US stocks ended a choppy session higher, with dip buyers diving in after Oracle Corp.’s latest results reignited worries about whether technology companies can monetize their artificial intelligence investment plans.
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2% to post its first record close since late October, reversing losses from earlier in the day. The Nasdaq 100 Index declined 0.4%, while the Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Index lost 0.6%. Oracle shares plunged 11% after the company said that capital expenditures, a metric of data-center spending, were about $12 billion in the latest quarter, up from $8.5 billion in the preceding period.
“Despite Oracle weighing down the Nasdaq and the technology sector, other cyclical sectors such as financials, industrials and materials all outperformed today as the market digested the dovish comments from Chair Jerome Powell yesterday, which led to a broadening out of the market and directly impacted the Dow,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, wrote in an email.
An equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 rose 0.8%. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3%, posting its best day since January relative to the S&P 500.
Oracle and its peers have been under scrutiny in recent months due to large capital expenditures on AI developments, with Wall Street casting doubts about the costs and time required to build out data centers at a massive scale. Magnificent Seven heavyweight Nvidia Corp. fell more than 1%, while Alphabet Inc. shares lost 2.4%.
Thursday’s moves come after Fed officials delivered a third straight interest-rate cut at the conclusion of their final meeting of 2025 on Wednesday, while Chair Powell touted the strength of the US economy.
Traders also parsed economic data during the session. Applications for US unemployment benefits rose last week by the most since the onset of the pandemic. The US trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in September to the smallest since mid-2020 as exports surged.
Broadcom Inc., which reported earnings after markets closed, gave a strong revenue forecast for the current quarter, signaling that demand for AI data center equipment is fueling growth.
Meanwhile, skepticism surrounding Netflix Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. triggered a $40 billion wipeout in the company’s market value in just six sessions. To retail traders, that’s a screaming buy signal. Netflix was the third most active stock on Interactive Brokers’ platform for the week ending Monday.
In other corporate news, OpenAI and its investor Microsoft Corp. were sued over a Connecticut murder-suicide in the latest case to blame the popular ChatGPT chatbot for dangerous psychological manipulation of users. Coca-Cola Co. said Chief Executive Officer James Quincey is stepping down and will be replaced at the end of March by Henrique Braun, the company’s chief operating officer. Lululemon Athletica Inc. said that Chief Executive Officer Calvin McDonald is stepping down and the company is searching for a replacement.
A next-generation obesity shot from Eli Lilly & Co. helped patients lose almost a quarter of their body weight, potentially making the experimental drug the most potent weight-loss medicine yet. Shares of the firm rose 1.6%.
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