New York, January 9, 2026, 11:00 (EST) — Regular session
- Oracle shares rose about 2.9% in morning trade, rebounding after a choppy start to 2026.
- A softer U.S. jobs report revived rate-cut bets, lifting rate-sensitive tech stocks.
- Investors are watching Oracle’s AI data-center spending and its next quarterly update in mid-March.
Oracle Corp shares rose nearly 3% on Friday, tracking a broader bounce in U.S. equities after a softer-than-expected jobs report eased pressure on rate-cut expectations. The stock was up 2.9% at $195.07, after trading as low as $188.91 earlier in the session.
Wall Street’s main indexes edged higher after the Labor Department reported a 50,000 increase in December nonfarm payrolls, below economists’ 60,000 estimate, while the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4%. Traders still penciled in about 54 basis points of easing this year — a basis point is 0.01 percentage point — even as attention swung toward a Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump’s tariffs that could land as early as Friday.
The macro backdrop matters more than usual for Oracle because investors have tied the stock’s valuation to big, debt-heavy bets on AI-related cloud capacity. Oracle reignited “AI bubble” talk in December after a downbeat outlook and a jump in spending plans sent the shares tumbling and dragged other AI-linked names, including chipmakers, lower. Reuters
Oracle has pointed to a swelling backlog to argue the buildout is justified. In its last quarterly update, the company said remaining performance obligations — contracted revenue not yet booked — climbed to $523 billion, and finance chief Doug Kehring cited new commitments from Meta and Nvidia among drivers.
Dividend buyers also had a near-term date on their screens. A filing showed Oracle’s board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents a share, payable on January 23 to shareholders of record as of January 9.
Even with Friday’s gain, the stock is still nursing a deep drawdown from last year’s peak. Yahoo Finance data show Oracle’s 52-week range at $118.86 to $345.72, leaving the shares about 44% below the high and under their 50-day moving average.
But the bigger risk case has not gone away: investors are still testing how quickly Oracle can turn AI demand into cash flow while funding a rapid data-center buildout, and how concentrated that growth becomes in a small set of customers. Oracle said in December that talks around a planned $10 billion Michigan data center project were on track after scrutiny over financing, underscoring how sensitive the stock is to any hint of delay or higher funding costs.
Next up is the next real checkpoint on spending and cloud demand. Oracle’s investor relations FAQ says fiscal third-quarter results are due in mid-March, and the company’s earnings calendar entry on Yahoo Finance lists March 9 after the close.
