Small Biz Positive, New Jobs Revisions & Oracle Earnings On Deck

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Pre-market futures continue their upward drift this morning, after closing politely higher Monday and setting a new all-time closing high on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. The Dow is up another +37 points at this hour, the S&P 500 is +6 points and the Nasdaq is +45 to 23,851. Only the small-cap Russell 2000 is down a marginal -0.4 points at this hour, though it leads the major indexes over the last five trading days.

We’re not seeing a ton of new data out ahead of the opening bell — certainly nothing like last week’s Jobs Week — but we do look forward to Apple’s AAPL release of the iPhone 17 later today. Expectations there for are an ultra-thin model and some charging/battery upgrades, but not much in the way of AI technology.
 

Small-Business Optimism Ticks Higher

Early this morning, the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for August came in half a point higher to 100.8, remaining above the 52-year average of 98.0. Over two-thirds of small business owners find conditions to be either excellent (+14%) or good (+54%), while only 4% think they are poor. Labor Quality was the top problem among small business owners in the survey, with 32% having open jobs they are unable to fill.

FuelCell Energy Beats Estimates in Q3

Small-cap renewable energy server FuelCell Energy FCEL posted big positive surprises in its fiscal Q3 report out this morning, reporting a loss of -95 cents per share for a +40% beat, on revenues of $46.7 million, which amounts to +97% sales growth year over year. Shares are up +2.6% in pre-market trading, though still down -50% year to date. 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Today

Aside from the aforementioned Apple news on the updated iPhone, a year’s worth of jobs revisions from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is expected after today’s open. These adjustments will take into account all BLS employment tallies from April 2024 to March 2025. Analysts anticipate revisions to be in the several hundreds of thousands.

Recall a year ago, only weeks ahead of the 2024 General Election: BLS jobs revisions came in a whopping -818K, adjusting downward the accomplishments of the labor market over the prior year. This year, BLS reports have entered the political realm thanks to President Trump’s suggestion that previous jobs numbers were not “real.” So aside from whatever the BLS finds, expect commentary from the White House today, as well.

We also look forward to fiscal Q1 earnings from Oracle ORCL after today’s close. Expectations are for +5.76% earnings growth to $1.47 per share in the quarter, on +12.8% revenue growth from a year ago to $15.01 billion. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) Oracle is looking for its second-straight earnings beat, following two quarters of slight misses.

Also reporting earnings this afternoon are microchip designer Synopsys SNPS and meme-stock extraordinaire GameStop GME. GameStop is projected to bring in huge +1800% positive earnings growth, while Synopsys expects a mere +12% in earnings growth year over year.

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