Oracle’s quarterly results topped Wall Street’s expectations late Tuesday, but traders appeared inclined to sell first and ask questions later.
Oracle’s sales were up 20% year-over-year to $5.83 billion, well ahead of $5.59 billion estimates, and pro forma earnings of 37 cents a share were two cents better than expected. What’s more, new software licenses were up 17% to $2.5 billion, an important indicator of future growth that also exceeded expectations.
The database and applications software company cited acquisitions and market share gains against SAP and IBM
for the strong performance.
Still, the stock lost 1% after hours, capping a tough day for stocks that saw credit market worries undo another early rally.
Apple slipped ahead of its much anticipated iPhone launch, but AT&T
edged higher on hopes that the iPhone will be good for business.
American Software surged on its results.
Parametric gained on a Goldman Sachs upgrade, while Adobe
fell on a downgrade from the Wall Street firm.
Ixys and SCM Micro
fell on warnings, while LivePerson
lost ground on an acquisition.
The Nasdaq lost 3 to 2574, the S&P 500 fell 5 to 1493, and the Dow slipped 14 to 13,337. Volume declined to 3.33 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.1 billion on the Nasdaq. Declining issues led by a 20-11 margin on the NYSE, and 16-13 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 69% on the NYSE, and 60% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 54-128 on the NYSE, and 88-100 on the Nasdaq.