Volatile Oracle shares a proxy for Wall Street’s AI jitters

For a reading of Wall Street’s shifting mood on the artificial intelligence investment boom, take a look at the daily fluctuations of Oracle stock, analysts say.Shares of the software giant slumped more than five percent Wednesday following a news report of financing troubles with one of the company’s giant AI projects.But they recovered on Thursday and finished up around one percent at $180.03 as tech companies rallied following blowout results from Micron Technology, another big AI player.”Oracle is probably the poster child” for the AI investment boom, said B. Riley Wealth Management’s Art Hogan, who points to questions about “circular financing” arrangements that have made Oracle and OpenAI dependent on each other for billions of dollars in business.On Thursday, Oracle — along with Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX — was also named in a new deal with TikTok, according to an internal memo seen by AFP from the social media company’s CEO Shou Chew. “The US joint venture will be responsible for US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance,” Chew said in the memo. The deal would allow TikTok to maintain US operations and avoid a ban threat over its Chinese ownership.Oracle stock rose more than five percent to $190.81 in after-hours trading on Thursday.The firm’s stock peaked at $345.72 in September after it unveiled a massive inventory of AI work, a surge that briefly vaulted co-founder Larry Ellison above Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the world’s wealthiest person.But its shares have since fallen more than 45 percent as investors have begun to question the risk of AI infrastructure overbuilding and scrutinized the financing of individual projects.Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump, is currently fifth on the Forbes real-time billionaire list with $230 billion.- Michigan project ‘limbo’ -This week’s gyrations in Oracle shares followed a Financial Times story Wednesday that described a $10 billion AI data center project in Michigan as “in limbo” after a key partner declined to join the project.The company, Blue Owl Capital, a backer of other major Oracle projects, pulled back after other lenders pushed for stricter terms “amid shifting market sentiment around enormous AI spending,” said the FT, which cited people familiar with the matter.Oracle, which is taking on billions of dollars of debt in the building spree, described the FT story as “incorrect.””Our development partner, Related Digital, selected the best equity partner from a competitive group of options, which in this instance was not Blue Owl,” said Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert.”Final negotiations for their equity deal are moving forward on schedule and according to plan.”OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said the Chat GPT-maker has committed to some $1.4 trillion in investments in AI computing, with some $300 billion reportedly going to Oracle. But AI stocks have been volatile in recent weeks as the market scrutinizes the profit outlook for the data centers.”Investors are starting to ask questions about the sustainability of the AI trade and the profitability,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.The enthusiasm for AI “makes sense” when considering that manufacturing and services companies could see profits enhanced by the technology, Sosnick said, before pointing to doubts over lofty AI equity valuations.Oracle’s price drop on Wednesday followed a selloff last week after the firm’s quarterly results sparked worry over its massive capital spending.Analysts bullish on the stock have emphasized its huge growth potential with the AI boom.On Thursday, Morningstar trimmed its price target on Oracle to $277 from $286, pointing to greater uncertainty around the projects.Oracle’s elevated debt “leaves little room for error, meaning the new data centers have to generate cash flow as soon as possible to service debt and lease obligations,”  Morningstar said in a note. “However, we view recent events, including delays in some data centers’ completion dates, as minor setbacks that should not alter Oracle’s overall capacity ramp-up.”

Japan hikes interest rates to 30-year-high

The Bank of Japan hiked interest rates to a 30-year high on Friday and indicated more were in the pipeline as it said the economy had shown signs of improvement.The unanimous vote to lift the main borrowing rate to 0.75 percent from 0.5 percent came hours after official data showed the country’s core inflation rate held steady in November but still well above policymakers’ two percent target.The yen weakened slightly against the dollar after the widely expected announcement, which puts rates at their highest since 1995.”Japan’s economy has recovered moderately,” bank officials wrote in a report explaining the decision. “While uncertainties remain regarding the US economy and the impact of trade policy in each jurisdiction, these uncertainties have declined.”As long as economic activity and prices continued to improve, they added, the bank would “continue to raise the policy interest rate and adjust the degree of monetary accommodation”.While Friday’s increase was widely anticipated by analysts, “the board’s hawkish messaging suggests that the tightening cycle has further to run”, said Abhijit Surya of Capital Economics.”Our own view is that the incoming data are more likely than not to surprise to the upside of the BoJ’s expectations,” Surya added, forecasting rates will reach 1.75 percent in 2027.Yields on Japanese government bonds have spiked in recent weeks on worries about Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s budget discipline, while the yen has weakened.On Friday the yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond rose to 2.01 percent, its highest since 1999.The core consumer price index — which excludes volatile fresh food — came in at three percent in November, the same rate as the previous month and in line with expectations. However, it is well above the BoJ’s two percent goal, as it has been for some time.Takaichi, who formally took power in October, has made fighting inflation a major priority.Her government this week succeeded in getting parliament approval for an extra budget worth 18.3 trillion yen ($118 billion) to finance a massive stimulus package.She has long advocated for more government spending and loose monetary policy to spur growth.Since taking office, however, she has said monetary policy decisions should be left to the BoJ.The bank began hiking rates from below zero in March last year as figures signalled an end to the country’s “lost decades” of stagnation, with inflation surging.However, with worries about the global outlook and US tariffs growing, it paused, with the last increase in January taking rates to their highest level in 17 years.The inflation figures for November showed rice prices jumped 37 percent year-on-year, the internal affairs ministry said. The cost of the grain has skyrocketed because of supply problems linked to a very hot summer in 2023 and panic-buying after a “megaquake” warning last year, amongst other factors.Japan’s economy contracted 0.6 percent in the third quarter, but BoJ governor Kazuo Ueda said last week that the impact of US tariffs was less than feared.”So far, US corporates have swallowed the burden of tariffs without fully passing (them) through to consumer prices,” he told the Financial Times.

