategic opportunities across an evolving media landscape.”

Paramount Skydance was formed just weeks ago by the merger of Skydance Media, the production company run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle (ORCL) co-founder and world’s second-richest man Larry Ellison, and Paramount Global.

Acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery would give Skydance another of Hollywood’s most storied studios, bringing the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek IPs under one roof. It would also combine the owners of streaming platforms HBO Max, home to “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us,” and Paramount+, home to “South Park” and “Yellowstone.”

Two Big Banks Just Raised Their S&P 500 Targets. Here’s Why.

3 hr 42 min ago

Strong earnings, interest rate cuts and a resilient AI boom could mean stocks keep rising in the next year, according to two big Wall Street Banks.

Deutsche Bank on Wednesday raised its year-end target for the S&P 500 (SPX) to 7,000 from 6,550 as analysts led by Binky Chadha boosted their 2025 earnings per share estimate for companies in the benchmark index.

That level would be 7% above the index’s record close Wednesday, which it reached with the help of continued euphoria around the AI trade, powered by Oracle’s (ORCL) blowout guidance, and increasing expectations of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Companies aren’t suffering the pain from President Donald Trump’s tariffs that many investors and economists predicted, Deutsche Bank wrote. “Companies see the hit from tariffs so far as modest and likely to remain manageable,” the analysts wrote.

They said that stock valuations will continue to stay high as companies maintain high payout ratios and earnings stay resilient. Deutsche analysts are projecting earnings growth of more than 9.5% this year and almost 14% next year, above the average it cited for typical non-recession years.

The Deutsche analysts said they continue to like large growth stocks and tech shares, as well as financial shares, but remain underweight in “defensive bond-like sectors” like consumer staples, utilities, real estate, healthcare and restaurants.

Deutsche Bank wasn’t the only Wall Street player that upped its target for the S&P 500 this week. Barclays raised it year-end target to 6,450 from 6,050. While that was below Wednesday’s close, Barclays also increased its 2026 price target for the S&P 500 to 7,000 from 6,700.

Like Deutsche, the Barclays analysts cited buoyant corporate earning projections and the prospect of rate cuts as driving stock price movement.

Still, they were more cautious than Deutsche, seeing “emerging labor market risks” that could offset strong company earnings and “AI-centric growth.”

On balance, however, the Barclays analysts led by Venu Krishna said that while “macro is under pressure” they expect three Fed rate cuts this year to help guide the economy “toward a manageable deceleration.”

-Nisha Gopalan

BofA Downgrades FedEx, UPS on End of De Minimis Tariff Exemption

4 hr 51 min ago

A big Wall Street bank got more cautious about two U.S. shipping giants’ shares today. 

Bank of America analysts on Thursday downgraded both FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS), setting price targets on shares that were among the lowest on Wall Street.

The analysts cut their rating on FedEx to “neutral” from “buy,” trimming their target by $5 to $240, one of the lower ratings compiled by Visible Alpha and below the average above $269, though above recent prices. Their move on UPS was more dramatic, swapping a neutral rating for an “underperform” and setting an $83 target that is the lowest tracked by Visible Alpha and well below the mean near $107. Its shares were recently around $84.

In both cases, the downbeat changes come with the stocks in the red for the year, badly lagging the S&P 500, which has risen. 

Bank of America cited “increased pressure on volume and costs” at both companies, noting the recent move by the Trump administration to close a tariff exemption for certain low-value items. Some companies have already reported pain as a result, though others have cheered the move. 

UPS in late July reported second-quarter revenue that came in higher than expected, but disappointing profits and a decision to not provide profit or revenue forecasts pulled shares down toward current levels. FedEx suspended its outlook in June; its shares are around the price seen after that move. 

Both companies’ stocks were higher in recent trading as optimism about interest-rate cuts lifted stocks broadly.

-David Marino-Nachison

Why Wall Street Analysts Say the Record Run for Oracle Stock is Just Getting Started

5 hr 31 min ago

Oracle’s (ORCL) blistering stock gain amid strong AI demand has Wall Street analysts racing to raise their price targets—with most expecting its record run isn’t over yet. 

The shares soared 36% on Wednesday to a record high of about $328, a day after the computing giant reported what Deutsche Bank analysts called “truly awesome results” that “underscored its position as the leader in AI infrastructure.” The stock gave up some of those gains on Thursday, but is still up about 90% since the start of this year.

