On Wall Street, tech stocks helped lead the way after Oracle said AI-related demand is set to send its revenue surging. CEO Safra Catz said Oracle signed four multi-billion dollar contracts during its latest quarter, and it expects cloud infrastructure revenue to jump 77 per cent to $US18 billion ($27.2 billion) this fiscal year. After that, it expects such revenue to soar to $US144 billion in just four years.
“AI Changes Everything,” Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said in a statement.
Oracle stock leaped 34.4 per cent and was potentially heading for its best day since 1992, even though it also reported results for the latest quarter that came up just shy of analysts’ expectations.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips used in AI and other computing, saw its stock that trades in the United States climb 3.5 per cent after it said its revenue jumped nearly 34 per cent in August from a year earlier.
Nvidia, the chip company whose stock has become the poster child of the AI boom, rose 3.2 per cent. It was one of the strongest single forces lifting the S&P 500, along with Oracle.
Outside of tech, Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States added 0.2 per cent after the company behind the Wegovy weight loss drug said it would cut 9,000 jobs to reduce costs, mostly in its home country of Denmark. It’s been contending with more competition in the market to help obese people lose weight.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Apple, whose drop of 3 per cent helped drag the Dow lower and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Some analysts said its unveiling of new iPhones the day before contained no surprises and may not drive much growth in demand.
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Synopsys, which helps customers design and engineer chips, fell 35.5 per cent after reporting profit for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations. So did its forecast for profit in the current quarter.
Klarna, the Swedish “buy now, pay later” financial services provider, jumped in its public debut. The stock, which was priced at $US40 per share, was up about 15 per cent after it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday afternoon.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising across much of Asia. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.7 per cent, and Hong Kong Hang Sang climbed 1 per cent for two of the bigger moves.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.03 per cent from 4.08 per cent late Tuesday after the encouraging report on wholesale inflation bolstered expectations for coming cuts to interest rates.
AP
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