Oracle’s stock jumps on strong earnings, guidance

Today’s headlines

What’s happening: Shares of Oracle surged in after-hours trading on Tuesday following the release of its results for the fiscal third quarter.

What happened: The tech company reported better-than-expected sales and earnings for the latest quarter.

Oracle also said that the AI datacentre boom could help it record strong revenues till 2027.

How were the results: The Austin, Texas-based company reported double-digit sales growth for the third quarter of fiscal 2026.

• Revenues grew 22% year-over-year to $17.19 billion, topping consensus estimates of $16.91 billion.
• Adjusted earnings surged 21% year-over-year to $1.79 per share, surpassing Wall Street expectations of $1.71 per share.

Why it matters: The latest results from Oracle helped ease market concerns around the ROI (returns on investment) from the company’s costly push into AI computing. The push toward building datacentres for firms like OpenAI and Meta Platforms has helped Oracle gain market share in the booming AI space.

The company’s cloud revenues grew 44%, while software revenues climbed 3% in the fiscal third quarter. Remaining performance obligations (which represent the total value of contracted, yet unfulfilled orders) rose by a whopping 325% year-over-year to $553 billion.

“The demand for cloud computing for AI training and inferencing continues to grow faster than supply. Furthermore, some of the largest consumers of AI Cloud capacity have recently strengthened their financial positions quite substantially. These market dynamics enable Oracle to comfortably meet and likely exceed our revenue growth rate forecast for FY27 and beyond,” Oracle said.

The company’s board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share.

Oracle guided to fiscal fourth quarter revenue growth of 18%-20% year-over-year, with cloud revenue growth of 44%-48%. The company also guided to adjusted earnings of $1.96-$2.00 per share, higher than market estimates of $1.95 per share.

Oracle company projected fiscal 2026 revenue of $67 billion and fiscal 2027 revenues of $90 billion, higher than market estimates of around $87 billion.

How shares responded: Oracle’s shares jumped 8.7% to $162.40 in after-hours trading following the release of quarterly earnings. The stock has lost almost 55% over the past six months.

What to watch: Investors will keep an eye on the AI boom, which is expected to impact the company’s results ahead.

The markets today

The Australian dollar in focus today ahead of inflation data

Context: The Australian dollar surged to its highest level since May 2022 versus the US dollar, amid rising prospects of a rate increase next week.

Details: The Reserve Bank of Australia’s deputy governor indicated that higher crude oil prices are expected to result in elevated inflation, which could increase pressure for an interest rate hike at the upcoming meeting on March 17.

Investors widely expect the RBA to hike interest rates next week. Markets have also priced in a hike of 25 bps in May.

Currently, Australia’s headline inflation stands at 3.8% and is projected to top 4% amid the persistent surge in petrol prices. Core inflation remains higher at 3.4%, significantly above the RBA’s target range of 2%-3%.

Meanwhile, data released on Tuesday showed Australia’s NAB business confidence index fell sharply to -1 in February from 4 in January. Australia’s building permits dipped 7.2% to a 19-month low of 14,564 units, while private house approvals climbed 1.1% to 9,753 units in January.

Weakness in the US dollar lent further support to the AUD/USD forex pair this morning. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance versus a basket of major peers, fell over 0.1% to 98.81.

The AUD/USD pair gained 0.7% to 0.7172 this morning, while the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.4% to 8,727.10.

What to watch: Investors will continue monitoring the ongoing US-Iran war. Data on consumer inflation expectations (0400 UAE Time) from Australia will be released on Wednesday. Australia’s consumer inflation expectations, which accelerated to 5.0% in February from 4.6% in the previous month, are expected to ease to 4.2% in March.

Other Markets: European indices closed higher on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100, DAX 40, CAC 40 and STOXX Europe 600 Index up by 1.59%, 2.39%, 1.79% and 1.88%, respectively.

The news shaping the markets

After a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said that the oil-related sanctions will be waived off for “some countries” to ease global shortage due to the US-Iran war. The news sent the USD/RUB pair higher in forex trading this morning.

Philippines’ net direct investment surged 31.1% year-over-year to $0.6 billion in December, exerting pressure on the USD/PHP forex pair.

Japan’s producer prices climbed 2.0% year-over-year in February, after the previous month’s 2.3% growth, which sent the USD/JPY pair higher in forex trading this morning.

Saudi Arabia’s industrial production grew 10.4% year-over-year in January, compared to a 10.1% gain in the previous month, which exerted slight pressure on the USD/SAR forex pair.

Israel’s economy grew by at an annualised rate of 4.2% in the fourth quarter, slowing from 12.1% in the previous quarter, which sent the USD/ILS pair higher in forex trading this morning.

What else to watch today

Spain’s retail sales (1200 UAE Time), US MBA mortgage applications (1500 UAE Time), inflation rate (1630 UAE Time), EIA crude oil stocks change (1830 UAE Time), EIA gasoline stocks change (1830 UAE Time) and monthly budget statement (2200 UAE Time), India’s M3 money supply (1530 UAE Time), Brazil’s retail sales (1600 UAE Time) as well as Russia’s corporate profits (2000 UAE Time).