Updates with end of trading session
Boeing shares fall after Air India plane crash
Oracle up after raising its annual revenue forecast
By Noel Randewich, Sukriti Gupta
June 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended higher on Thursday after a strong outlook from Oracle fueled optimism around artificial intelligence, offsetting worries about tension in the Middle East and a drop in Boeing shares.
Oracle ORCL.N surged to record highs after the cloud service provider raised its annual revenue growth forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-related services.
Heavyweight tech companies Microsoft MSFT.O, Nvidia NVDA.O and Broadcom
"Oracle is another piece in the mosaic of AI capex spending and the ongoing need for more compute that feeds into the AI revolution," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. "When the winds blow in that direction, you're definitely going to see the key players like Microsoft and Nvidia also catch that tailwind."
Boeing
Signs of rising tensions in the Middle East also weighed on global markets.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that U.S. personnel were being moved out of the region as it could be a "dangerous place" and the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Officials from both countries are scheduled to meet in Oman on Sunday for a sixth round of nuclear talks.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 23.19 points, or 0.39%, to end at 6,045.43 points, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 46.28 points, or 0.24%, to 19,662.16. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 103.16 points, or 0.24%, to 42,968.93.
U.S.-listed shares of gold miners also advanced, as bullion prices hit a one-week high.
With Thursday's gain, the S&P 500 remains down about 2% from its February record high.
Softer-than-expected producer price data and initial jobless claims numbers pointing to a potential weakening in the labor market helped reduce investor jitters around tariff-driven price pressures, while also boosting expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
Traders project a 60% chance of a 25-basis-point cut by September, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Fed policymakers are widely expected to keep rates unchanged at next week's policy meeting.
With investors expecting Trump to reach trade agreements with several countries in the coming weeks, the benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX is about 2% below its February record high.
Goldman Sachs trimmed its U.S. recession probability to 30% from 35% on easing uncertainty around Trump's tariff policies.
S&P 500's forward PE ticks higher https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjjzqjevr/Pasted%20image%201749751206116.png
(Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Matthew Lewis)
((Kanchana.Chakravarty@thomsonreuters.com;))
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