“In our near 20 years covering Oracle and for that matter the entire Software industry, there are few quarterly results that match F1Q both in terms of magnitude of revision and clarity of the moment,” the Deutsche Bank analysts said, pointing to Oracle’s $455 billion backlog, which more than quadrupled from a year ago. 

That blowout backlog came as Oracle said it added four multibillion-dollar contracts in its fiscal first quarter, with CEO Safra Catz telling investors that the company expects to gain several more in the next few months. 

One of those customers could be OpenAI, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported Wednesday that the ChatGPT maker struck a deal to spend a whopping $300 billion for computing power over five years, starting in 2027. Oracle declined to remark and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Deutsche Bank said that Oracle’s performance Tuesday underscored how the strengths of the computing giant’s underlying infrastructure and range of offerings could help it sustain a competitive advantage in the AI era, and boosted their price target for the stock to $335 from $240, a level it could top soon if it can sustain just some of Wednesday’s momentum.

Other analysts were even more bullish, with Jefferies raising its target to $360 from $270. Bank of America boosted its to $368, calling Oracle a “key AI enabler,” while Citi moved its target up to a new Street high of $410.

Citi analysts said they now view Oracle as a “unique megacap AI winner,” after “one of the strongest quarterly contract signings we’ve come across in all of software.” They added they’ll be watching closely for more details from the company next month at its AI event, where the company plans to unveil a new AI service, co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison said.

-Kara Greenberg

CPI Inflation Hit Its Highest Level Since January Last Month

6 hr 21 min ago

Inflation continued to crunch household budgets in August as tariffs pushed consumer prices.

Prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% over 12 months ending in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. Inflation was up from a 2.7% annual increase in July and reached the highest since January.

“Core” inflation, which excludes volatile prices for food and energy, rose 3.1%, the same annual increase as in July. According to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, both increases were in line with forecasters’ expectations.

Inflation has steadily risen this year as merchants have passed on the costs of President Donald Trump’s sweeping import taxes. The impact has been slow to arrive as businesses had stocked up on inventory in advance of the tariff campaign, but those stockpiles are running out.

“With buffer inventories that had been built ahead of tariffs being depleted, businesses are now forced to replenish stock at elevated prices,” Katy Stoves, investment manager at Mattioli Woods, wrote in a commentary. “With the tariffs looking to be more permanent, companies now have cover to pass these rising costs onto consumers, rather than compressing margins.”

-Diccon Hyatt

Micron Stock Jumps on Price Target Increase From Citi

7 hr 9 min ago

Shares of Micron Technology (MU) surged roughly 8% Thursday when Citi analysts boosted their price target, pointing to an increase in demand for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and the company’s artificial intelligence exposure.

The analysts raised Micron’s price target to $175 from the previous $150 and affirmed their “buy” rating on the stock. 

In a note to investors, the analysts wrote they believe that the “continued memory upturn is being driven by limited production and better than expected demand, particularly from the data center end market.”

Micron releases its fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter report on Sept. 23, and Citi anticipates adjusted earnings per share of $2.62 and revenue of $11.20 billion, in line with overall analysts’ estimates. However, Citi anticipates the company’s guidance will be well above expectations, “driven by higher DRAM and NAND sales and pricing.”

Micron Technology shares have risen nearly 80% year-to-date. 

-Bill McColl

Meme Stock Opendoor Skyrockets as Firm Names New CEO, Brings Back Co-Founders to Board

7 hr 58 min ago

Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) shares soared 50% Thursday, a day after the online real-estate platform named a new CEO, brought back its founders to be on the board, and got a new infusion of cash.

The company announced that former Shopify (SHOP) COO Kaz Nejatian would be taking over as CEO, replacing Carrie Wheeler, who stepped down last month after facing pressure from shareholders as the company struggled in its turnaround efforts.

In addition, Opendoor said co-founders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu were returning to the Board of Directors, with Rabois becoming Chairman. Lead Independent Director Eric Feder explained that the pair “will inject the ‘founder DNA’ and energy at a pivotal moment for Opendoor.” 

Along with their new positions, Rabois’ venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, and Wu have struck securities purchase agreements with Opendoor to invest $40 million in the firm. Opendoor noted that it planned to use the money “to fund continued investment in the business.”

Opendoor Technologies shares have surged since July as retail investors have piled into the meme stock. They ended June trading at $0.53 each but now are approaching $9 with today’s gains.

-Bill McColl

Stock Futures Tick Higher After August CPI Data

8 hr 48 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2% in premarket trading on Thursday.

S&P 500 futures were also up 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.3%.