Brown University shooting suspect found dead

A man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor has been found dead after a days-long manhunt, authorities said Thursday. The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, was a 48-year-old Portuguese national who had once studied physics at Brown, officials announced at press conferences in Providence and Boston.There was no immediate indication of a motive in the twin shootings at two of the top universities in the United States, which rattled the elite New England campuses.The shooter’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two firearms. He died by suicide, Providence police chief Oscar Perez said.Neves Valente, who had been a permanent US resident since 2017, is believed to have acted alone.”Tonight, our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little bit easier,” Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters.On December 13, the shooter burst into a building at Brown, an Ivy League school in Rhode Island, where students were taking exams, and opened fire, killing two and wounding nine.The victims were Ella Cook, vice president of Brown’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement late Thursday.Then on December 15, Nuno Loureiro — a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — was fatally shot in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.For days, investigators appeared to have little to go on, releasing images of a person of interest and an individual who was seen standing near that person in an effort to trace them.Officials had given daily media updates at which they voiced increasing frustration with the fruitless manhunt.But then the case blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence…led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, federal prosecutor Leah Foley, the US attorney for Massachusetts, explained how Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking, but eventually the pieces started falling into place.Authorities initially detained a different man in connection with the shooting but later released him.The university has faced questions, including from President Donald Trump, about its security arrangements after it emerged that none of its 1,200 security cameras were linked to the police’s surveillance system.There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.”Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last weekend’s gun violence,” said Paxson, Brown’s president.”Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing.”

