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Oracle (ORCL) shares jumped to a record high on Monday, after a pair of investment firms commended the software giant's advancements and opportunities for growth in the cloud computing market.

In a note to investors published over the weekend, Jefferies analysts increased their price target on Oracle stock to $190 from $170. Analysts at Melius Research followed suit on Monday, upgrading their rating on Oracle shares to "buy."

Both analyst teams arrived at their assessments after attending Oracle's CloudWorld 2024 Conference, held last week in Las Vegas. CloudWorld is an annual customer event where Oracle introduces new products and discusses its technological outlook.

Oracle shares gained 5.1% on Monday to close at $170.33.

Following CloudWorld, Jefferies analysts expressed their belief that Oracle "is getting its mojo back." The team highlighted the increasing competitiveness and accelerated adoption of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, noting strong growth in Oracle's backlog as a driver of revenue strength.

Meanwhile, analysts at Melius also focused on revenue growth acceleration, as well as the successes of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in pursuing strategic partnerships and building a cloud platform that prioritizes artificial intelligence (AI).

In particular, Melius believes Oracle's partnerships with the "big three" cloud providers—Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure, and Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud Platform—could help ensure a sustainable pipeline for the cloud business and alleviate margin pressure.

Oracle stock tore higher early last week after the enterprise software firm beat quarterly sales and profit estimates and announced a new multicloud partnership with AWS. The stock extended its gains after an executive provided an optimistic forecast for Oracle's revenue growth over the next few years.

Including Monday's gains, Oracle stock has now soared nearly 22% since its Sept. 9 earnings report.

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Nvidia (NVDA) stock dipped on Monday, giving back some of last week’s gains as the semiconductor giant’s stretch of volatility continued. 

Shares of Nvidia finished down about 2% Monday, retreating after surging nearly 16% last week amid encouraging comments from CEO Jensen Huang and analysts. Tech stocks trailed the broader market on Monday, led by Micron (MU), which slid more than 4% after Bank of America issued a warning about the memory-chip market, and Broadcom (AVGO), down 2%.

Nvidia's stock has been plagued by turbulence for months as Wall Street's once boundless optimism about artificial intelligence has moderated. Its shares, pressured throughout July and early August by a shift in interest rate expectations, rebounded throughout August before tumbling again at the end of the month after the company's second-quarter earnings report disappointed investors despite exceeding expectations on paper.

Amid that slump, the stock recorded the largest ever single-day loss of market value in history earlier this month when its shares tumbled nearly 10% amid a semiconductor sell-off. A recent rebound has been characterized by below-average volume, possibly a sign of limited participation from institutional investors in last week's dip-buying.

Since the chipmaker's earnings, however, analysts have reiterated their bullish stance on the stock. Bank of America argued the post-earning slump presented an “enhanced buying opportunity” while Bernstein analysts recently called Nvidia the “best way to play AI.”

Wedbush analysts in a note on Monday argued the Fed’s imminent pivot to rate cuts, which are widely expected to begin on Wednesday, should support tech sector stocks in the coming months. 

“We believe the stage is set for tech stocks to move higher into year-end and 2025 in our opinion as the Fed and Powell kick off its rate cutting cycle this week, macro soft landing remains the path, and tech spending on AI remains a generational spending cycle just starting to hit the shores of the tech sector,” the analysts wrote.

Nvidia, they argue, is effectively the “only game in town” as far as AI chips are concerned, putting it in a prime position to capture much of the $1 trillion they estimate will be spent on AI infrastructure in the next few years. 

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The cost of renting a home grew last year the most since at least 2011, nearly four times as much as the year before.

Census Bureau data released late last week showed the cost of gross median rent plus utilities grew 3.8% in 2023. In the prior year, that same measure grew just 1%. The median monthly rent rose to $1,406 in 2023, the Census Bureau said.

Despite the high costs, the share of the population that rents remained consistent at 34.8%. Rent costs grew faster than home values for the first time in a decade: Real median home values grew 1.8% in 2023, the Census Bureau said.

The portion of household income put toward rent remained the same as the year prior at 31%. Census Bureau economist Jacob Fabina wrote that the steady number meant that either income had kept up with rent increases or more high earners were moving toward renting.

"From 2022 to 2023, the number of renters grew, while median household income was not significantly different," he wrote. "However, this measure includes the income growth of nonrenters, and the income growth of renters and nonrenters may have differed."

When broken down by state, the portion of income allocated to rent actually fell in some places. Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and West Virginia all saw the portion of household income that goes to rent decline.

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American rapper Sean Love Combs, better known as Diddy, was on Monday evening, September 16, arrested at a hotel following a sealed indictment in New York City.

The U.S. Attorney in a statement said the business mogul was arrested based on a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York.

“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” the statement reads.

It would be recalled that Combs was facing a federal investigation into allegations that include s+x tr@fficking, all of which he has denied.

📷: AFP/ ANGELA WEISS

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Stouffer’s is coming after Kraft Heinz’s (KHC) dominance in the boxed mac and cheese category. 

Known for its frozen food offerings, the Nestle-owned brand unveiled Stouffer’s Supreme Shells & Cheese on Monday. The shelf-stable product will be available this month in two flavors, cheddar and three-cheese, on Amazon.com (AMZN) and at select national retailers for a price of $3.99 for a 12-ounce box, Nestle said. It will continue to roll out nationwide in 2025.

The shelf-stable mac-and-cheese category is a $2.9 billion market, according to with the average American consuming the dish 22 times a year, behind only pizza in frequency, per Tom Moe, president of Nestle Meals Division, reported.

Mac and cheese has long been dominated by Kraft Heinz, and is a $1.7 billion business for the company, its chief financial officer (CEO), Andre Maciel, said at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference earlier this month.

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