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On Thursday, US stock market futures took a hit, largely due to underwhelming performance reports from Oracle that impacted tech stocks worldwide.
The Nasdaq 100 index, known for its technology focus, saw futures contracts dip by 1.1 percent in early trading. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was set to decrease by 0.8 percent.
Following the close of markets on Wednesday, Oracle released its third-quarter earnings, revealing a revenue of $16.2 billion, which fell short of what analysts had anticipated. This disappointment quickly overshadowed the earlier market uplift triggered by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut earlier that day.
As a result, Oracle’s shares plummeted by 11.5 percent in after-hours trading.
“Although the Fed’s recent rate cut provided some relief to investors, prevalent concerns about AI remain significant,” noted Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank’s global head of macro research, labeling Oracle’s earnings as “disappointing.”
Neil Birrell, chief investment officer at Premier Miton, said the sharp drop in Oracle’s share price showed “the massive sensitivity to expectations” for big US tech companies.
US stocks had hit record highs earlier on Wednesday after the Fed cut interest rates to a three-year low, as Wall Street had widely anticipated.
“The tone of the press conference was less hawkish than feared,” said Mohit Kumar, chief European economist at Jefferies, pointing to Fed chair Jay Powell’s focus on weakness in the labour market. “The door remains open for further easing,” Kumar said.
Asian stocks fell earlier on Thursday, following the Oracle results. South Korea’s Kospi 200 dropped 0.9 per cent, as did Tokyo’s Topix. South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix fell 3.7 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tech index dropped 0.8 per cent.
A sub-index of the Stoxx Europe 600 tracking technology stocks fell 0.5 per cent in early trading on Thursday.
