Oracle stock slips as tech cools on AI spending doubts; payrolls next test

9 January 2026

NEW YORK, January 8, 2026, 17:55 (ET) — After-hours

Oracle shares fell 1.6% to $189.65 on Thursday and last traded at the same level after the close, after swinging between $186.25 and $192.78. About 19.4 million shares changed hands.

The move tracked a broader pullback in tech as investors pressed for proof that big bets on artificial intelligence will pay off. The S&P 500 technology index fell 1.5% and the Nasdaq slipped, with Nvidia, Broadcom and Microsoft among the decliners. Reuters

Oracle has been a live wire in that debate since it moved deeper into AI cloud infrastructure. In December, it forecast sales and profit below estimates and said fiscal 2026 capital spending would be $15 billion higher than it expected in September; Visible Alpha’s Melissa Otto said the “ramp in capex” and unclear debt needs were driving uncertainty. Reuters

A near-term wrinkle: Oracle is set to trade ex-dividend on Friday for its $0.50 quarterly payout, meaning buyers from that date will not receive the coming dividend. The dividend is payable on Jan. 23 to shareholders of record on Jan. 9, a filing showed. Nasdaq

Technically, the stock is sitting near the $190 level and remains well below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages (trend gauges many traders track), with the 14-day relative strength index (RSI), a momentum measure, in the high-30s. Oracle’s 52-week range is roughly $118.86 to $345.72, putting the stock about 45% below its high. StockAnalysis

Oracle’s slide was not an outlier inside enterprise software on Thursday. ServiceNow fell 3.1% and Salesforce dropped 2.1% in a session that left the broader S&P 500 essentially flat. MarketWatch

But the bigger risk is still execution on the AI buildout — and whether timelines slip as labor, power and materials tighten. Oracle pushed back on that kind of fear in December after a report on OpenAI-related data centers, with spokesperson Michael Egbert telling Reuters that “all milestones remain on track.” Reuters

Next up is Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, a key rate driver for tech valuations; economists expect about 60,000 jobs and a 4.5% unemployment rate. Oracle has said its fiscal third-quarter results are due in mid-March, when investors will look again at cloud demand and the pace of spending. Oracle

Khadija Saeed Latest posts

A dedicated markets reporter, she covers stocks, macroeconomics, and major business developments with a sharp eye for detail and accuracy.

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