Stock Futures Point Mostly Lower After Indexes Approach Records on Fed Rate Cut; Oracle Results Drag AI Shares

Micron Stock Has Gained More Than 200% This Year. Why Experts See Additional Record Highs on the Horizon

15 minutes ago

One of the hottest AI stocks appears to have more room to run.

Shares of Micron Technology (MU) have surged to all-time highs this week as analysts continue to raise their targets for the memory chip maker ahead of next week’s earnings report.

Citi analysts on Wednesday lifted their price target to $300 from $275, now double where their target for the stock was in early September. The analysts said the increasing demand for the advanced memory chips used to run artificial intelligence models should help bring in “large capital infusions” that help Micron and other memory chip makers boost their manufacturing capabilities to meet demand.

Micron shares rose more than 4% Wednesday to a record closing high of just below $264. The stock price has more than tripled since the start of the year.

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–Aaron McDade

After December Cut, The Fed’s Next Move Is Far From Certain

1 hr 1 min ago

The Federal Reserve cut its key rate by a quarter-point Wednesday for the third time in as many meetings—but it’s far from certain that more cuts are on the way anytime soon.

Wednesday’s move brought the fed funds rate to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. That’s at the high end of the “neutral” range where Fed officials think the rate is neither turbocharging the economy with easy money nor slowing it down with high borrowing costs, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference following the policy committee’s decision.

“As we noted in our statement today, we’re well-positioned to determine the extent and timing of additional adjustments based on the incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks,” Powell said. “That new language points out that we’ll carefully evaluate that incoming data.”

Fed officials projected making just one further quarter-point rate cut next year. Economists said that outcome was likely, but that it could shift depending on the Fed’s new leadership next year and the incoming economic data.

“The Fed thinks its policy rate is back in the range of neutral and the growth outlook looks solid, but inflation is still too high,” Elyse Ausenbaugh, Head of Investment Strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, wrote in a commentary. “Pausing cuts makes sense, but there could be renewed pressure and uncertainty in the new year.”

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–Diccon Hyatt

Bitcoin’s Price Is Still Off Its Highs. Did The Fed’s Latest Interest-Rate Cut Help?

1 hr 20 min ago

Bitcoin got some of what it wanted from the Fed on Wednesday. But what’s next?

The price of bitcoin (BTCUSD) climbed toward $94,000 as the Federal Open Market Committee cut its target rate by a quarter percentage point, as widely expected, then handed back a few grand, perhaps a signal of disappointment that the outlook for future cuts wasn’t clearer. Still, the prospect of more accommodative policy ahead may be helping hold crypto off recent lows.

Analysts and investors have been recalibrating their expectations for crypto lately, with the digital assets in the doldrums since the top of October. Now, it seems, the Fed is in the driver’s seat with regard to what’s next for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, which as of today is little-changed for 2025 after a wild run.

Bitcoin “is a bit of a chameleon, because there will probably be a time when it acts like gold, but right now it acts a lot more like it’s sensitive to monetary policy and the business cycle,” Fundstrat Head of Research Tom Lee told CNBC on Wednesday. “Both are about to turn up.”

Standard Chartered, a UK-headquartered bank, cut its year-end bitcoin price target by half in a report published Tuesday—but it’s still bullish, even in the short-term.

It trimmed its year-end target for bitcoin to $100,000 by the end of the year, from $200,000, and its 2026 target to $150,000 from $300,000. The firm characterized bitcoin’s recent 36% drop from peaks as “normal,” but said that price action also pushed it to recalibrate its outlook.

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–Crystal Kim

Eli Lilly Stock Rises After Next-Gen Obesity Drug Trial Results

1 hr 28 min ago

Eli Lilly (LLY) released late-stage trial results for its next-generation obesity drug. Investors appear to like what they heard.

Shares of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant rose 2.5% in premarket trading after it reported “positive topline results” from its Phase 3 trial evaluating “triple hormone receptor agonist” retatrutide, which is expected to follow Lilly’s blockbuster injection Zepbound and an upcoming pill for weight loss.

The trial found that “each dose of retatrutide (9 mg and 12 mg) met all primary and key secondary endpoints, delivering significant weight loss and improvements in pain and physical function at 68 weeks.” The drug’s higher dose helped obese patients with knee osteoarthritis lose an average of 28.7% of their body weight at 68 weeks.

“People with obesity and knee osteoarthritis often live with pain and restricted mobility, and may eventually require total joint replacement. We are encouraged by the results,” said Kenneth Custer, Ph.D., executive vice president and president, Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, who added that “with seven additional Phase 3 readouts expected in 2026, we believe retatrutide could become an important option for patients with significant weight loss needs and certain complications, including knee osteoarthritis.”

Eli Lilly shares entered Thursday having added more than a quarter of their value this year.

Oracle Stock Is Plunging Despite New Commitments From Nvidia and Meta. Here’s Why

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Oracle has some new deals with big AI names. That news wasn’t enough to keep its stock from plummeting late Wednesday after the company released its quarterly results.

The cloud infrastructure giant said Wednesday new agreements with AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) and Meta Platforms (META) helped drive its backlog to a record $523 billion. However, Oracle’s fiscal second-quarter revenue of $16.06 billion, while up 14% from the year-ago period, came in below analysts’ estimates, offsetting better-than-expected adjusted earnings of $2.26 per share.

Oracle (ORCL) shares were down 11% in recent after-hours trading.

Heading into Wednesday night’s results, Wall Street analysts warned Oracle would face a challenging setup, with investors likely to be watching closely for signs demand for Oracle’s AI offerings is broad-based.

The company’s shoutout to heavy AI spender Meta may not have soothed those concerns, and its commitments from Nvidia, which is a big supplier of Oracle’s chips, could underscore worries about circular deals.

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

Stock Futures Point Lower After Indexes Approach Records on Fed Rate Cut

2 hr 18 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed 0.1% lower.

S&P 500 futures declined 0.5%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.8%.