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U.S. equities advanced around midday Tuesday following the news that retail sales rose more than expected in August, and as the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting where it’s expected policymakers will begin cutting interest rates.

The Dow added to its all-time high set yesterday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also gained.

Intel (INTC) was the best-performing stock in the Dow after the semiconductor maker said it would turn its contract manufacturing business into a separate subsidiary, and struck a deal to make chips for Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Web Services. Amazon shares were up as well.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) rose as the software giant announced it was boosting its dividend by 10.7% and approved a $60 billion stock buyback. Dell Technologies (DELL) shares climbed as Mizuho initiated coverage with an "outperform" rating, pointing to tech firm’s strength in the soaring generative artificial intelligence (AI) product market.

Cigna Group (CI) shares fell. The insurer’s Express Scripts pharmacy-benefits unit sued the Federal Trade Commission over a recent report by regulators critical of pricing by benefit managers. Shares of Philip Morris International (PM) declined when the tobacco company sold its asthma inhaler maker Vectura Group to Molex Asia Holdings for $198 million. 

Oil futures were up. Gold prices dropped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was higher. The U.S. dollar increased versus the pound and yen. Most major cryptocurrencies traded in the green.

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The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) legal challenge against the proposed $24.6 billion merger of Kroger (KR) and Albertsons (ACI) is set to end in an Oregon federal court Tuesday, with a judge to rule whether the regulator's antitrust argument is sufficient to halt the combination.

The FTC has argued that a merger between the country's two largest traditional supermarket chains could have anticompetitive impacts on prices and labor, impacting millions of Americans when prices have already risen substantially in recent years.

While the FTC has said the merger would reduce competition, the companies have responded by saying operating as a larger chain would allow them to better compete with the country's largest retailers like Walmart (WMT), Costco (COST), and Amazon (AMZN).

In its complaint, the FTC puts supermarkets like Kroger and Albertsons in a different category than the competition the companies cite. The regulator said the membership-only nature and bulk selection of a smaller range of products at Costco and Sam's Club, and the largely digital shopping experience of Amazon with a minimal retail footprint, put them in different categories for customers.

If the court agrees with the FTC, the agency's own definition of a supermarket could open the door for one of the companies it defined as not a supermarket like Amazon to potentially make acquisitions like the one the FTC is trying to block, a pair of antitrust lawyers told .

The regulator has also said the plan for the companies to sell hundreds of stores to another retailer to address competitive concerns isn't enough, saying the sale of a "hodgepodge" of stores and assets wouldn't "mitigate the substantial harm to consumers and workers" if they merged.

Kroger shares were little changed about 90 minutes after the opening bell Tuesday. Albertsons shares were down 1.6%.

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Oracle (ORCL) shares will likely remain in focus on Tuesday after jumping more than 5% to a new record high yesterday following recent bullish coverage from several investment firms.

Jefferies analysts lifted their price target on the stock to $190 from $170 over the weekend, while New York-based Melius Research on Monday upgraded the shares to a “buy” rating, with both firms impressed with the software giant's advancements and growth opportunities in the cloud computing market.

Oracle shares have gained 22% so far in September through Monday’s close, paving the way for their best month since October 2022. Investors cheered the company’s better-than-expected earnings report, which was announced last week alongside a new partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN) cloud computing unit as Oracle continues to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) footprint.

The stock was up 0.6% at $171.30 in recent premarket trading Tuesday.

Below, we’ll take a close look at the technicals on Oracle’s weekly chart and identify important price levels to watch out for.

After rallying to a new record high in mid-July, Oracle shares retraced to the top trendline of an ascending triangle before resuming their longer-term uptrend in early August. 

More recently, gains accelerated last week on the highest trading volume since mid-December, though the relative strength index (RSI) indicates overbought conditions, with a reading above the 70 threshold. Consequently, the stock may see short-term profit taking before potentially making another trending move higher.

During pullbacks, investors should monitor two key price levels.

The first sits at $145, an area on the chart where the shares may initially find support near last week's earnings breakout point and a series of comparable trading levels positioned around the July peak.

A deeper retracement could see the stock retest the $127 level, the same location where the price found buying interest last month near the ascending triangle’s top trendline. This region also finds added support from the upward sloping 50-day moving average.

To forecast a potential price target above the all-time high (ATH), we can use a bars pattern. To do this, we extract the stock’s trending move following a retest of a prior ascending triangle in late January 2021 and reposition it from the current pattern’s retest area. Such a technique projects an upside target of around $215.

It’s also worth pointing out the prior trending move occurred over 45 trading days, meaning that the stock’s current uptrend from last month’s low could play out until early June next year if price history rhymes.

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Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 32.15% in August 2024, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

This represents a 1.25% percentage point decrease from the 33.4 per cent recorded in July 2024 and the second consecutive monthly slowdown in inflation after easing in the previous month.

The NBS in a report released on Monday said: “Looking at the movement, the August 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.25% points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate (33.40).”

It however said on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.35 percent points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (25.80%).

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in August 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., August 2023).

Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.22%, which was 0.06% lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.28%). This means that in August 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2024.

Food inflation rate in August 2024 was 37.52 percent on a year-on-year basis, which was 8.18% points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (29.34%),” it added.

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Intel (INTC) shares surged in extended trading Monday after CEO Pat Gelsinger offered an update on the chipmaker's plans to cut costs and bolster its business, with investors awaiting signs of a turnaround for its stock.

Shares were up over 8% shortly after the closing bell, after gaining 6% during the regular trading session. Even with those gains, though, Intel's shares have lost more than half their value since the start of the year. 

Gelsinger said Intel has made progress in lowering expenses through layoffs, trimming its real estate footprint, and selling part of its stake in its Altera programmable chip unit, among other steps to cut costs.  

The company also said it plans to turn Intel Foundry, which makes chips for other companies, into a separate subsidiary, a move that Intel said will give it greater independence, allow it to seek financing independently, and help Intel “optimize the capital structure of each business.” Recent reports had suggested that Intel might sell the operation.

Intel also announced multibillion-dollar agreements to produce custom chips for Amazon (AMZN), as well as the U.S. military. The Pentagon news was first reported by Bloomberg.

"This news, combined with our [Amazon Web Services] announcement, demonstrates the continued progress we are making to build a world-class foundry business," Gelsinger said in a release.

Gelsinger added the chipmaker will still be moving forward with projects in Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and Ohio, adding that Intel remains “well-positioned to scale up production around the world based on market demand.”

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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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