Stock futures were edging higher Thursday ahead of key inflation data that could be the last remaining obstacle to a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut.
These stocks were poised to make moves Thursday:
Oracle was rising 1.6% in premarket trading, a day after shares of the database-software company gained 36% to hit a record high of $328.33. This follows the disclosure that Oracle’s contracted backlog rose to $455 billion in its fiscal first quarter, up from just $138 billion in the fourth quarter, and up 359% from a year earlier. The significant jump indicated the surging demand for renting artificial-intelligence servers in the cloud. Oracle finished Wednesday with a market capitalization of $933.02 billion, making it the 10th-largest U.S. company by value, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that a chunk of Oracle’s backlog total was from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, which signed a contract with Oracle to purchase $300 billion in computing power over roughly five years.
Broadcom was up 0.4% after the semiconductor and software company rose 9.8% on Wednesday to close at a record high of $369.57. The stock was boosted by Oracle’s backlog numbers, the frenzy surrounding all things AI, and a filing late Tuesday revealed that Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan’s stock-based compensation was directly tied to the company’s AI revenue. The stock has gained 59% this year.
Klarna Group made its stock market debut Wednesday at $52 and closed the session at $45.82, up 15% from its initial public offering price of $40. The Swedish buy-now, pay-later service provider raised $1.37 billion from the sale. Based on its closing price Wednesday, Klarna’s valuation is $17.4 billion. Shares fell 1% in premarket trading Thursday.
Shares of Synopsys, the electronic design automation company, were up 3% in the premarket after they sank 36%—the stock’s largest percentage daily decrease on record—on Wednesday following fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that missed analysts’ estimates. A revenue decline of 8% at the company’s semiconductor intellectual property business drove underperformance in the quarter, according to CEO Sassine Ghazi.
Oxford Industries, the owner of brands such as Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer, jumped 16% after beating second-quarter earnings estimates and backing its fiscal-year adjusted profit guidance. Oxford said it expects to incur about $80 million of tariff costs over the fiscal year but estimated it has been able to mitigate roughly half of the exposure through actions such as shifting its sourcing.
Earnings reports are expected Thursday from Adobe, Kroger, and RH.
Adobe was up 0.8% in premarket trading ahead of fiscal third-quarter earnings from the creative software company. Analysts expect Adobe to post adjusted earnings of $5.18 a share on revenue of $5.9 billion, an increase of 9.2% from a year earlier. Adobe’s report is scheduled to drop after the stock market closes.
