US stocks mostly fall as Oracle slumps

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were mostly lower early Thursday as disappointing earnings from tech giant Oracle offset a positive market response to the latest Federal Reserve decision.

Shares of Oracle slumped more than 15 percent after it reported lower than expected quarterly revenue in results that “cast a pall on the AI trade and the broader market,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

A couple of minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent at 48,208.63.

The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.4 percent to 6,858.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.7 percent to 23,479.00.

Wall St mixed ahead of Fed verdict

Markets largely cheered the Fed’s decision Wednesday to cut interest rates for the third straight meeting.

At a press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the need to shore up a weakening US employment market and communicated somewhat less urgency towards elevated inflation.

Also Thursday, delayed government data showed the US trade deficit fell 10.9 percent in September to $52.8 billion, the lowest since mid-2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trade flows have been heavily swayed this year by the president’s fast-changing tariffs, as importers rushed to stock up on inventory ahead of planned hikes in duties.