New York, Feb 27, 2026, 17:54 EST — After-hours
- Oracle shares fell in after-hours trade, tracking a late-month pullback in tech.
- Hotter U.S. wholesale inflation data kept rate-cut hopes in check.
- Traders are eyeing next week’s U.S. jobs report and Oracle’s mid-March earnings window.
Oracle Corp shares were down 4.6% in after-hours trading on Friday, last at $145.40, after swinging between $138.62 and $147.23 during the session.
The drop comes as Wall Street closes out a bruising February for growth and AI-linked stocks, with investors still debating how fast big data-center spending turns into profits. 1
A fresh inflation jolt added pressure. U.S. producer prices — a wholesale gauge — rose more than expected in January, reinforcing the view that the Federal Reserve can wait before cutting rates. 2
Oracle’s own headlines over the last two days leaned toward product messaging, not numbers. The company said on Thursday it extended and expanded its title partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing, highlighting an “AI-powered strategy agent” it expects to deploy trackside in 2026, with CEO Clay Magouyrk saying Oracle’s cloud and AI are built for “time-critical challenges.” 3
On Wednesday, Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz upgraded Oracle to “outperform” with a $185 price target, calling the stock an “upper-echelon growth play for cheap” after a steep selloff tied to concerns about funding and the pace of returns in AI infrastructure. 4
That debate is not going away. Oracle said earlier this month it expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 using a mix of debt and equity to build out cloud capacity for large customers, and warned that changes in customer timing or funding, as well as data-center build issues, could shift its near-term capital needs. 5
Oracle also moved with enterprise software peers on a risk-off day for the group, with investors rotating away from pricier tech names into more defensive corners of the market. 6
Still, the downside case for Oracle remains straightforward: if capital markets tighten further or big cloud customers slow commitments, the company’s heavy buildout could look more like a balance-sheet story than a revenue story, and the stock can stay hostage to rates.
For the week ahead, traders will be watching whether the next U.S. jobs report reignites the rates argument — and whether AI-linked names can find a floor after February’s volatility. 7
The next clean catalyst is inflation and the Fed: the U.S. PCE price index is due March 13, and the Fed’s next policy meeting runs March 17-18, while Oracle says its fiscal third-quarter results are due in mid-March. 8
