S&P 500 Hits Record High as Tech Lifts Market in Mixed Tuesday Session

The stock market closed mixed on Tuesday, with S&P 500 hitting a fresh record as gains in technology shares helped lift the index. It went up 0.4% to 6,979, while NASDAQ climbed 0.9% to 23,817.

Despite the advances, some investors stayed cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties.

Chart of the Day

Here is the one-year chart of Oracle (ORCL) as of December 22, 2025, when the stock was at $198.

Oracle has become a big player in AI data centers, as its backlog of booked but yet to be billed revenue has ballooned at a startling rate the past two quarters.

Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) is the term used for short-term forward looking revenue for services that are yet to be delivered. During the past three quarters, backlog (RPO) has gone from $138 billion to $455 billion and now $523 billion, driven by contracts signed with OpenAI, Meta, NVIDIA and others.

To put this into perspective, Oracle did $57 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year, and now has a backlog around 10x that. Management made it clear that demand is not an issue, the challenge is building capacity fast enough to deliver already-signed contracts. Management said Oracle will fund this expansion using a mix of traditional debt, customer-supplied hardware, and supplier chip-leasing arrangements where chips are rented instead or purchased, which reduces upfront capital needs.

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