CNBC Daily Open: Investors Remain Optimistic Despite Fed's Hawkish Rate Cut
Federal Reserve Rate Cut: The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, bringing the target range to 3.5%-3.75%, despite some members advocating for rates to remain unchanged. The Fed's projections indicate minimal future cuts, with only one expected in 2026 and another in 2027.
Market Reaction: U.S. markets rose following the Fed's announcement, particularly due to the unexpected decision to purchase $40 billion in Treasury bills, which is seen as a way to ease financial conditions and support market growth.
Economic Outlook: Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy, raising the growth forecast for 2026 from 1.8% to 2.3%, suggesting a positive outlook for the remainder of the year.
Trump's Criticism of Europe: President Trump criticized European leaders as "weak" regarding their response to the war in Ukraine, highlighting tensions as Europe seeks to support Ukraine while feeling sidelined in peace negotiations involving the U.S. and Russia.
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- Contract Value: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Oracle an $88 million firm-fixed price task order to provide Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services for the Air Force Cloud One program, enhancing security and performance across multiple classification levels.
- Cloud One Program: This initiative offers Department of Defense customers the opportunity to leverage OCI, ensuring mission owners can meet boundary protection needs while enhancing overall security through the Secure Cloud Computing Architecture.
- AI Database Utilization: The task order enables users to utilize Oracle AI Database 26ai on OCI to securely combine organization-specific and public information, generating sophisticated answers and autonomously executing actions during agentic AI workflows.
- Project Timeline: Work under this task order will be performed at contractor-designated facilities throughout the United States and is scheduled to run through December 7, 2028, indicating Oracle's long-term collaboration potential within the Defense Information Systems Network.
- CMS Cloud Migration Selection: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has chosen to migrate select on-premises workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as part of an IT modernization effort, which is expected to enhance system performance and scalability while achieving cost efficiencies.
- Technical Support and Migration Planning: Oracle will provide migration planning and technical support to CMS during the transition to the new environment, which not only strengthens Oracle's competitiveness in the federal cloud market but may also attract more government clients.
- Stock Price Volatility and Market Reaction: Although the initial announcement boosted Oracle's stock price, it currently trades below both the 20-day and 100-day simple moving averages, indicating long-term weakness, with a 9.37% decline over the past 12 months.
- Analyst Ratings and Targets: Oracle's stock carries a 'Buy' rating with an average price target of $297.36, and despite the current low stock price, analysts remain optimistic about its growth prospects, suggesting an 87% upside potential worth noting.
- Class Action Initiated: Pomerantz LLP has announced a class action lawsuit against Oracle Corporation, alleging that its executives made false or misleading statements regarding securities fraud and other unlawful business practices, undermining investor confidence.
- Capital Expenditure Risks: The lawsuit claims that Oracle's AI infrastructure strategy will lead to massive increases in capital expenditures without corresponding near-term revenue growth, posing serious risks to the company's financial health.
- Stock Price Volatility: Following analysts downgrading Oracle's rating and setting a $175 price target, Oracle's stock price fell over 5% within days, reflecting market concerns about its future revenue prospects.
- Poor Financial Results: Oracle's financial report for Q2 FY 2026 revealed revenue growth below analyst expectations, capital expenditures exceeding forecasts, and negative free cash flow exceeding $10 billion, further exacerbating investor disappointment.
- Surge in Capital Expenditure: Top hyperscalers are expected to increase capital expenditures by 70% this year, with Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft planning a combined spending of over $600 billion, indicating a strong commitment to AI infrastructure investment.
- Mixed Market Reactions: Despite the significant increase in capital spending, Amazon and Microsoft's shares have dropped 12% and 16% respectively, while Alphabet's stock is down less than 1% and Meta's has risen by 1%, reflecting investor concerns about the timing of returns on these investments.
- Infrastructure Investment Opportunities: With spending accelerating, investors are drawn to
- Lawsuit Background: The Gross Law Firm has issued a notice encouraging shareholders who purchased Oracle Corporation (ORCL) shares between June 12, 2025, and December 16, 2025, to contact them regarding potential lead plaintiff status, indicating significant legal risks for the company.
- Allegations: The lawsuit alleges that Oracle made materially false and misleading statements during this period, failing to disclose that its AI infrastructure strategy would lead to massive capital expenditure increases without corresponding near-term revenue growth, potentially jeopardizing financial stability.
- Financial Risks: The substantial increase in spending has raised serious concerns regarding Oracle's debt and credit rating, as well as its free cash flow and ability to fund projects, exacerbating investor anxiety about the company's financial health.
- Participation Details: Shareholders must register by April 6, 2026, to participate in the class action, and upon registration, they will receive real-time updates on the case's progress, highlighting the urgent need for improved corporate governance and transparency.
- Market Concerns Intensify: Amazon's announcement of a $200 billion investment in AI-related capital expenditures by 2026 has led to a 9% decline in its stock year-to-date, reflecting investor worries about excessive AI spending potentially impacting future profitability.
- Microsoft's Earnings Reaction: Despite reporting a 17% year-over-year revenue increase and a 21% rise in operating income, Microsoft's stock fell 17% due to concerns over its plan to spend over $100 billion on capex this year, indicating market skepticism about its AI investments.
- SaaS Sector Struggles: Software companies like Salesforce and Adobe have seen significant stock price declines as investors fear that advancements in AI will severely disrupt the enterprise software industry, leading to a phenomenon dubbed the








