Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and making news.
Oracle is the standout earnings story today, with shares climbing seven percent after the enterprise software giant reported one hundred twenty one percent cloud growth and held its fiscal twenty twenty seven capital expenditure forecast steady at between ninety and ninety five billion dollars. That spending commitment, aimed squarely at AI infrastructure, is reassuring investors who had worried management might blink.
Shifting to commodities, corn futures are catching a bid ahead of Friday's USDA report, with the national cash price up roughly three and a half cents to four dollars eighty four and a half. Traders are squaring positions after Wednesday's weakness, and the ethanol production data out of the EIA is lending modest support. The USDA number will be the real test.
And on the ride-sharing front, Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says consumers should expect lower fares, crediting savings from last week's layoff of roughly three thousand three hundred corporate employees alongside reduced insurance costs. The company cut about ten percent of its white-collar workforce, and management is signaling those savings flow directly to price competitiveness rather than straight to the bottom line.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
