Oracle, AI Stocks Put a Dent in Sentiment

Tech valuation concerns have reared their ugly head once again, just one day after the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut gave the market a lift. AI giant Oracle (ORCL) is plummeting premarket, down 13.2% at last check, after a fiscal second-quarter revenue miss and disappointing forecasts, dragging the rest of the sector with it. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are down triple digits, while Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) futures sit quietly on either side of breakeven. 

Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims surged 44,000 after the Thanksgiving holiday, coming in at 236,000 for last week compared to analysts' anticipated 222,000. 

• Analyst favorite hit record highs before earnings. 
• Why AppLovin stock could hit a new record.
• Plus, another weight-loss drug emerges; GEMI surges; and Truist praises Visa. 

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange saw over 1.8 million call contracts and more than 1 million put contracts exchanged on Wednesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.59, while the 21-day moving average remained at 0.58.
2. Eli Lilly & Co (NYSE:LLY) stock is up 1.1% premarket, after the drugmaker's next-generation weight-loss drug retatrutide delivered an impressive 28.7% weight loss in a phase 3 trial, also reducing knee arthritis pain. LLY recently pulled back from its late-November record highs but is still up 28.7% year to date. 
3. Gemini Space Station Inc (NASDAQ:GEMI) stock is 12.7% higher ahead of the open, after the cryptocurrency exchange secured a license to offer prediction markets to U.S. clients. Publicly traded since mid September, GEMI is looking to remove itself from its early-December record low. 
4. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) stock is up 1.3% in electronic trading, after the credit card giant was named one of Truist's favorites for 2026. Coming into today, the equity is down 3% since the start of 2025. 
5. See what's coming up during the last full week of December. 

Overseas Markets Unpack Stateside Rate Cut

Asian markets settled in the red, as stateside interest rate cut news circulated and Chinese telecommunications stock ZTE plunged on news it could owe the U.S. government $1 billion for bribery allegations. For the session, Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.9%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched 0.04% lower, China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.7%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.6% for its third-straight loss.

Stocks in Europe are moving higher, as investors digest news out of the U.S. and Switzerland, with the latter leaving rates unchanged. The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) are also in focus, with their respective inflation updates due out on Dec. 18. At last check, London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.08%, France’s CAC 40 is 0.5% higher, and Germany’s DAX is up 0.2%.