US STOCKS-Wall Street ends lower as Oracle tumbles on weak forecast

WestRock Co

12/09/2023 21:19

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        * 
      Oil prices spike on tight supplies, upbeat OPEC
    

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      Oracle down after downbeat forecast, Q1 revenue miss
    

        * 
      WestRock jumps on Smurfit Kappa merger
    

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      Indexes: S&P 500 -0.57%, Nasdaq -1.04%, Dow -0.05%
    

  
 (Updated at 4:07 p.m. ET/ 2007 GMT)
    By Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas
       Sept 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks ended lower on
Tuesday as Oracle shares tumbled more than 13% after a weak
forecast and surging oil prices deepened worries about
persistent price pressures ahead of crucial inflation readings
this week.   
    Oracle  ORCL.N  shares dived to their lowest since June
after the cloud-services provider forecast current-quarter
revenue below targets and narrowly missed first-quarter
expectations. 
    Cloud-computing heavyweights Amazon.com  AMZN.O  and
Microsoft  MSFT.O  each fell more than 1%, pressured by Oracle's
weak forecast and by a rise in U.S. Treasury yields.      
    Oil prices jumped more than 1%, building on a recent rally
and stoking worries that sticky inflation could mean U.S.
interest rates stay higher longer in the aftermath of strong
economic data.
    "People are a little bit worried about energy prices picking
up pretty aggressively in recent weeks and that creates some
concerns as we look forward to November" when some investors
worry Federal Reserve policy makers may raise rates again, said
Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC.
    Investors are awaiting August consumer price index data due
on Wednesday and producer prices reading scheduled for Thursday
to gauge the outlook for U.S. interest rates ahead of the Fed's
meeting on Sept. 20. 
    Interest rate traders see a 93% chance of rates remaining at
the current levels in September but just a 56% likelihood of a
pause at the November meeting, according to the CME FedWatch
Tool.
    "All the all the inputs that we get between now and the
November meeting will be important, especially those related to
inflation. So that thrusts a lot of importance on tomorrow's CPI
report," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley
Wealth.
    Investors will also monitor the European Central Bank's
policy decision on Thursday, when it is seen holding rates after
nine consecutive hikes.
    Apple  AAPL.O  dropped 1.8% after unveiling new iPhones,
while not increasing prices as it faces a global smartphone
slump. The stock was also hurt by a report that China's Huawei
Technologies has raised the second-half shipment target for its
Mate 60 series smartphone by 20%. 
        The S&P 500 declined 0.57% to end the session at
4,461.91 points.
  
        The Nasdaq declined 1.04% to 13,773.62 points, while Dow
Jones Industrial Average declined 0.05% to 34,645.99 points.
  
        Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight declined, led
lower by information technology  .SPLRCT , down 1.75%, followed
by a 1.06% loss in communication services  .SPLRCL . The energy
index  .SPNY  added 2.31%.
  
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 9.4
billion shares traded, compared to an average of 9.9 billion
shares over the previous 20 sessions.
  
        The most traded stock in the S&P 500 was Tesla
 TSLA.OQ , with $36.7 billion worth of shares exchanged during
the session. The electric car maker declined 2.23%.
  
    WestRock  WRK.N  jumped 2.8% after agreeing to merge with
Europe's Smurfit Kappa  SKG.I  to create the world's largest
listed paper and packaging company, worth nearly $20 billion.
    Advance Auto Parts  AAP.N  dropped about 8% after S&P Global
downgraded the auto parts retailer's credit and debt ratings
from investment grade (BBB-) to junk (BB+).
    Zions Bancorp  ZION.O  jumped 6.8% after the U.S. regional
lender posted a slight increase in its monthly net interest
income growth.
        Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P
500  .AD.SPX  by a 1.4-to-one ratio.
  
        The S&P 500 posted 12 new highs and 14 new lows; the
Nasdaq recorded 48 new highs and 184 new lows.
  

 (Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru,
and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Arun
Koyyur, Vinay Dwivedi and David Gregorio)
 ((noel.randewich@tr.com))