Wall St indexes hit records as Oracle jumps, Fed bets steady on inflation data

New York: The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq scaled fresh intraday record highs on Wednesday at the Wall Street driven by a surge in cloud computing firm Oracle, while cooler-than-expected inflation data kept the U.S. Federal Reserve on track to cut borrowing costs this year.

Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab soared 41% to an all-time high and was set for its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1992 after the tech company pointed to a demand surge from AI firms for its cloud services.

Its stock market value reached $969 billion – leapfrogging those of Eli Lilly (LLY.N),  JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), and Walmart (WMT.N), and is approaching Tesla’s (TSLA.O),  $1.14-trillion market value.

Chip stocks gained, with Nvidia (NVDA.O), rising 4.3%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), up 3.8% and Broadcom (AVGO.O), adding 9.6%.

The gains boosted the S&P 500 technology sector (.SPLRCT),  2.1%, while the broader semiconductor index (.SOX),  rose 2.6% to touch a record high.

Data center power suppliers also benefited, with Constellation Energy (CEG.O),  up 8%, Vistra (VST.N),  advancing 9% and GE Vernova (GEV.N), rising 6.2%.

A cooler-than-expected producer prices reading provided additional momentum as traders shored up their bets on interest-rate cuts this year.

Recent labor market data has confirmed the U.S. jobs market is in a slowdown, cementing expectations for at least a quarter-point rate cut in September.

Bets on a 25-basis-point reduction at the Fed’s September 16-17 meeting stood at 90%, while those on a larger 50-bps cut were at about 10%, CME’s FedWatch tool showed.

Declines in consumer discretionary and healthcare stocks weighed on the Dow.

At 11:53 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), fell 197.88 points, or 0.43%, to 45,513.46, the S&P 500 (.SPX), gained 32.77 points, or 0.50%, to 6,545.38, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), rose 93.85 points, or 0.43%, to 21,973.34.

Investors will now focus on the consumer prices reading, due on Thursday, for insights on where U.S. inflation is headed.

“Combining the softer data (PPI figures) with the Fed’s increased emphasis on the labor market side and the growing trend we’ve seen in downward revisions to the monthly employment data – all support the expectation for a rate cut,” said Jordan Rizzuto, CIO at GammaRoad Capital Partners.

Rizzuto said any upside inflation with Thursday’s CPI report could disrupt the bets on Fed rate cuts in 2025.

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Meanwhile, in a legal setback for the White House, a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked U.S. President Donald Trump from removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

Wall Street has had a broadly positive start to September – a month deemed historically bad for U.S. equities – with the benchmark index losing 1.5% on average since 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG.

However, brokerages including Barclays and Deutsche Bank have raised their 2025 year-end targets for the S&P 500.