S&P 500 ends higher as Oracle reignites AI rally

NEW YORK: The S&P 500 ended higher on Thursday after a strong outlook from Oracle fueled optimism around artificial intelligence, offsetting worries about tension in the Middle East and a drop in Boeing shares.

Oracle surged 13.3% to record highs after the cloud service provider raised its annual revenue growth forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-related services.

Heavyweight tech companies Microsoft, Nvidia and Broadcom rose over 1%.

“Oracle is another piece in the mosaic of AI capex spending and the ongoing need for more compute that feeds into the AI revolution,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “When the winds blow in that direction, you’re definitely going to see the key players like Microsoft and Nvidia also catch that tailwind.”

Boeing fell almost 5% after an Air India 787-8 Dreamliner jet crashed minutes after taking off in India’s western city of Ahmedabad, killing more than 200 people.

Signs of rising tensions in the Middle East also weighed on global markets. US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that US personnel were being moved out of the region as it could be a “dangerous place” and the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Officials from both countries are scheduled to meet in Oman on Sunday for a sixth round of nuclear talks.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.38% to end the session at 6,045.26 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.24% to 19,662.49 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.24% to 42,967.62 points.

Volume on US exchanges was heavy, with 23.5 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 18.0 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight rose, led by utilities, up 1.26%, followed by a 1.01% gain in information technology.

US-listed shares of gold miners also advanced, as bullion prices hit a one-week high. Newmont gained 4.9%, Harmony Gold was up 4.1% and AngloGold Ashanti rose 6.4%.

Softer-than-expected producer price data and initial jobless claims numbers pointing to a potential weakening in the labor market helped reduce investor jitters around tariff-driven price pressures, while also boosting expectations the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

Traders project a 60% chance of a 25-basis-point cut by September, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

Fed policymakers are widely expected to keep rates unchanged at next week’s policy meeting.

With investors expecting Trump to reach trade agreements with several countries in the coming weeks, the benchmark S&P 500 index is about 2% below its February record high. Goldman Sachs trimmed its US recession probability to 30% from 35% on easing uncertainty around Trump’s tariff policies.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.5-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 63 new lows. — Reuters