Stock Market Live December 19: S&P 500 (SPY) Still Riding Oversold Tech Rebound

Markets are mixed.

At the moment, the S&P 500 is up about three points. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which saw a gain of $5.07 yesterday, is down slightly this morning. The Dow is down about 45 points, as the Nasdaq tacks on another 26 points.

After yesterday’s Micron-induced tech rally, Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) is giving markets a boost. All on news TikTok agreed to sell its U.S. operations to a new joint venture that includes the oversold tech giant and private equity investors at Silver Lake.

Shares of Oracle are up about $8.50 in premarket on the news.

Plus, as I said this week, analysts are still bullish on the downed tech giant.

Wells Fargo has an overweight rating with a $280 price target. Bank of America has a buy rating and a price target of $300. Barclays has an overweight rating with a price target of $310 a share. UBS has a buy rating with a $325 price target, I noted earlier this week.

Markets are running on hopes of more interest rate cuts

That’s thanks to a lighter-than-expected inflation reading from November’s CPI report. The data, which showed a 2.7% year over year jump in consumer prices, was lower than expected, and gives investors some hope that the Federal Reserve will lower rates in the new year.

That lower CPI reading, coupled with job market weakness and rising unemployment, now makes it possible we’ll see more rate cuts in 2026.

As noted by The Washington Post, “Job gains of 64,000 in November exceeded expectations but only partially offset the loss of 105,000 jobs in October. Those losses, the sharpest since the COVID-19 pandemic-era recession, reflected the exit of tens of thousands of federal workers who took a deferred resignation package earlier this year.”

Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on Apple

After dropping from about $290 to $272.19, Apple appears to have found strong support at its 50-day moving average. From here, we’d like to see it pivot higher, with a retest of $290. Helping, analysts at Morgan Stanley just reiterated an outperform rating on Apple, noting that iPhone 17 demand is still strong.

Goldman Sachs just reiterated a buy rating on Nike (NYSE: NKE), but has concerns after the shoe company’s latest round of earnings.  NKE, down about $7.75 in premarket, took a hit after posting strong earnings. Unfortunately, the stock is down on news that it continues to face headwinds and margin compression thanks to outdated inventory.

Truist just reiterated a buy rating on Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) with a price target of $275 from $255. Analysts at Bernstein reiterated an outperform rating on NVDA, noting that the tech giant is still set up well heading into the new year.

Barclas also upgraded NVDA to a buy rating thanks to the likelihood of further AI spending.

“We are OW as the company has long-term sustainable growth led by a large lead in GPUs for AI in DC, with further Edge opportunities (autos, robots, etc.) and a competitive moat around a large portion of the market,” said the firm, as quoted by CNBC.