On Wall Street, Oracle sends the markets into a frenzy

The column flows freely this morning, led by Oracle's surge and Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 17 Air. Also on the agenda: U.S.-India trade talks and the appointment of a new French prime minister. By contrast, Russian drones over Poland, hiring news at Novo Nordisk, and the attempted dismissal of Fed governor Lisa Cook were pushed aside.

Stocks extended their winning streak yesterday, with the S&P 500 climbing 0.3% to 6,513 points — its fourth gain in five sessions. The rally comes despite a quiet news flow, as investors continue to anticipate a Fed rate cut next week. A sharp downward revision to U.S. job creation figures reinforced that expectation, and attention now turns to producer prices today and CPI tomorrow.

In corporate news, Oracle stole the spotlight after blowing past expectations in its quarterly update. Shares jumped 28% after-hours, a move that could lift its market value from $680 billion to around $860 billion, enough to push it into the U.S. top 10, ahead of Walmart and JPMorgan. The catalyst: a 360% surge in its order book, with $455 billion in backlog, fueled by surging demand for cloud server rentals tied to AI applications. Oracle, long seen as a legacy software player, is suddenly ticking all the right boxes for hyper-growth and artificial intelligence — a development with major implications for Wall Street indexes.

Apple also drew attention with its annual product showcase. The iPhone 17 Air, a thinner, sleeker model, grabbed headlines, though analysts noted Apple continues to lag in AI. The market reaction was muted, with the stock slipping 1.5% on investor caution.

On the international front, Donald Trump and India’s Narendra Modi agreed to hold talks aimed at easing a trade standoff. The U.S. currently imposes 50% tariffs on most Indian imports. In Europe, Poland briefly shut down Warsaw airport to intercept Russian drones that violated its airspace during strikes in Ukraine. And in the Middle East, Washington criticized Israel for targeting Hamas representatives in Qatar, a U.S. ally.

Politics also made waves in Europe, where French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister after the fall of the previous government.

Today’s key events: the U.S. producer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET and Lecornu’s official inauguration in Paris.

In Asia-Pacific, the market is green. Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 0.8%, India's NIFTY is up 0.5%, and Australia's ASX is up 0.4%. The situation is even better in Hong Kong (+1%), Taiwan (+1.4%) and South Korea, where the KOSPI is up 2%, boosted by Oracle and rumors of local stock market reform.

Today's economic highlights:

On the agenda today is a visit to Switzerland early in the morning for August inflation, then on to the United States with the producer price index, followed by wholesale and crude oil inventories from the DOE. See the full agenda here.

• Dollar index: 97,73
• Gold: $3,646
• Crude Oil (BRENT): $67.09 (WTI) $63.33
• United States 10 years: 4.052%
• BITCOIN: $113,500

In corporate news:

• Advanced Micro Devices rises 3.5% in premarket trading, following oracle’s strong outlook.
  
• Apple slips another 0.45% in premarket after losing 1.48% on tuesday’s product launch. the company kept iphone prices broadly unchanged despite tariffs imposed by president donald trump, and analysts note it remained relatively quiet on its artificial intelligence strategy.
  
• Arm Holdings unveiled its new generation of chips, called lumex, designed for artificial intelligence and capable of running on mobile devices like smartphones and watches without internet access.
  
• Block, the fintech company led by jack dorsey, co-founder of twitter, won a court ruling dismissing a case accusing it of misleading shareholders in 2021 over data security issues linked to cash app.
  
• Broadcom gains 2.2% in premarket trading, lifted by oracle’s momentum.
  
• Constellation Energy advances 1.4% in premarket trading as power suppliers to data centers follow the sector higher.
  
• Exxon Mobil expects the european union to sign long-term contracts for american natural gas, as the bloc commits to purchase $750 billion worth of u.s. energy by 2028, according to the financial times.
  
• Gamestop jumps 8.3% in premarket after reporting a near 22% increase in second-quarter revenue, as efforts to revive its struggling business begin to bear fruit.
  
• GE Vernova rises 2.5% in premarket, also benefiting from data center demand.
  
• Meta and TikTok scored a legal victory against the european union’s digital services act surveillance fee, after the eu court of justice ruled the methodology used to calculate the levy was unsatisfactory.
  
• Nike climbs 1.4% in premarket after td cowen upgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy.”
  
• Nvidia adds 1.9% in premarket, also buoyed by oracle’s results.
  
• Oracle soars 31% in premarket after forecasting annual revenue growth of 77% for its cloud infrastructure business, above its previous guidance of 70%. the company now expects cloud orders exceeding $500 billion.
  
• Synopsys plunges more than 20% in premarket after posting quarterly revenue of $1.74 billion for the period ending july 31, missing analysts’ average forecast of $1.77 billion.
  
• Vistra climbs 2.8% in premarket, continuing the rally in electricity providers serving data centers.

Analyst Recommendations:

• Affirm Holdings: Autonomous Research maintains its outperform rating and raises the price target from USD 78 to USD 102.
  
• Agree Realty: Mizuho Securities maintains its neutral rating and lowers the price target from USD 78 to USD 77.
  
• American Electric Power: Ladenburg Thalmann maintains its neutral rating and lowers the price target from USD 112 to USD 108.50.
  
• Apple: Rosenblatt Securities maintains its neutral rating and raises the price target from USD 223 to USD 241.
  
• Casey’s General Stores: Stephens maintains its overweight rating and raises the price target from USD 530 to USD 570.
  
• Core & Main: NorthCoast Research maintains its buy rating and lowers the price target from USD 62 to USD 60.
  
• Darden Restaurants: Deutsche Bank maintains its buy rating and lowers the price target from USD 243 to USD 239.
  
• Diamondback Energy: Gerdes Energy Research maintains its buy rating and raises the price target from USD 202 to USD 208.
  
• Gaming and Leisure Properties: Mizuho Securities maintains its neutral rating and raises the price target from USD 48 to USD 50.
  
• General Motors: Nomura maintains its reduce rating and raises the price target from USD 41 to USD 50.
  
• HP: Evercore ISI downgrades to in line from outperform, with a price target of USD 29.
  
• Oracle: Citi upgrades to buy from neutral, raising the price target from USD 240 to USD 410.
  
• Pinnacle West Capital: Ladenburg Thalmann maintains its neutral rating and lowers the price target from USD 89 to USD 88.
  
• Realty Income: Mizuho Securities maintains its neutral rating and raises the price target from USD 60 to USD 63.
  
• Revvity: Baptista Research maintains a buy rating with a price target of USD 111.40.
  
• Robinhood Markets: Mizuho Securities maintains its outperform rating and raises the price target from USD 120 to USD 145.
  
• Rubrik: Rosenblatt Securities maintains its buy rating and raises the price target from USD 110 to USD 115.
  
• Synopsys: Rosenblatt Securities downgrades to neutral from buy and lowers the price target from USD 650 to USD 605.
  
• Talen Energy: Seaport Global maintains its buy rating and raises the price target from USD 411 to USD 424.
  
• United Therapeutics: Cantor Fitzgerald maintains its overweight rating and raises the price target from USD 405 to USD 525.
  
• Vici Properties: Mizuho Securities maintains its outperform rating and raises the price target from USD 34 to USD 35.