U.S. Stocks May Give Back Ground As Oracle Plunges

(RTTNews) - Stocks may move to the downside in early trading on Thursday, giving back ground after moving mostly higher over the course previous session. The major index futures are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures down by 0.4 percent.

A steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) is likely to weigh on Wall Street, as the software giant is plunging by 13.1 percent in pre-market trading.

The slump by Oracle comes after the company reported fiscal second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates but weaker than expected revenues.

Other AI-related stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are also seeing notable pre-market weakness, potentially reflected renewed valuation concerns.

Uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates may also generate some selling pressure following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed cut rates by another quarter point, as widely expected, officials' projections showed significant differences of opinion about further rate cuts.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by more than expected in the week ended December 6th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 236,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level of 192,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 220,000 from the 191,000 originally reported for the previous week.

After showing a lack of direction for much of the session, stocks moved mostly higher in the latter part of the trading day on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.

The major averages all moved to the upside on the day after ending Tuesday's choppy trading session narrowly mixed.

The Dow jumped 497.46 points or 1.1 percent to 48,057.75, the S&P 500 climbed 46.17 points or 0.7 percent to 6,886.68 and the Nasdaq rose 77.67 points or 0.3 percent to 23,654.16.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 0.9 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.6 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is just above the unchanged line.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are slumping $0.65 to $57.81 a barrel after rising $0.21 to $58.46 a barrel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, after slipping $11.50 to $4,224.70 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are climbing $12.40 to $4,237.10 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 155.29 yen versus the 156.01 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1728 compared to yesterday's $1.1694.