- Shares of Oracle (ORCL) fell in early trading after the company reported a jump in spending on AI data centers and other equipment, rising outlays that are taking longer to translate into cloud revenue than investors want. Fiscal second-quarter cloud sales increased 34% to $7.98 billion, while revenue in the company’s closely watched infrastructure business gained 68% to $4.08 billion. Both numbers fell just short of analysts’ estimates. Known for its database software, Oracle has recently found success in the competitive cloud computing market. It’s engaging in a massive data center build-out to power AI work for OpenAI and also counts companies such as ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc. as major cloud customers. - Shares of Gemini Space Station Inc. (GEMI) rallied after the company's application for a derivatives exchange was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Wednesday, in a move that will allow the company to join the fast-growing field of prediction markets. Gemini, co-founded by billionaire twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, will soon allow existing US customers to trade event contracts on its website and mobile app, the company said in a blog post. In a regulatory filing prior to its initial public offering, the firm included prediction markets on “economic, financial, political and sports forecasts” among the list of products it was interested in trading. - Shares of Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) jumped in the premarket session after the company's next-generation obesity shot helped patients lose almost a quarter of their body weight, potentially making the experimental drug the most potent weight loss medicine yet. The late-stage study was designed to measure weight loss and pain associated with knee osteoarthritis, a condition closely linked to obesity. Patients on the highest dose of the drug — called retatrutide — lost more than 23% of their body weight in 68 weeks, Lilly said in a statement Thursday. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
