New York, January 9, 2026, 16:36 EST — After-hours
- Oracle shares rise 4.7% after the bell, after touching $200 in the session
- Deutsche Bank flags “financing clarity” as a key swing factor for the stock
- Next checkpoints include a mid-March earnings window and a Jan. 23 dividend payment
Oracle shares rose 4.7% to $198.52 in after-hours trading on Friday, after briefly topping $200 during the regular session. Shares traded between $188.91 and $200.13 on the day, with volume at about 26 million shares.
The bounce matters because Oracle has become a proxy for the cost of building the new wave of AI data centers. Investors want proof that signed cloud deals can turn into revenue before capital spending, or capex — money spent on items like data centers and servers — tightens the financing math.
Broader markets helped. U.S. stocks rose after the Labor Department reported a 50,000 rise in December nonfarm payrolls, below forecasts, keeping hopes alive for rate cuts; traders now price about 54 basis points of easing this year, Reuters reported. (Reuters)
A MarketWatch report on Friday said Deutsche Bank named Oracle a high-conviction pick for early 2026, arguing the stock is being weighed down by worries over debt and funding plans. Analyst Brad Zelnick said he expects the company to provide “financing clarity” in coming quarters, while the report put Oracle’s future contract value at over $500 billion, up from about $65 billion two years ago.
Oracle’s most recent quarterly update, issued in December, showed remaining performance obligations — a measure of signed contracts not yet recorded as revenue — at $523 billion, up 438% from a year earlier. Cloud revenue rose 34% to $8.0 billion, Oracle said, and CEO Clay Magouyrk said its multicloud database business was “up 817% in Q2.” Oracle also declared a $0.50 quarterly dividend payable on Jan. 23 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Jan. 9. (Oracle Investor Relations)
On Friday, OpenAI and SoftBank said they would invest $1 billion in SB Energy to expand data center and power infrastructure for their Stargate initiative, which Reuters described as a $500 billion multi-year plan backed by major investors including Oracle. SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld said the partnership “accelerates our delivery” of AI data center campuses and related energy infrastructure. (Reuters)
For traders, the $200 area is back in play. The stock has been pinned under that line for much of the post-December stretch, and the next session will test whether buyers stick around when the headlines quiet down.
The risk is that backlog stays stuck on paper. If power or chip supply delays new capacity, or if customers slow orders, Oracle could face a longer stretch of weaker cash flow and tougher questions about how it funds the buildout.
Oracle says its fiscal third-quarter earnings will be announced in mid-March, and investors will look for updates on cloud growth, capex and funding plans. The nearer date on the calendar is the Jan. 23 dividend payment.
