Expectations for today’s session

No significant momentum is expected to move the broader markets today. The focus shifts to the US CPI report due out tomorrow. Until then, it looks like it will be a waiting period before traders turn their attention to the next central bank meetings later in the week.

Market sentiment remains more cautious after yesterday’s sell-off in the US session. US futures are also more subdued, with S&P 500 futures down slightly by 0.1%. Overall, this leads to a more subdued atmosphere as we begin the European session.

European stocks look set to start the day lower after Chinese stocks erased their gains from the opening, dampening earlier enthusiasm over increased stimulus in the world’s second-largest economy.

Futures show the Euro Stoxx 50 index is likely to snap its eight-day winning streak, its longest winning streak since 2021. The main Chinese stock index jumped as much as 3.3% at the open before losing much of those gains. The Australian dollar weakened after the central bank said inflation risks appeared to be receding.

We are following European software stocks after US company Oracle reported quarterly earnings that were in line with expectations, disappointing investors. They recently pushed the shares to record highs on enthusiasm for the company’s growing cloud business.

We are looking at SAP, Oracle’s competitor in enterprise resource management software.
We are also following other European cloud software providers such as Sage and Dassault Systemes; as well as IT companies such as Capgemini, Netcompany and Sopra Steria.

Second-quarter revenue rose 9% to $14.1 billion; Sales from Oracle’s closely watched cloud infrastructure business jumped 52% to $2.4 billion, in line with analysts’ growth forecasts.

Remaining performance obligations — a measure of reservations made — were $97 billion at the end of the period ended Nov. 30, down from $99.1 billion in the previous quarter.

Revenue growth, cloud sales and profit excluding certain items for the third quarter all missed analysts’ estimates.

Oracle shares fell 7.8% in extended trading.