Wall Street Futures Rise After CPI as Oracle Gains on Strong Results

Key Facts

U.S. equity futures held their gains after Friday's inflation report, while Oracle rose in premarket trading following strong quarterly results. At 08:35 a.m. Eastern Time, S&P 500 futures were up 0.6%, Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.7%, and Dow futures advanced 0.7%.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% month on month in August, up from 0.1% in July, while annual inflation held at 3.4%. The reading gives investors an updated measure of price pressures relevant to rate expectations and yield-sensitive assets.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3% from the previous month after a 0.2% rise in July and slowed to 2.4% year on year. Gasoline prices jumped 3.9% during the month, while the broader energy component rose 2.1%, showing how fuel costs contributed to the faster headline increase.

On the corporate side, Oracle reported that fiscal 2027 first-quarter revenue increased 30% to $19.3 billion. Cloud revenue rose 62% to $11.6 billion, while cloud infrastructure, or IaaS, revenue surged 121% to $7.4 billion.

Oracle's GAAP earnings reached $1.56 per share, and its non-GAAP earnings were $1.92 per share. Remaining performance obligations climbed to $664 billion after Oracle booked more than $30 billion of additional AI cloud contracts during the quarter.

Oracle now expects at least $90 billion of revenue and non-GAAP earnings of $8.10 per share for fiscal 2027. Free cash flow was negative $5 billion in the quarter, however, leaving the conversion of its large contract backlog into revenue and cash generation as the next issue for investors to monitor.