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happy wednesday This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for December 17, 2025. You can follow the latest market updates here on our daily live blog.
US markets are now closed, putting a cap on a heavy day of trading in tech stocks. Overall, 57.5% (3,197) issues were down today, compared to 39.2% (2,178) earlier.
The Nasdaq (-1.81%) faced the brunt of the selloff, as reported by the Financial Times Oracle (-5.4%) was losing a key source of financing for its $10 billion data center project in Michigan. This revelation generated a significant sell-off on behalf of semiconductors as well as the wider technology industry. The Nasdaq finished at 22,693.32.
The S&P 500(-1.16%) sold off for a fourth straight day on the news, falling to 6,721.50. Here is the index today; notice those red hot pockets in tech and industry.
Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 (-1.07%) faced similar pockets of decline as tech and industrial woes fed into the small-cap index. It fell below 2,500 on the news, reversing recent all-time highs.
Rounding off the major indexes, the Dow (-0.47%) was best isolated but still declined. The day closed at 47,855.97.
Now that the midday fireworks are behind us, all four U.S. market indexes are facing steeper declines — near the day’s lows.
The Russell 2000 (-1.26%) is down amid sluggish industrials, technology and communications services today.
The same is at least partially true for Nasdaq (-1.23%) and S&P 500 (-0.83%), experiencing a similar decline as a Oracle Drama (-4.8%) permeates the entire market, weighing on shares of other semiconductor names such as Broadcom (-5.3%), Advanced microdevices (-3.8%) and Nvidia(-3%).
Today, the Dow (-0.39%) is the best case today. Half of the index is in red, the other half is in red.
Overall, 53.8% (2,992) of US shows are in decline today, compared to 42.8% (2,379) ahead, which brings us to our midday list today. We’ll take a look at the top 20 stocks on the market among firms with a market capitalization of at least $2 billion:
Despite it being a bad day for AI, today’s top stock is an AI-powered biotech called Recurring pharmaceuticals (+17.8%), which we haven’t seen at the top of the list in a while. A one-time retail favorite, the company was upgraded today by JPMorgan, which moved it from “neutral” to “overweight,” citing the potential of its MEK inhibitor clinical trial.
It follows close behind Cabin 8 (+12.5%), Anbio (+10.6%) and By Transport (+8.4%).
Among the larger firms listed today are Elbit systems (+4.3%), Texas Pacific Land Corporation (+5.6%) and Fig (+4.8%).
At the other end of the market, EverCommerce (-11.6%) decreases due to volatility. It is followed by some AI related jobs, independent power producer Blooming energy (-10.1%) and firm (-9.6%).
Even larger firms are hampered today by the jitters of AI, including GE Vernova (-8.2%), Constellation Energy (-7.9%) and View (-7.3%).
Oracle is again becoming the main character in the AI boom – and maybe not in a good way.
Today, the hyperscaler is pushing back on a Financial Times report that Blue Owl Capital will not proceed with the company’s $10 billion Michigan data center financing amid concerns about “tighter debt conditions and the risk of delays,” according to the article.
The news comes just days after close sources Oracle said it was rejecting key data center deliveries for the partner OpenAIwhich committed billions to data center projects. Oracle was forced to deny reports that it was not moving forward with these projects and that all milestones had come as planned. Obviously, Blue Owl appears to have sided with the anonymous sources cited in that Bloomberg report.
Traders have remained relatively tight-lipped about Oracle and ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Oracle counts more than half of its performance obligations from the Sam Altman-led company, which continues to rely on capital infusions from venture capital to stay afloat while burning through cash.
And since the latter didn’t put up the money up front, the hyperscaler took on debt to bring its data center ambitions to life. A staggering $25 billion of the company’s $127 billion in debt will come due in just three years. And with negative free cash flow — $13 billion, in fact — a modest delay could seriously jeopardize the company’s financial outlook.
The company’s Altman Z-Score, a measure that is designed to predict the probabilities of bankruptcy within two years, is already in the so-called “grey zone,” indicating financial stress.
A deal with the tech giant Meta seemed to help address some concerns, but the underlying story remains the same: Oracle needs to deliver these projects or there could be problems.
Oracle CEO and co-founder Larry Ellison was seen trying to help finance the acquisition of parent HBO. The discovery of Warner Bros (WBD).
Larry’s son David is the CEO of media company Skydance — which recently acquired Paramount to become Paramount Skydance.
However, the Ellison Family Trust was seen as a precarious sticking point in recent negotiations between the media giants, prompting WBD to go with Netflix for a proposed package. The issues that partly plagued the Ellisons were questions about their financing as well as Oracle’s low stock.
That said, factoring in today’s decline, Oracle is now down more than 45% from its all-time highs.
US markets are now open. The Russell 2000 (+0.57%) has already reversed yesterday’s -0.45% decline; now it’s just a matter of keeping those winnings for the day.
In capital letters, the Dow (+0.36%) also has a solid start to the day. The S&P 500 (+0.12%) and Nasdaq (+0.09%), by contrast, were up just a few basis points at the open. For the former, a gain today would end a three-day slide for the index.
The 10Y is up 0.8 bps to 4.157%.
One of the ominous themes of Tuesday’s trade — aside from so-so wages — was the big drop in U.S. energy stocks. The S&P Energy sector fell 3 percent as domestic oil prices neared their lowest level in nearly four years. This morning, the US oil benchmark known as WTI Crudeit’s trading at $56 — up about 1.5%.
Today, the sector is up about 1%, paring some of yesterday’s losses. The financial sector and materials also join the recovery, increasing by more than half a percentage point.
Joining some of this excitement are Natural gas futures continued (+2.96% to $4.001) and the international oil benchmark, Brent Crude (+1.46% to $59.78), which is seeing healthy growth in its continued futures as well.
But since it’s the holiday season, there might not be a more timely deal than Silver (+3.75% and $65,675) and Gold (+0.81% to $4,367) — are up again today, continuing a strong showing for precious metals in recent trade.
Good morning. As of this morning, futures are currently pointing to modest gains in US stocks this morning, potentially offsetting the tepid payroll market reaction on Tuesday.
Here are all the companies with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion due to report today on the Nasdaq:
Today will be a fairly relaxed day compared to yesterday when October’s outstanding payrolls were released alongside November’s data. Here’s what’s on deck for today:
This story was originally published by TheStreet on December 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest Business News & Markets section. Add TheStreet as a favorite source by clicking here.