Attentat de Bondi: le gouvernement lance un programme de rachats d’armes

Le Premier ministre australien Anthony Albanese a annoncé vendredi un vaste programme de rachat d’armes à feu à la suite de l’attentat antisémite de la plage de Bondi, où les surfeurs se sont joints aux hommages qui se multiplient depuis la tuerie la plus meurtrière depuis des décennies dans le pays. Des centaines de surfeurs et nageurs se sont massés pour former un cercle géant dans les vagues de cette plage de Sydney emblématique du mode de vie australien, en attendant une journée de recueillement observée dimanche, une semaine après l’attaque.Deux assaillants, Sajid Akram (abattu lors de l’attaque) et son fils Naveed Akram sont accusés d’avoir tué 15 personnes et blessé des dizaines d’autres dimanche lors d’une fête juive, un acte antisémite et motivé par l’idéologie du groupe jihadiste État islamique, selon les autorités.Face au choc, le gouvernement, après avoir annoncé un durcissement de la législation contre l’extrémisme, a annoncé vendredi un programme de rachat des armes à feu en circulation.Faisant référence aux six armes détenues légalement par Sajid Akram, Anthony Albanese a martelé qu’il “n’y a aucune raison pour qu’une personne vivant dans la banlieue de Sydney ait besoin d’autant d’armes à feu”.Les autorités promettent d’indemniser les propriétaires d’armes à feu qui rendraient “les armes à feu superflues, récemment interdites et illégales”.Il s’agirait de la plus grande opération de rachat d’armes à feu dans le pays-continent depuis celle menée après la tuerie de 1996 sur l’île de Tasmanie (sud). Un homme de 28 ans avait ouvert le feu sur la foule à Port Arthur, un site touristique, tuant 35 personnes. En une année, les autorités australiennes avaient ainsi récupéré 600.000 armes remises par leurs propriétaires. – “Faire renaître l’espoir” -Le Premier ministre a également annoncé la tenue d’une journée de recueillement dans tout le pays dimanche, appelant la population à allumer des bougies à 18H47 (07H47 GMT), exactement une semaine après le lancement de l’assaut. Ce sera “un moment pour faire une pause, réfléchir et affirmer que la haine et la violence ne définiront jamais qui nous sommes en tant qu’Australiens”, a déclaré M. Albanese, qui a précisé qu’une journée de deuil national se tiendrait par ailleurs l’année prochaine.Sur la plage de Bondi, les locaux n’ont pas attendu ces annonces pour se recueillir. “Ils ont massacré des victimes innocentes, et aujourd’hui, je nage là-bas et je retrouve ma communauté pour faire renaître l’espoir”, explique à l’AFP Jason Carr, 53 ans, consultant en sécurité, parmi les centaines de personnes réunies vendredi matin, en maillot de bain et planche de surf sous le bras.”Être ensemble est une façon très importante d’essayer de faire face à ce qui se passe”, estime Carole Schlessinger, 58 ans, directrice d’une association caritative, qui se dit “extrêmement en colère”, “furieuse” face aux évènements. Boris et Sofia Gurman, un couple de résidents de Bondi abattus dimanche alors qu’ils tentaient de freiner les tireurs, a été inhumé vendredi matin dans un funérarium juif. “Ils ont affronté les derniers instants de leur vie avec courage, altruisme et amour”, a assuré le rabbin Yehoram Ulman aux personnes venues rendre hommage. “Ils étaient, dans tous les sens du terme, des héros.”- État d’alerte -Sydney reste en état d’alerte maximale depuis l’attaque. Jeudi soir, un groupe de policiers d’intervention a arrêté sept hommes après un signalement selon lequel un “acte violent était peut-être en préparation”, a indiqué la police. Le commissaire de police Mal Lanyon a précisé qu’il n’y avait aucun lien établi avec les auteurs présumés de l’attentat de Bondi. Les enquêteurs cherchent toutefois à déterminer s’ils partageaient les mêmes opinions “islamistes radicales” que les assaillants de l’attaque sur la plage.Naveed Akram, maçon au chômage de 24 ans, est accusé d’actes de terrorisme, de 15 meurtres et de dizaines d’autres crimes.La police australienne enquête pour savoir si le duo père-fils a rencontré des extrémistes islamistes lors d’un voyage aux Philippines quelques semaines avant l’attentat, dans la région de Mindanao (sud) où se trouvent des foyers d’insurrection islamiste.

‘Took too long’: Trump supporters wait for Epstein files

In Phoenix, at a meeting of an influential conservative organization, supporters of US President Donald Trump say they are keenly awaiting the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.As a Friday deadline looms for the Justice Department to publish the trove of documents related to the convicted sex offender, some were impatient, while others were eager to see Trump’s name cleared.”I think it took too long,” Mike Costarell, 58, told AFP at AmericaFest 2025, Turning Point USA’s first major event since the September killing of founder Charlie Kirk.”I think it’s important anybody that sexualizes children should be accountable for their acts. And I don’t care what side of the political aisle or how rich they are,” he said.Epstein, convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution, died in custody in 2019 awaiting trial for sex crimes against minors.For years, Trump and his acolytes stoked lurid conspiracy theories that powerful Democrats were hiding the truth about his crimes to prevent embarrassing revelations, and called for the release of all files related to the case.But since taking office in January, the Republican president — who benefitted from Kirk’s efforts to rally young voters to his camp — has repeatedly demanded the nation move on, dismissing the matter as a “hoax.”Last month, a rare bipartisan effort in Congress forced him to sign a law requiring his administration to release the case file by the end of Friday.For Georgia student Gwyn Andrews, Trump’s reluctance to release the documents was baffling, but she is hopeful the president’s name will be finally cleared.”I’m glad that it’s finally happening,” she told AFP at AmericaFest.”Kudos to Trump for finally getting it out. It scares some Republicans who voted for him to now know that he kind of changed his gears. “But we’re glad that it’s back on track, and I hope that will bring a lot of transparency to the deep state and to DC.”- New names in files? -The four-day AmericaFest — which will hear from many of the luminaries of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement — is an opportunity to test the waters among the faithful at a time that wider public trust in Trump is flagging, according to opinion polls.Despite a well-documented friendship with Epstein that includes multiple photos of the two men together over a number of years, many of those present expressed little doubt in Trump’s narrative that the files are a red herring.Photographs released Thursday showed Epstein with figures including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, linguist Noam Chomsky and filmmaker Woody Allen.None of the photos had any context and none showed any criminal activity.”I don’t expect it’ll be some earth shattering,… but I believe that people will be on that list that people don’t assume” said Jacob Ellison, a 24-year-old Texan.”I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Republicans and Democrats alike on that list when it is released.”As for Trump’s involvement with Epstein, Ellison said: “They do say he’s close to people, but I don’t know. “I like to believe that he’s a family man. He holds certain values, and so that’s what I’m shooting for.”

