NEW YORK, January 4, 2026, 10:15 ET — Market closed
- Oracle shares closed Friday up 0.4% at $195.71, the last price before the weekend break. 1
- The company’s $0.50 quarterly dividend is set for a January 9 record date and a January 23 payment. 2
- Macro catalysts this week include ISM factory data on Monday and the U.S. jobs report on Friday. 3
Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) shares finished Friday up 0.41% at $195.71, leaving the stock near $196 heading into Monday’s reopening. 1
The next near-term trigger for the stock is the dividend timeline, with traders often positioning around the “ex-dividend” date — the first session when new buyers no longer qualify for the payout. 4
That matters now because Oracle has been trading with a sharper risk premium than many large-cap software peers since its December results, as investors weigh whether heavy spending on cloud capacity will translate into durable cash flow. 5
On Friday, Oracle’s gain came on a broadly positive day for U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 edging higher, while several enterprise-software names fell more sharply. 6
Oracle said in a filing that its board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 a share, payable on January 23 to shareholders of record on January 9. With U.S. trades settling in one business day, the ex-dividend date is also listed as January 9 by dividend trackers. 2
From a chart perspective, Oracle traded between $194.21 and $198.59 on Friday, keeping the $200 area in view as a near-term round-number level. The shares are also about 43% below their 52-week high, underscoring how sensitive the stock has been to shifts in risk appetite. 7
The last big company update remains Oracle’s fiscal second-quarter report in December, when it pointed to a surge in remaining performance obligations (RPO) — contracted revenue not yet booked as sales — a forward-looking gauge investors track closely. “RPO increased by $68 billion in Q2 … to $523 billion,” principal financial officer Doug Kehring said, citing new commitments from Meta and Nvidia. 8
Oracle executives also used that release to stress “cloud neutrality,” including plans for Oracle multicloud data centers embedded in Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds — an attempt to sell its database and infrastructure stack inside rivals’ ecosystems. 8
But the trade can cut both ways. Reuters has reported that Oracle’s bigger capital spending plans and the debt tied to its AI build-out have pushed some investors toward the sidelines, amplifying downside moves when rates rise or AI demand is questioned. 5
Rate expectations are back in focus going into the new week. Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson said another round of U.S. rate cuts “could take a while,” a message that can keep pressure on higher-multiple technology stocks if Treasury yields stay firm. 9
The immediate macro calendar starts Monday with the ISM Manufacturing PMI at 10:00 a.m. ET, followed later in the week by the ISM Services PMI on January 7. On Friday, the Labor Department is set to release the December employment report at 8:30 a.m. ET — a potential volatility event for tech shares. 3
For Oracle, investors will watch two dates next: January 9 around the dividend cutoff and, beyond that, management’s next update on cloud growth and spending when the company reports fiscal third-quarter results in mid-March, according to its investor FAQ. 10
