The New York stock market ended mixed as investor sentiment diverged by stock, despite a surprise earnings announcement from U.S. Oracle and a drop in the August producer price index (PPI).
On the 10th (local time) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 220.42 points, or 0.48%, to close at 45,490.92. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 rose 19.43 points, or 0.30%, to 6,532.04, and the Nasdaq composite added 6.57 points, or 0.03%, to 21,886.06.
What lifted the market early in the session was Oracle's "earnings surprise." Oracle said its backlog reached $455 billion, a 359% surge from a year earlier. The market had expected roughly a doubling, but the actual figure far exceeded that. The company projected that cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal year 2030 would reach $144 billion. That is about 10 times the $10.3 billion in fiscal year 2025.
Second-quarter results missed expectations, but shares skyrocketed 36% in a day on the massive growth outlook, the biggest gain since 1992. At one point intraday, they jumped more than 43%. Market capitalization swelled to $922.2 billion, and co-founder Larry Ellison added more than $100 billion in asset in a single day.
Bank of America said, "Oracle is rapidly expanding its market share in AI infrastructure," and noted, "Major corporations such as OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and AMD are establishing themselves as customers."
Inflation data also helped. The U.S. Department of Labor said the August PPI fell 0.1% from the previous month. That was the opposite of the market forecast for a 0.3% rise. Core PPI also fell 0.1%, well below expectations. The year-over-year growth rates likewise came in below projections at 2.6% and 2.8%, respectively.
Investor sentiment, however, diverged, mainly among big tech stocks. Buoyed by the Oracle catalyst, Nvidia rose 3.83% and Broadcom 9.77%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained 2.38%. AMD, TSMC, and Arm also advanced. In contrast, Apple, which unveiled the iPhone 17 the previous day, fell 3.23% on perceptions it is lagging in the AI race. Amazon also fell 3.32% amid Oracle's surge.
By sector, technology, utilities, and energy rose more than 1%, while consumer discretionary and consumer staples fell more than 1%.
Expectations for rate cuts also held. According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch, the federal funds futures market priced a 65.8% chance of a 0.75 percentage point cut by year-end, slightly higher than the previous day. However, the fact that some producers are shouldering high tariff rates and seeing margins deteriorate acted as a cautionary factor among investors.
The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) rose 2.06% to 15.35.