L’accord UE-Mercosur reporté en janvier, von der Leyen confiante

La présidente de la Commission européenne, Ursula von der Leyen, s’est dite vendredi “confiante” de parvenir à signer l’accord commercial avec les pays du Mercosur en janvier, après un report provoqué par la France et l’Italie sur fond de mobilisation agricole.Ce report n’est “pas suffisant” pour la FNSEA, le premier syndicat agricole français, qui a appelé ses adhérents à rester mobilisés, car “le Mercosur, c’est toujours NON!”.Négocié depuis plus de 25 ans, ce traité de libre-échange permettrait notamment à l’UE d’exporter davantage de voitures, machines, vins et spiritueux en Argentine, au Brésil, au Paraguay et en Uruguay.Dans le sens inverse, il faciliterait l’entrée en Europe de viande, sucre, riz, miel et soja sud-américains, ce qui alarme les filières concernées.Le président brésilien Lula avait ouvert la voie à ce report, après un échange téléphonique avec Giorgia Meloni. La cheffe du gouvernement italien lui a demandé de la “patience”, tout en assurant que l’Italie soutiendrait l’accord in fine, a-t-il relaté.- “Interminable” -Ce délai supplémentaire est un revers pour la Commission européenne, l’Allemagne et l’Espagne qui poussaient pour une signature dans les prochains jours.Ce ne sera pas “réglé cette année, mais il semble désormais presque certain que cela va se faire”, nuance une source gouvernementale allemande, qui vise une signature “mi-janvier”, car l’Italie sera cette fois “à bord”.La puissante fédération allemande de l’industrie chimique et pharmaceutique (VCI) a quant à elle fait part de sa “frustration” face à une “interminable partie de bras de fer”.L’exécutif européen espérait parapher ce traité de libre-échange samedi au Brésil. Mais Ursula von der Leyen avait besoin au préalable de l’aval d’une majorité qualifiée d’Etats membres à Bruxelles, dont l’ont privée la France et l’Italie notamment.A l’issue du sommet, Emmanuel Macron a demandé que le texte “change de nature”, avec davantage de garanties pour les agriculteurs. Il a réclamé en parallèle “le maintien des revenus de nos agriculteurs dans la future” politique agricole commune (PAC). Le président français n’exclut pas d’accepter l’accord en janvier, mais il est “trop tôt pour le dire”.- Lacrymogènes et vitres brisées -En marge de ce sommet européen entre chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement jeudi à Bruxelles, des milliers d’agriculteurs sont venus faire entendre leur colère.Avec pneus en feu, jets de pommes de terre et de projectiles auxquels ont répondu des canons à eau et des tirs de gaz lacrymogènes de la police. La situation a été particulièrement tendue autour des institutions européennes, protégées par un important dispositif policier.Selon la police belge, 7.300 personnes, avec une cinquantaine de tracteurs, ont pris part à la manifestation autorisée, principalement dans le calme.Mais 950 tracteurs supplémentaires s’étaient massés dans le quartier européen, engorgeant plusieurs rues.Des personnes masquées ont brisé en outre plusieurs vitres d’un bâtiment du Parlement, a constaté l’AFP.Mercosur, taxes sur les engrais, réforme de la Politique agricole commune (PAC): les sujets de mécontentement sont nombreux, ont rappelé plusieurs manifestants.Le Mercosur? “C’est de la concurrence déloyale, ils vont importer des produits, traités avec des choses que nous, on n’a pas le droit d’utiliser. (…) On nous ramène des poulets de merde”, fustigeait la Française Florence Pellissier, 47 ans, agricultrice de grande culture (betterave, maïs, colza) en Seine-et-Marne près de Paris.”On a l’impression qu’aujourd’hui, Ursula (von der Leyen) veut passer en force”, a aussi dénoncé Maxime Mabille, producteur laitier belge.”Notre fin = votre faim”, résumait un slogan peint sur un cercueil noir. De nombreux agriculteurs européens reprochent aux pays du Mercosur de ne pas respecter les réglementations environnementales et sociales auxquelles eux-mêmes sont soumis.Ces inquiétudes s’ajoutent à celles sur la réforme des subventions de la PAC, que la Commission européenne est accusée de vouloir “diluer” dans le budget européen.Pour les agriculteurs français, la gestion par le gouvernement Lecornu de l’épizootie de la dermatose nodulaire contagieuse (DNC) vient encore amplifier le mécontentement.