Post-Bell｜S&P 500 And Nasdaq Notch Record-High Closes; Oracle Surged 36%; Klarna Up 15%; Synopsys Plunged 36%

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched record-high closes on Wednesday, as Oracle surged and cooler-than-expected inflation data supported expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.

Market Snapshot

The S&P 500 climbed 0.30% to end the session at 6,532.04 points, closing with a record high for the second straight day. The Nasdaq gained 0.03% to 21,886.06 points for its third consecutive record-high close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.48% to 45,490.92 points.

Market Movers

Klarna Group plc climbed 15%. The Swedish fintech made its trading debut on Wednesday, when a total of 34.3 million shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR. The stock opened at $52, or 30% above the $40 a share Klarna's underwriters priced on Tuesday evening.

Oracle surged 36%. While the software company missed Wall Street's targets for quarterly earnings and revenue, it reported a significant increase in its backlog of contracted work, signaling intense demand for renting artificial-intelligence servers in the cloud. Fellow AI cloud company CoreWeave rose 17%, AI chip maker Advanced Micro Devices gained 2.4%, and networking-equipment company Arista Networks was up 6.2%. Palantir Technologies also got a boost on the back of Oracle's earnings, rising 2.7%.

GameStop jumped 3.3%. The videogame retailer posted fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $972.2 million after the closing bell Tuesday.

Synopsys plunged 36% after the chip design software company reported weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue for its fiscal third quarter, and issued mixed guidance for the current quarter. Synopsys said it expects adjusted earnings of $2.78 a share on sales of $2.25 billion, compared with analysts' calls for $4.50 a share on sales of $2 billion.

Wolfspeed sank 19% after ending the session up 48% on Tuesday. The company said Monday that its reorganization plan had been approved in bankruptcy court, and it planned to emerge from Chapter 11 protection "in the next several weeks."

Shares of Wearable Devices, the maker of AI-powered touchless wristbands, soared 408% after the company said its loss per share had narrowed to $2.30 from $16.52 in the first half of the year. However, revenue also fell to $294,000 from $394,000 a year ago.

AeroVironment was up 7%. The defense contractor raised its profit outlook for the year after revenue more than doubled in its fiscal first quarter. Earlier this week, the company said it had received a nearly $240 million order for long-haul laser communications terminals.

Shares of Rubrik Inc. fell 18%, even after the data-security company reported a considerably narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and revenue topped forecasts. Rubrik posted an adjusted loss of 3 cents a share, narrower than the 35-cent loss Wall Street had expected. Revenue rose 51% to $310 million in the quarter, handily beating the $282.2 million analysts anticipated.

Chewy, Inc. declined 17%. The online pet-products retailer posted second-quarter earnings of 33 cents a share, in line with Wall Street forecasts, and sales of $3.1 billion that beat the $3.08 billion consensus estimate among analysts polled by FactSet. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $12.5 billion to $12.6 billion, up from $12.3 billion to $12.45 billion.

Market News

Barclays, Deutsche Bank raise S&P 500 forecasts as bull run continues

Barclays and Deutsche Bank raised their year-end targets for the S&P 500 on Wednesday, citing stronger corporate earnings, resilient U.S. economic growth and optimism around artificial intelligence.

Deutsche Bank increased its target to 7,000 from 6,550, while Barclays raised its forecast to 6,450 from 6,050.

Trump says Fed chair Powell should make big rate cut now

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reiterated his call for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut benchmark interest rates.

"Just out: No Inflation!!! “Too Late” must lower the RATE, BIG, right now. Powell is a total disaster, who doesn’t have a clue!!!, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The post follows federal government data that showed U.S. producer prices slipped in August.