NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 09:56 ET — Regular session
- Oracle shares slipped in early trade as an officer filed a notice to sell 15,000 shares.
- Investors remain focused on the company’s AI build-out costs and how it is financed.
- Traders are watching U.S. data later Monday and Fed minutes on Tuesday for rate cues.
Oracle shares fell 0.4% to $197.27 in early trading on Monday after a company officer disclosed a planned share sale, with investors still wary about the cost of the software maker’s push to expand AI-related cloud capacity.
The filing matters because Oracle has become a touchstone for a broader market question: how much debt and spending big tech can absorb as demand for AI computing accelerates, especially heading into year-end when liquidity can thin and moves can get exaggerated.
That scrutiny has been sharpest around Oracle’s ties to privately held OpenAI, where investors lack the same visibility into funding and cash burn that they get with public companies, analysts and traders said.
A Form 144 filing accepted on Monday morning showed Oracle officer Mark Hura proposed selling up to 15,000 shares, with an aggregate market value of about $2.95 million, through Fidelity Brokerage Services.
Form 144 is the SEC notice used when company “affiliates” — insiders and certain large holders — plan to sell shares under Rule 144, which sets conditions for selling restricted or control stock into the public market. SEC
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill, discussing Oracle on CNBC, said investor attention has shifted from broad excitement about AI to proving the economics, calling the spending debate “the number one overhang.” Benzinga
Thill warned that the near-term focus is on margin pressure as capital expenditures, or spending on equipment and data centers, rise to support AI demand.
Oracle’s shares are down more than 30% over the past three months, according to Benzinga, after the company’s latest outlook and spending plans amplified investor concerns about how quickly returns will show up.
Earlier this month, Oracle forecast fiscal third-quarter growth below Wall Street expectations and signaled higher spending, reviving questions about the pace of payback from its AI push.
The broader tech complex was also soft, with the Nasdaq-heavy Invesco QQQ down about 0.3% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF off about 0.3%.
Before the next major company catalyst, traders are watching U.S. pending home sales data due at 10 a.m. ET on Monday for any impact on Treasury yields, which often drive valuations for growth stocks.
Markets will also parse minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, for clues on the rate path into 2026.
Oracle’s next earnings update is expected in mid-March 2026, according to the company’s investor relations site, with investors likely to zero in on any revisions to cloud growth expectations and the trajectory of AI-related spending.
