US stock markets opened on a mixed note Wednesday, with the Dow Jones edging lower while the S&P 500 posted modest gains.
Investors continue to assess the most recent developments regarding the US-Iran War and the volatile oil price while digesting the latest US inflation statistics.
The Dow fell 82 points or 0.2% while the S&P500 rose by 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.
The conflict in the Middle East is continuing to affect the energy market and clouds the future of inflation and interest rate forecasts.
Inflation is a number that lands
The Consumer Price Index for February was exactly what. Expected: 2,4% over the past year and 0.3% more than in January.
The core CPI (excluding food and energy) was 2.5% in January, which is the lowest level since 2021.
The cost of shelter, which is a measure for rents and homeowner equivalent costs, has been the main driver behind inflation.
Normal times would see the above numbers as good news, but these past weeks were anything but normal.
Prices are only up to February 28. Brent crude soared above $115 in the weeks following military strikes against Iran that began March 1.
Energy shocks that traders had been incorporating into their models for the last ten days are not included in the numbers today, as they were not present when data was collected.
This story will either get complicated, or resolve quietly, when the March CPI is due.
Oracle is gaining momentum
Oracle shares opened up roughly 13% higher on Wednesday as the market reacted to its Q3 FY2026 results.
EPS was $1.79 compared to a consensus of $1.70. Revenue reached $17.2 Billion compared to $16.92 Billion. The numbers were penciled in.
Cloud revenues grew by 44% over the past year. The cloud infrastructure business, which rents raw computing power out to AI developers for their applications, grew 84% over last year.
Oracle has been able to demonstrate that its aggressive position as a platform for AI infrastructure is reflected in actual contracts.
Where the story really accelerates is in the guidance.
Oracle has raised its FY2027 target revenue to $90 billion – a figure that is well over the $86.6 billion Wall Street predicted.
On the Oracle earnings call, new enterprise commitments were announced from Lockheed Martin and SoftBank as well as Air France-KLM. This is an indication that Oracle’s AI cloud foundry has attracted industrial scale customers.
It is important to note that AI expenditure has been under scrutiny.
The markets are now faced with a familiar problem: can strong corporate momentum offset geopolitical risks and an inflationary rebound that could be driven by energy?
Oil volatility, Fed policy, and the CPI report are all imminent, so traders will likely remain cautious, even though pockets of growth continue to draw capital, notably in AI infrastructure.
The post US Stocks Mixed as Dow Dips, Oracle Surges on AI, Inflation Cools could be updated as new developments unfold.
